Comparision between Digaron-W 50 mm, Apo Sironar Digital/Sinaron Digital 55 mm and Apo Digitar XL 60 mm

[Alkibiades]

Now I found a little bit time to make this comparison possible:
Comparision between 3 lenses that are a short wide angle with very naturalistic look ( wide normal lens), that is Digaron-W 50 mm, Apo Sironar Digital/Sinaron Digital 55 mm and Apo Digitar XL 60 mm.
They will very offen used for naturalistic looking architecture shots and landscapes, as also for stiching landscapes.

The oldest and cheapest here is the very known Rodenstock Apo Sironar Digital ( here Sinar selected version Sinaron Digital) 4,5/55 mm.
This is the latest Version with the pink ring. The earlier Version has a green ring. The lens is physicly a Apo Grandagon 55 mm that was improved for digital photography. Indeed when you use aperture 22 you can even shot 4x5 inch.
Anyway the usefull aperture for this lens used digital is 8-16. Even when this lens is the oldest here The lens is still known for very good sharpness and have no problems with the color cast that make so much symetrical wide angle lenses unusable with some backs. The lens has symetrical 8 elements design.

The second is Schneider last generation lens that is probably the sharpest lens that schneider made. The lens has symetrical 8 elements lens design.The lens came together with 43 xl and latest 120 aspheric.
All of this last generation lenses are superb.

The third is the latest Rodenstock lens: Digaron-W 4/50 mm that is a very complicated retrofocus lens design, the brother of 4/32 and 4/40 mm Digaron-W.
this is also the most expensiv lens here and will also be offered in the new Phase one XF shutters for nice prices. The Digaron has smaller image circle: 90 mm but still allows 20 mm on sensor 33x44 mm.

The test is made with Linhof techno, for all lenses, the back is Phase one 250, with sony 50 MP sensor. The results will be the some with all same sony sensors, build in Hasselblad, Pentax or Fuji cameras. Also the 100 MP sony sensor has the same pixels destiny- you could say the 50 MP back is cutted 100MP back.

 

[rdeloe]

I'm looking forward to your test results.

One comment for your consideration right off the bat: when I tried an Apo-Grandagon 55mm f/4.5 (the film version you mention) on a Fuji GFX 50R sensor, it showed a lot of lens cast when shifted even a few mm. Your using the same sensor, so I'm wondering if the adjustments Rodenstock made to create your version of the lens handled that issue. That would be good.

 

[Caumont]

Can't wait to discover your results!

 

[med]

Also looking forward to your results! I also have the APO-Grandagon 55 4x5 lens but have never used it on my IQ250 as I have the Schneider 60 XL.

 

[Alkibiades]

Lets start with the schneider 60 xl.
- at aperture 5,6 - so wide open the lens is already very good, oerfect sharpness in the center and very good in the corners, but at aperture 8 the details at the corners become better, I would say perfect. At 11 the results are the same, at 16 little diffraction.

 

[Alkibiades]

here 60 xl shifted 15 and 20 mm with LCC.
Color cast is strong but can be removed fully, so no problem.

 

[Alkibiades]

15 mm shift:
- even wide open- 5,6 would be possible, but the corners are little soft.
- at 8 the corners are sharp but at 11 they are perfect.
20 mm shift:
- at 8 the corners are good but not perfect,
- at 11 very good
- at 16 even better at extrem corners, the diffraction is very small, not really visible.

 

[Alkibiades]

Now the 50 mm Digaron-W HR

 

[Alkibiades]

The lens is allready extremly sharp wide open at Aperture 4. center is superb, right sie also, but the corners left are soft.
The optimal aperture for that lens rodenstock specified to 5,6-8.
And at 5,6 everything is exteremly sharp.
very impressiv and this is just the beginning.

 

[Alkibiades]

hree the LCC of the 50 mm:
15 mm shifted and 20 mm shifted.
pretty strong but fully removable, so no problem.

 

[Alkibiades]

15 mm shifted:
- I made a trial with 15 mm shifted wide open: even wide open the cornes are sharp, shifted 15 mm, but there is a big issue: thelens cant handel the side light by shifting wide open. the same issue at 5,6 and its disappears at aperture 8.
In real life I never used 4 or 5,6 always min 8. when i shift I always use 8-11 and sometimes also 16 so I never seen this issue.
And there is no difficult light, so I think even when the lens is really sharp wide open it is not usable in the practical work.
But amazing indeed.
- at aperture 8 everything looks great.

 

[Alkibiades]

now 20 mm shift:
- wide open at Ap. 4 : even the corners are sharp- but the side light destroy the whole picture.
- at Aperture 8 side light disapear, great sharpness at all.

 

[Alkibiades]

Now the much older designer lens: 55 mm Apo Sironar Digital Rodenstock.
The lens has the wides aperture 4,5.
the working aperture is 8-16, so dont expect best performance wide open but i test it.

 

[Alkibiades]

As you can see the image is very contrasty, and absolutly sharp in the center.
The center is great so far but the corners are soft. But this is what you should expect.
the working aperture starts up 8. at 5,6 the cornesr are still toosoft but at 8 there is a big push in the sharpenss in the corners, at 11 it is all over perfect and on the same level as 55 and 60. at 11 I think nobody will see any advantage between the 3 lenses, not on waw files and not on the print.

 

[Alkibiades]

As written at Aperture 8 the sharpness is already very good but I found 11 best.

 

[anyone]

Thank you for taking the time to do the comparison! As indicated in the other thread, I'm quite pleased with the performance of my Grandagon 55mm, especially since I can use it for 4x5 AND digital. Even though it's the weakest lens of the three, it still is capable of stunning images in its intended aperture range. I doubt I could see the difference in my prints.

 

[Alkibiades]

Now lets shift the 55 mm.
here the LCC.
As at other two lenses the LCC is full removable by the software.

 

[Alkibiades]

here the 15 mm shift.
take a look the extrem left Up corner:
at 8 the detail little soft, at 11 and 16 very sharp.

 

[TimoK]

Thank You for doing all that work! I am very interested in old lenses especially after I took an Apo Sironar Digital 135mm into my toolbox. I think it is my best landscape lens today. I am using it with Sony 7rmk2 which I think is the same sensor as You used in the test

 

[Vilpo]

Thanks for your efforts!