Please help me with lens selection....

[JBelthoff]

I recently acquired a used Sinar P 4x5 from e-bay and am trying to get a nice selection of lenses for it. I will be starting with a 210mm and would appreciate your thoughts about the following lenses as these are in my price range at the moment.

210 F5.6 NIKKOR-W
210 F5.6 CALTAR II-N MC
210 F5.6 SIRONAR-N MC

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

--JB

[Ari]

Are you asking if one is better than the other?
If so, the short answer is no; get the one in the best condition at the best price.
Get the one with the snappiest shutter and cleanest glass.
In many respects, they are of the same quality.

The long answer is yes, but...but you don't want to go there.

[Lynn Jones]

I recently acquired a used Sinar P 4x5 from e-bay and am trying to get a nice selection of lenses for it. I will be starting with a 210mm and would appreciate your thoughts about the following lenses as these are in my price range at the moment.

210 F5.6 NIKKOR-W
210 F5.6 CALTAR II-N MC
210 F5.6 SIRONAR-N MC

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

--JB

Hi JB, you might wish to consider some excellent quality used lenses and since I was in the LF business for some years (although now "professoring") if you will email me I'll send some information to you.
lynn@austincc.edu

Lynn

[Lachlan 717]

What about the Fujinon 210mm? Cheapest option in my opinion, and wonderful quality (same as those listed).

[Oren Grad]

The second and third lenses on your list are the same lens; Caltar II-N is Calumet's private-label version of Rodenstock's Sironar-N.

[Alan Gales]

Add Schneider to the mix so you now have the choice of Nikkor, Rodenstock, Caltar, Fujinon, and Schneider. Look for a clean example of any of these lenses in a modern Copal shutter at a fair price.

[JBelthoff]

Wow, thanks all for your great responses. It's nice to know this community is here and so active.

[Ken Lee]

When we get down to this sort of comparison, other factors emerge: size, weight, filter size. If I'm not mistaken, the Nikkor wins on those criteria.

[John Kasaian]

I'd recommend you take Lynn Jones up on his offer!

[Alan Gales]

Like Ken mentions, filter size is real important. You don't want to buy multiple sets of filters. It's expensive, takes a up a lot of space, and is a hassle.

Preferably, you want to keep your filter size as small as possible. The larger the filter, generally the higher the cost.

The largest filter threads on my lenses are 77mm so I own 77mm filters and use step-up rings to bring my other lenses up to that size. Why so large a filter thread? It's because most of my lenses cover 8x10. If you only plan on shooting 4x5 you can use smaller lenses with smaller threads.