Hey,
So I'm assuming most of us know how the early Symmar lenses from Schneider Kreuznach are convertible, ie: the 300mm f/5.6 becomes a 500mm f/12 when you remove the front element. I was reading up on the symmar lenses for a friend of mine who is thinking of purchasing one, and I read that the Symmar S is also convertible. This got me thinking, there isn't much difference in the various plasmat lenses, so is my fujinon W 300mm I use convertible as well? I took the front element off my camera, and lo and behold, I was able to focus on a distant tree with a bellows length of approximately 560mm.
When using my fujinon without the front element, I noticed that the sharpness was noticeably less in the corners with the lens wide open, but all I had to do to fix that was stop down a few stops.
So, is it just coincidence that both the Symmar S and Fujinon W can act as a longer focal length lens without the front element, or is this the case for all plasmat lenses?
If any of you have other plasmats in your possession, maybe take them out and see what results you can get without the front element, lets see what we discover!
Or, maybe better yet, can anyone who knows about lens design add some insight on this apparent property of plasmat lenses?
Thanks,
Ethan
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