Results from 480mm APO-Ronar f9 - Please share your own

[nelsonfotodotcom]

Greetings;

I've been offered a clean 480mm APO-Ronar in barrel, smallest aperture around f250 or so, as I recall.

There's no possible way I can use this on the Speed or even on the Graphic View II (though I'm close with that one, having 19" of draw), but this might be a good one to pick up for the 8x10 in my future.

I'm finding info here and there suggesting these are good lenses, big bang for the buck, but I'm finding very few examples of images shot with them. I know, I know...a computer monitor is hardly the tool for making critical judgments of lens output... nonetheless, if you have some, shot wide to stopped-down, please share, along with any feedback you might have on same.

Thanks,
Craig

[Susie Frith]

Hi Craig. I have an apo Ronar that works very well. It is mounted in a Copal #3 shutter, so isn't that large for a long lens - it would for instance fit in any camera that would take a Linhof 5x4 technika panel as long as you had the bellow's extention. Sorry but I cannot show any pics taken with it as I don't scan large negs. As one would expect, it is very sharp but I am now moving over to older lenses which are less clinical.

[Bob Salomon]

You have been offered a version that was taken off of a process camera. The photo version of this lens in shutter did not stop down to f250. Neither did the process lens version - it stopped down to f90. So whatever you are being offered may not fit into a #3 shutter.

The 480 is designed to give optimal results at f32. Beyond f32 the contrast transfer will drop below 0.6 overall.

So you should check to see exactly what this lens is before investing in it.

[nelsonfotodotcom]

Thank you, both.

[Dave Wooten]

Nelson I recently acquired a 1:9 apo Ronar 19" #8843023

it stops down from f/9 to f/260..have nt mounted it up yet....so no images yet.

for its size it is quite heavy.

[Struan Gray]

I have used an 18" Apo-Lustrar in barrel (same basic lens type) and a 420 mm Apo-Ronar in Copal 3 extensively, as well as 240 mm Apo-Ronars of two vintages. They are fine lenses for general photogaphy, despite being officially optimised for 1:1.

I am pretty sure the 19" Apo-Ronars in barrel have the same mounting thread size as my Apo-Lustrar. It's a tight squeeze, but I have mine on a Technika board. Although heavy, it is actually quite compact compared to the 420 Apo-Ronar in Copal 3. I used the Apo-Lustrar in front of a Sinar shutter when I wanted short exposures.

I don't take a lot of conventional views and landscapes, but I have used the lenses enough to know that they a) are sharp at infinity and b) have pleasing bokeh. The more modern lenses are easier to focus wide open, and multicoating helps cut flare, but once stopped down to f22 the older barrel lenses give nothing away.

Some pictures:

18" Apo-Lustrar

http://web.telia.com/~u83208794/pics/cn0011.jpg
http://www.acutance.net/phpBB2/download.php?id=34
http://www.acutance.net/phpBB2/download.php?id=56


420 mm Apo-Ronar

http://web.telia.com/~u83208794/pics/elder.jpg
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...achmentid=2735
http://www.largeformatphotography.in...achmentid=1816

The last shot of the owls is a 3cmx3cm portion of a 4x5 negative, scanned on a bad scanner. I am sure there are those who need more detail than these lenses can deliver, but I am not one of them.