Fun with MF images 2024

[mristuccia]

The 35XL is a finicky lens. I've owned mine for a long time and many years ago sent it back to Schneider for alignment. Mine happens to be in Alpa mount but is easily disassembled for use in any other mount. It's always the copal that is the culprit when there are alignment issues. When mounted on a pancake camera the copal must be perfect or there will be skewing.

Once you get beyond all of that you have to deal with the curvature of the lens which can't be fixed until f11. I'm surprised that you had to use distortion correction as the lens actually has almost zero distortion. I have found that at f11 with everything in alignment wonderful images can be had even with some shifting.

I have had better success focusing at the edges at the taken aperture vs. focusing at the center. Always check your edges!

I have a 907X 100C arriving soon and will be testing the 35XL on my Cambo Actus and am hopeful for good results with limited movements.

Victor B.

No distortion correction applied at all to the 35XL. I was just saying that the 35XL "plain" looks still different (let's say more linear) from my Hasselblad 40 IF, even after having applied distortion correction to the 40 IF.

 

[vjbelle]

Good..... I hope you work out any and all issues. The lens has tremendous potential. You just can't expect to have wild shifting. I was most impressed when used in settings that were a little closer.

Best.....

Victor B.

 

[Paul Spinnler]

The 35XL and 43XL are stunning in their linearity. Hold on to one if the calibration is right. I assume you could eliminate the problem by sending it to Greiner in Germany and having a Rodenstock AU mounted. Not cheap - but will stay perfectly aligned for a long time thereafter. RS AUs are extremely solid.

 

[mristuccia]

Apologies, it wasn't my intention to highjack this thread. Let's get back to posting images. If needed, I'll open a dedicated thread.

 

[darr]

Apologies, it wasn't my intention to highjack this thread. Let's get back to posting images. If needed, I'll open a dedicated thread.

Marco,
No highjacking taken. I have the 35xl in an ALPA mount. I appreciate your image and all the commentary about the lens.
It has been a while since I've used mine, and I'm currently trying to learn Phocus through using the 35xl and its CF.
So, I appreciate what you have shared. Great image, btw!

 

[chriswebb]

X2D 100C | XCD 2.8/65 | Shouldve probably gone to 70% quality instead of dropping the size further...

 

[chriswebb]

X2D 100C | XCD 2.8/65 | 3 shot pano stitch

 

[lookbook]

two of us ...
Fujifilm GFX 50r | GF50mmF3.5 R LM WR ​

 

[AlanS]

River Tees...
GFX100s, Canon 70-300mm f4-5,6 L IS

 

[usm]

Today I went out to test my newly acquired SK Apo-Digitar 5.6/35 XL.

This is the third shot I've made with it, my CFV-50c Mk1 and my Cambo WDS, in Berlin (Germany):

View attachment 212188

No rise/fall and no shift. CF on the lens and LCC applied.

The linearity of this symmetrical design is palpable, it gives a totally different feeling to the images than my Hasselblad 40 IF, even after software distortion correction applied to the 40 IF. I'm together impressed and perplexed!
As for the sharpness, I have a clear misalignment somewhere. The center is perfectly in focus, the right side is pretty good but the left side is slightly smeared/out-of-focus.

I need to test more in order to understand whether it is a lens internal misalignment of whether it is my digital back interface that is not shimmed correctly, although I must say that I never noticed this when using my V lenses on the WDS.

Anyway, I like this image, as it has something surreal in it. Recently I started to like to always inject a surreal atmosphere to my images.

You may wonder why the heck I've acquired the SK 35 XL when I have a really badly compatible digital back? Well, because I'm waiting for the PDAF issue fix in order to switch to the CFV-100c. So, cross fingers!

Hi.
May I ask you for a specific shot with the 35XL CFV50c combo? An image like this you posted but with 15mm shift vertical and the LCc shot. Both with the center filter and without, f 8 or 11. whatever you prefer.
A link to the raw file would be really helpful.
I have the same combo but no centerfilter.
Thank you.

 

[mristuccia]

Marco,
No highjacking taken. I have the 35xl in an ALPA mount. I appreciate your image and all the commentary about the lens.
It has been a while since I've used mine, and I'm currently trying to learn Phocus through using the 35xl and its CF.
So, I appreciate what you have shared. Great image, btw!

Darr,
Thanks for your kind words.
Are you going to use it with your CFV-50c II? If so, then you're another brave one! ,)
Twice as brave I would say, as you want to learn Phocus.

By the way, I myself always use Phocus now and almost abandoned LR.

 

[mristuccia]

Hi.
May I ask you for a specific shot with the 35XL CFV50c combo? An image like this you posted but with 15mm shift vertical and the LCc shot. Both with the center filter and without, f 8 or 11. whatever you prefer.
A link to the raw file would be really helpful.
I have the same combo but no centerfilter.
Thank you.

Hi,
Another brave joins to the team I see.
15mm vertical shift with this lens on a CFV-50c is going to be a nightmare in terms of color cast correction.
I'll try this in the next few days and share the results with you.
Best

 

[4x5Australian]

The 35XL is a finicky lens. I've owned mine for a long time and many years ago sent it back to Schneider for alignment. Mine happens to be in Alpa mount but is easily disassembled for use in any other mount. It's always the copal that is the culprit when there are alignment issues. When mounted on a pancake camera the copal must be perfect or there will be skewing.

Once you get beyond all of that you have to deal with the curvature of the lens which can't be fixed until f11. I'm surprised that you had to use distortion correction as the lens actually has almost zero distortion. I have found that at f11 with everything in alignment wonderful images can be had even with some shifting.

