Help understanding Telephoto lenses

[AdamD]

Bernice, two things that have piqued my interest.

One is, please tell me your most used long lens. I can’t guess.
The other is, dude! Pan out a bit. I gotta get the goods on the plush red duvet. Seriously, what do you have going on over there!

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[Daniel Casper Lohenstein]

Bernice,

I'm definitely not looking for the best lens. Not even thinking about that.

All I was trying to understand was, given a say for instance, a 360mm tele lens vs a non-tele 360mm lens, would the tele lens be lighter and smaller BUT, non-tele would provide a better image quality?

Is that the basic different/trade-off?

The Rodenstock Apo Ronar 9/300 fits into my closed Linhof Technika IV, the Fujinon T 8/300 fits on my opened Horseman 45FA.

The Rodenstock Apo Ronar 9/360 is the dream I own, the Nikkor T 360 is the possession I dream of. But the Ronar fits very well on the Technika IV. You can't close it, because of the Compur Electronic 3, which is another dream that functions accurately. So I use the 360 with the Technika, and the Fujinon SWD 5.6/65 with the Horserman.

[Tin Can]

Dude, I try lenses out and decide for myself what works for me

Real Pros get samples to test and often pick the the best of 3 and return the rest

Many old catalogs over 100 years old offered free or rental testing, some still get that service

It's not just the lens, also common concerns are # of aperture blades, or shape of Waterhouse aperture, Bokeh, image circle vs usable image circle for YOUR image with movements or not, and it goes on to coatings or not, actual lens glass, some now banned and way more

Many Pros suggest getting closer to subject, much closer rather than a long lens

I am NOT a Pro and never will be, as one definition of a Pro is your Pro income is over 50% of total income

I am intense on this forum as I love all kinds of cameras, imagers, aka emulsions, with endless variations to study and to look forward to

My next post today will be about Snowflakes

[Bernice Loui]

For focal lengths longer than "normal (5x7)", typical for images with the majority of the image in apparent focus would be a Goerz APO artar in barrel (aka Red Dot Artar), essentially a process lens used at f16 or smaller aperture. For images that want selective focus, one of the longer than normal focal length Tessar formula lenses would be used. This would be from full aperture (Xenar f4.5, Ektar f6.3...) to f16 being typically the smallest aperture used for a Tessar formula lens. These are nearly always used for people portraits that are not sorta-focus with the Kodak Commercial Ektar being the most often used lens for a long list of reasons.

The 360mm f5.5 is used nearly always on the 6x9 Arca Swiss as a telephoto, no movement and typically at f8 to f16. On the Arca Swiss mini view camera the telephoto design allows using this long a focal length with the fixed rail supplied with the camera. A non-telephoto design lens would not work on the Arca unless major contortions are applied. This lens covers 5x7, but there is little reasons to used it on 5x7 as there are better alternatives in the lens set.

The 500mm f5.5 Tele Xenar, just got this, just got it mounted to a Sinar board. I'll need to decide how best to apply what this lens has to offer then make some images with it.

It all goes back to what the image goals are which then determines what lens, film, post exposure processing and print making method is to be used.

Camera is always a Sinar of some variety as it can be made up-built up as needed these days as there is zero interest in hiking or doing "Ansel Adams" wanna be. The 5x7 Sinar Norma lives in a Pelican flight carry on roller case with four lenses, six film holders and all the needed to make images. Sinar P lives indoors as it is WAY to heavy-bulky to lug, unless the images need that kind of geared precision camera movement which is rare. Still the P & P2 are a joy to use in many ways. Keep in mind Adam, been at this for decades and preferences and much more were established decades ago.. little with the methods have changed, what film and all related has changed LOTs in recent times.


Bernice

Bernice, two things that have piqued my interest.

One is, please tell me your most used long lens. I can’t guess.
The other is, dude! Pan out a bit. I gotta get the goods on the plush red duvet. Seriously, what do you have going on over there!

��