Couple questions for the Audience

[paul owen]

Hi. Robert White has the 300mm in stock at £470 GBP + VAT.

[Daniele Minetto]

Taos Photographic (www.taosphotographic.com) has this lens in stock at € 720 HT.

[steve simmons]

75/90/120/180/240/360.

If one can afford it I think this would be a great set of lenses.

steve simmons

[Jack Flesher]

"75/90/120/180/240/360.
If one can afford it I think this would be a great set of lenses. "

I totally agree -- however, if you use them in the field, you have to carry them all

For that reason if one already had the 75, they might want to consider the SSXL 110 as a single-lens replacement instead of the 90/120 pair. Alternatively, the SSXL 80 could replace the 75/90 pair with a single lens. At any rate, since you already own the 75 and 180, then 75/110/180/300 might be a pretty nifty 4-lens set.

If money were no object, my ideal set might look like 55/80/110/150/240/360 -- or even a 450 if you have the bellows. Though admittedly, the 55 and 450 would see very little use, and even the 360 might not see much for my shooting style. In which case maybe an older 16-1/4" like the Red Dot might be a decent alternative to the 360/450 pair: Hmmm... 55/80/110/150/240/410... Not too shabby

Cheers,

[Ted Harris]

Steve's suggestion is a great combo. If I wewre starting from scratch and purchasing all at once I could well go that way. In fact I once had almost exactly that ... 65/90/120 .... but you sell this one buy that one and now I hae 75/110 (the SSXL)/135/150/180 ..... I had a 90mm when I got the 110 and held on to the 90 for 2-3 years after I got the 110 before i decided I wouldn't miss it (much) if it went. That was over a year ago and I have not consciously missed it, in part because the 110 SSXL is such a superb performer.

[CXC]

Plain numbers don't say it all -- it's really hard to tell what lenses are right for your vision until you actually use them. It took a prolonged period of trial and error for me to switch from 65/80/110/180 to 90/159, but I find the latter two lenses more useful than all 4 of the former set.

For me, 80 is too wide, 110 is not wide enough, and 90 is just right. But does my stating that opinion provide others with useful info? Maybe not the exact numbers so much, but the fact that a small difference may still be a crucial one.

[Alan Davenport]

One way to choose would be to aim for a focal length midway between those you already have. But the point halfway between 75mm and 180mm is also equidistant from 120 and 135, so that logic doesn't produce a preference; either would work. If you accept this logic, then you might consider which of your current lenses you use most often, and weight your new selection toward your existing bias.

I think a better approach is to consider the ratios of the focal lengths. For example, a 15mm jump from 75 to 90 makes a big difference, while the jump from 240 to 255 is not very profound. IMO, given your options, 75-120-180 is a more logical set than 75-135-180.

[Eric Rose]

It kills me! The poster asked not to comment on the focal length selection, just the two lenses in question. What does the first poster address? Focal length! In fact you have to go thru 12 to 13 irrelavent posts to finally get something that is even close to the topic.

Just a pet peeve. Rant mode off. Oh, and I realize this post doesn't address the issue either.

[Jack Flesher]

Eric wrote: "It kills me! The poster asked not to comment on the focal length selection, just the two lenses in question."

Huh???

This is what I see the original poster asked: "I know that they are both great lenses, so I'm most interested in peoples opinions regarding which focal length to choose. "

Sure sounds like he was asking for help with FL selection to me...

[Casey]

After consideration to what has been posted (many thanks to all who posted!), I'm going to stay on course with 120mm and 300mm lenses being my next purchases. Also, after having read reviews of various 120mm's out there, I'm considering holding off on the purchase of the apo-symmar in favor of a lens with a larger image circle. I've heard rave reviews of the super symmar HM, and would like to know if any of you have experience with other 120mm's that you would recommend I look into.

Many thanks,

Casey