About the Nikon lenses

[Pontius]

Hi all!
I'm trying to buy a new lens for my 4x5 camera. I'm looking for a 210mm f. 5.6 and one 135mm f.5.6
I know that the Rodenstock S series they are a good lenses, but also expencive.
The Nikon it's also good quality, but the big difference of price makes me think about the difference of quality...
Please tell me what do you think about this.

Thanks
Igor

[Leigh]

Hi Igor,

All of the lenses from the four major manufacturers are excellent. Schneider, Rodenstock, Nikon, and Fuji.
I use Rodenstock, Nikon, and Fuji lenses myself, and get excellent results with all of them.

Of course Schneider and Rodenstock are the only companies still making lenses for large format cameras. So if you want to buy new rather than used, those are your only options. I prefer Rodenstock, but that's just personal opinion.

You'll find some lenses are better than others, but much of that can be attributed to manufacturing variation from one individual lens to another. Modern computerized manufacturing has greatly reduced individual variation.

Two features that might indicate superior optical performance are apochromatic color correction and the use of ED glass to reduce aberrations. Multi-coating would fall into this category. Although it's been used for the last 50(?) years, you'll still find used lenses for sale that are single-coated.

I think Schneider is the only company to use aspheric elements to improve image quality near the edges.
(Hope the Rodenstock distributor will forgive me if they also use aspheric elements.)

- Leigh

[Brian Ellis]

I've had both the 135 Nikon and Rodenstock S. I saw no obvious differences in quality of the photographs using either lens and regretted selling the Nikon to buy the Rodenstock. However, I didn't conduct a serious lens tests with either lens, I just looked at the photographs.

[vinny]

the rodenstock S is/will be sharper than the nikon if you use generous movements. Even w/o movements, there's a difference between the two. Most of that is price but the S is sharper at 22&32 and has a larger image circle to work with.

[Drew Wiley]

There are lots of Fuji 210's out there on the used market right now at very tempting prices, and they're just as good as the German ones. All the modern ones are multicoated.

[vinny]

Yeah, what Drew said. My 210 fujinon w is wicked sharp and the image circle is huge.

[Leigh]

the rodenstock S is/will be sharper than the nikon if you use generous movements.

I've always thought the Apo-Sironar-S is the best lens available.

That's why I have all of them from 135mm through 300mm. I can't afford the 360mm.
They're my standard lenses in those focal lengths.

- Leigh

[Drew Wiley]

The Apo Sironar S might give a little better edge performance at large apertures than
some of the others; but at typical working apertures, most of these modern lenses are
high perfomance. If you're talking 360, the sharpest one I have is an Apo Nikkor f/9,
followed by the Fuji A. Both are higher performance than typical faster plasmats and will easily cover 8x10. Nikkor M's are also deadly sharp. The whole subject really starts to get
silly at a certain point. It's more important to think about coverage, portability (wt/size),
etc. Sharpness is ordinarily more affected by film plane flatness than most of the
nitpicking we read about the lenses themselves - it's the variable many LF shoots seem
outright ignorant about.

[pdmoylan]

I like and use all Nikons (5 in all). Dykinga cut his teeth using the 75mm, 180mm and 360T. Clifton used and loved the 240mm. They're well priced.

For my taste I see a color difference with the Nikons that I prefer. I am not sure what the extra sharpness gives you using other brands, if that is indeed the case. For me it's all about the color. For B&W, well that may be a different kettle of tea and I defer to those who shoot B&W and find significant differences (and some do).

[Leigh]

If you're talking 360, the sharpest one I have is an Apo Nikkor f/9...

I've never heard of that lens. The Nikkor catalogs I have only show the 105/9, 300/9, and 450/9 in the M series.

I have the 300/9 and the 450/9, and they're both great performers.

- Leigh