I have had better success focusing at the edges at the taken aperture vs. focusing at the center. Always check your edges!

I have a 907X 100C arriving soon and will be testing the 35XL on my Cambo Actus and am hopeful for good results with limited movements.

Victor B.

Victor, I have had no such problem with field curvature with my 35XL. My recent test shots show excellent sharpness across the subject at f/8.

The field curvature of a symmetrical or near-symmetrical lens is affected by the shimming. See the comment #17 by Mark J. in this thread.

Accordingly, you might lessen the anomalous field curvature you are seeing by unscrewing the front or rear cell slightly or by replacing the Copal 0 with another.

Rod

 

[4x5Australian]

As for the sharpness, I have a clear misalignment somewhere. The center is perfectly in focus, the right side is pretty good but the left side is slightly smeared/out-of-focus.

I need to test more in order to understand whether it is a lens internal misalignment of whether it is my digital back interface that is not shimmed correctly, although I must say that I never noticed this when using my V lenses on the WDS.

Marco, whilst the misalignment you are seeing in your images might be due to the digital back interface, I would, in the first instance, suspect the Copal 0 shutter on your 35 XL.

Accordingly, I suggest that you try swapping the existing Copal 0 shutter for another from another lens.

If the replacement shutter for the test comes from a much longer focal length lens, you will need to approximate the actual iris opening at f/8 and f/11 on the original Copal 0. Measure the openings at f/8 and f/11 in mm with a ruler and then on the replacement Copal 0 use whatever f stop setting provides those same openings.

Rod

 

[vjbelle]

Victor, I have had no such problem with field curvature with my 35XL. My recent test shots show excellent sharpness across the subject at f/8.

The field curvature of a symmetrical or near-symmetrical lens is affected by the shimming. See the comment #17 by Mark J. in this thread.

Accordingly, you might lessen the anomalous field curvature you are seeing by unscrewing the front or rear cell slightly or by replacing the Copal 0 with another.

Rod

Rod...... I should add that this was all on my 4150 at the time. Trying to focus the edges at f5.6 was very difficult because of the severe hazing and the fact the that focus point was very far compared to the center. Stopping down, of course, improved things. Any shifting exasperated the issue. The lens was thoroughly tested by Schneider and given a clean bill of health numerous years ago. F8 was not an f stop I would ever use on 40X54 sensor but could be used on a 33X44 sensor with very limited shifting.

If some amount of increasing the distance between the front and rear elements mitigates the issue then I'm all in but that would also require finding some very thin washers.

Victor B.

 

[darr]

Darr,
Thanks for your kind words.
Are you going to use it with your CFV-50c II? If so, then you're another brave one! ,)
Twice as brave I would say, as you want to learn Phocus.

By the way, I myself always use Phocus now and almost abandoned LR.

Marco,
I will be using it with the CFV II 50c. So far, if I do not make any movements, it looks good.
I wanted to try Phocus' screen calibration for LCC with the 35xl and shifting with STC.
Early tests with 10, 15, & 18mm left & right shifts show ugliness at 18, less ugliness at 15, and good at 10mm.
So far, the lens is good for me with no shift and a 10mm shift, but I have to test more at different locations.
Best to you!

 

[Knorp]

And the duck said "quack" - 'De Stille Kern', Zeewolde NL ...

| gfx-100ii | gf100-200 |

 

[4x5Australian]

Rod...... I should add that this was all on my 4150 at the time. Trying to focus the edges at f5.6 was very difficult because of the severe hazing and the fact the that focus point was very far compared to the center. Stopping down, of course, improved things. Any shifting exasperated the issue. The lens was thoroughly tested by Schneider and given a clean bill of health numerous years ago. F8 was not an f stop I would ever use on 40X54 sensor but could be used on a 33X44 sensor with very limited shifting.

If some amount of increasing the distance between the front and rear elements mitigates the issue then I'm all in but that would also require finding some very thin washers.

Victor B.

Victor, I also use the IQ4-150 and can show you recent test shots made with my 35 XL lens at f/8 and f/11 at 0mm, -5mm, -10mm and -15mm of rear shift.

I can send raw files to your email via WeTransfer. If you're interested, send me a DM.

Rod

 

[Paul Spinnler]

I also looked at Rod's samples of the 35XL on IQ4 which mirror the recent excellent Alpa copy I was able to get from a retiring architectural photographer. The lens has more shift ways on an IQ4 with CF than 10mm - its stunning IF its within spec. The 35XL is incredibly sensitive to minor things being out of spec, it seems. I think it can fall out of spec very easily over time (e.g. during transport, etc.).

 

[mristuccia]

Marco, whilst the misalignment you are seeing in your images might be due to the digital back interface, I would, in the first instance, suspect the Copal 0 shutter on your 35 XL.

Accordingly, I suggest that you try swapping the existing Copal 0 shutter for another from another lens.

If the replacement shutter for the test comes from a much longer focal length lens, you will need to approximate the actual iris opening at f/8 and f/11 on the original Copal 0. Measure the openings at f/8 and f/11 in mm with a ruler and then on the replacement Copal 0 use whatever f stop setting provides those same openings.

Rod

Rod, thanks for your recommendations, which I'm not able to perform myself. I'm more of a computer than watchmaker guy. If I touch something mechanical, I break it forever.
I'll address the alignment of the digital back interface first as the seller, an architectural photographer, has shown me some of his image samples and they look good.
If this is not the issue, I'll send the lens to a service for alignment.