Nikkor-T 360mm / 500mm / 720m: 500mm at full aperture with 4x5 film, how good?

[Marco Annaratone]

Hi,

I would like to use the 500mm combination at full aperture (f/11) on a 4x5 camera. Can someone with practical experience with this lens tell me something about vignetting, resolution at the corners, out-of-focus behavior, range of movements, etc? I'd rather hear about actual field experience, but MTF curves may be helpful too (at f/11, of course).

Thanks!

Marco

[Willie]

500 & 720 cells in use for us. Covers 5x7 with no problem so you won't be seeing vignetting. The 720 element gives coverage to 8x10 with light falloff in the corners. Easily overcome when printing.
Have not shot them wide open so don't know about that. With the tele design I stick with rear movement, not front.

[Corran]

I always shoot these at f/22, in whatever configuration. And generally at infinity and without significant out of focus areas. I think the general consensus is that's the sweet-spot, which is only one stop down from full aperture with the 720mm. Do you need the extra 1-2 stops of light or are you specifically looking for shorter DOF?

See here for official "tests" that also confirm the above:
https://web.hevanet.com/cperez/testi...0mm_and_longer

A bit more info about your use-case would help. IMO better results would probably be found with a 6x7 camera, and 300mm lens set to f/6.8 or so (the equivalent in terms of focal length and DOF).

[Marco Annaratone]

A bit more info about your use-case would help. IMO better results would probably be found with a 6x7 camera, and 300mm lens set to f/6.8 or so (the equivalent in terms of focal length and DOF).

The project deals with urban environment exploration of details, B&W, very narrow DOF, 4x5, 3x enlarged to produce digital negatives to be contact printed. Use of (moderate) tilts to make OOF areas parts of the creative visual signature. Very little infinity focus is expected, subject will be 3-10 meters away. Camera has a 540mm bellows.

I am also considering the Apo-Tele-Xenar 400/5.6, because of its extremely shallow DOF.

[Bernice Loui]

Consider a Schneider 500mm f5.5 Tele Xenar, good optical performance at f5.5, by f8 near optimal optical performance, smaller than f22 optical performance begins to degrade. As for OOF rendition, vintage lenses are likely going to have more agreeable OOF due to optical design and number of aperture blades making an essentially round aperture. Modern view camera lenses are typically designed to be used a f22 with as much of the image area in focus as possible. Typical modern view camera lens will be in a Copal shutter which does not have a round aperture and might produce a less than agreeable OOF. Only way to know, you'll need to obtain GOOD examples of these lenses and test them to know if they meet your image goals.

BIG lens... needs a proper camera to support it's needs. 540mm of bellows on camera could be a limiting factor, if this is a field folder camera, consider a GOOD monorail camera (Sinar) as the good ones have NO bellows or similar limitations.

This lens could be a better choice for your image goals.




Bernice


Bernice

[Corran]

I would consider a typical 240mm or 300mm f/5.6 and take another step forward. Maybe a Tele-Arton 270mm f/5.5 - I had one and it was really good wide-open - and you won't have the bellows extension to worry about.

Or perhaps a Fuji GX680 and 300mm lens (this 120 camera has tilt). Since you are doing digital negs anyway. I think trying to shoot this close with a very long lens on 4x5, even a telephoto, will be a chore.

[Drew Wiley]

Bernice - those old chrome Tele Xenars weren't fully color corrected, so not the best idea if someone has color film shooting in mind as well as b&w. My brother used em.

[EdSawyer]

I've used the Nikkor-T 360/500/720 wide open. They work well at that aperture, quite sharp. I like the 360 for half-length portraits and head shots too. They are sharper than all the 360 tele artons and tele xenars (I had all those at the same time and compared).

[Jim Andrada]

I have the 3 FL set and the lenses are surprisingly sharp at every aperture I've used. Don't specifically remember if I shot wide open, but It's an excellent set. I use them all on 5 x 7 and the 360 and 500 on 4 x 5 (Technika). Only caveat - I find it a bit challenging to focus at f/16.

Did I say they were all quite sharp?

[Marco Annaratone]

Thank you all!

It’s good to know that the Nikons work fine at full aperture. I am not looking for razor sharp lenses as I will enlarge 3x max. Having said that, sharpness does not hurt either. In fact, I may have to crop and then 3x may become 5x, who knows.

The 500mm Tele-Xenar has always been an intriguing lens for me. Huge, with its huger :-) lens-shade and a beefy Compound 5 .... maybe it is too much to carry around. But, yes, the OOF deserves somethinking. The idea was to have a small setup (I normally shoot 8x10 and 14x17). Speaking of which, where are the Fujinon-T 400mm users? I am surprised nobody mentioned it. Is it such a dog at full aperture? It certainly is light.