No, it's also a very little bit vignetting at infinity. Only at infinity.
But I don't use this lens at infinity. It's for people, it's to use wide open.
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Your favourite “bang for the buck” lenses
- Thread starter rdeloe
- Start date
But I don't use this lens at infinity. It's for people, it's to use wide open.
rdeloe
Well-known member
Over at the Large Format Photography forum, some thought your Caltar lens was a Rodenstock. Apparently Calumet sourced their "Caltar" lenses from various makers.
I think that you may be able to put it into a copal 1 shutter with a bit of shimming and an adapter for one of the elements. One of the elements I think is of Copal 1 size while the other of Copal 0 size or close to it.
It may be technically possible I think as spacing between the cells seems to be quite normal (at least by looking at the DB board mount in which my specimen came). I have not taken it apart - If I had a spare one I could experiment more but having just one i would rather not touch it as it works great with the Sinar Auto-shutter on a Sinar P2 and with a Sinar M too.
Maybe it would even work without much fiddling or even straight up in a Rodie'senlarger housing - I do not know, but I would not be surprised.
The lens is super sharp, works great for tabletop and repro, image circle is around 120mm for f8-f11 but is rather weak for infinity and large scales.
For scales from 1:2 to 1:5 it matches rodenstock and schneider's macro 120mm in my opinion, for scales 1:5-1:10 is really great and from 1:10 to infinity becomes gradually worse and worse, being beaten by most of the good taking lenses.
It feaquently pops up on ebay in Sinar's DB mount for $200-300, so if you are patient, you can buy it quite cheap.
I have bought mine practically unused, still in a maker's box for $350.
The other nice lens for small repro ratios is a Sinaron 80mm f4 and something tells me that it could be also an Apo Rodagon N in their 80mm flavour - it behaves really nicely and was one of the most expensive Sinaron digital lenses when new (in eary 2000s), at around 3000 euro, even more expensive (by aound 500 euros) that 90mm that got later renamed to a HR. Now it also retails at around $300 which is well under its real value and potential.
BTW i think that the sizing of 105mm matches the figures published by qioptic - I will double check it later on today.
The MTF graph looks nice and seems to confirm how the lens behaves in real life:
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diggles
Well-known member
Agreed on the Pentax 645 lenses. Currently, I have the Pentax 645 A 75mm and 120mm macro. The 75mm has no noticeable distortion and provides ample shift on the GFX to make it an excellent lens for architectural photography. It is not quite as sharp as some of the new lenses, but it's performance is definitely on a professional level. The 120mm macro is so much fun to use.
Paul Spinnler
Well-known member
How are you adapting it on the R (that's how you use it?)?
Duff photographer
Active member
Not telling what lenses are best bang for the buck as I'm still looking for one or two and I don't want the price to go up as a result of this thread 
Cheers,
Duff
Cheers,
Duff
Whisp3r
Well-known member
Not sure if this is what you're referring to since I don't use a tech cam, but Arca Shop in Stuttgart sells a part called 'R-line Objectivplatte - Pentax 645 bayonett'. You'll find it on their product page, subcategory 'Kameras - R-line zubehöhr - Objectivplatten R-line'.
rdeloe
Well-known member
You're not wrong!Not telling what lenses are best bang for the buck as I'm still looking for one or two and I don't want the price to go up as a result of this thread
Cheers,
Duff
Paul and other people banging away at how nice the SK APO Digitar 35 XL is and poof, the three reasonably priced copies available all get snapped up within a few days. I have one.
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maybe they were selling or bought their copies at a peak and now would love to get their money backYou're not wrong!
Paul and other people banging away at how nice the SK APO Digitar 35 XL is and poof, the three reasonably priced copies available all get snapped up within a few days. I have one.
The first rule of the Bargain Lens Club is… don’t talk about the Bargain Lens Club.Not telling what lenses are best bang for the buck as I'm still looking for one or two and I don't want the price to go up as a result of this thread
Cheers,
Duff
diggles
Well-known member
Using it on the gfx with the kipon p645 to gfx shift adapter
tenmangu81
Well-known member
I guess there are some rings to adapt them on a HB X body. They look very affordable (the Mamiya, too) and very good quality. I am looking for a 100/120 macro...
Bill Caulfeild-Browne
Well-known member
I found the Mamiya APO 300/4.5 just as good as the Phase One 240mm (as long as you don't need a leaf shutter) so I sold the latter for over three times what the Mamiya cost me.
rdeloe
Well-known member
Those three lenses are my standard recommendation for a reasonably priced way to get into basic camera movements using a tilt-shift adapter.
The old C Planar 80 is 414g incl. shutter
scho
Well-known member
Yes, I also use them on the Cambo Actus when I need movements.
John Leathwick
Well-known member
What a great thread, Rob - I missed its arrival because I was out shooting until late yesterday...
I can second what Rob says about the Fujinon EX's. As my blog describes, I'm a big fan of the
Mamiya RZ's on my Universalis/GFX 50SII, but their downside is their weight, particularly when
you're somewhat sidelined with a back injury awaiting treatment. I already had Schnieder
Apo Componons in 60mm and 90mm, but the coverage of the 60mm is meagre, and I find
the 90mm a little too long. At Rob's suggestion, I went with a 75mm and once I had seen what
it delivers, added a 105mm. While they don't match the SKAC's for macro, I'm finding their
infinity performance to be very close behind my RZ's. Based on my assessment, both the
EX's have wider coverage than the SKAC's. And I can carry a couple of these that are about
cotton reel size and that together weigh only a little more than my RZ board - my back sure
appreciates that!
Here are a couple that I took yesterday - this one shows very well why Rob should not have
sold his EZ 75mm - a left right portrait flat stitch in the Otira Gorge at Arthurs Pass National
Park. A dark and gloomy place that was the muse of an early NZ impressionist artist by the
name of Petrus van der Velden. This was a quick dive down off the road with rain in the
offing...
This is also with the 75, but on a more distant subject and with 12.5mm of shift left and
right, subsequently cropped to 16:9 - slight tilt to accommodate the foreground.
And to back up Rob's assessment of the EX 105, here is one straight out of lightroom of
an old holiday cottage in the Arthurs Pass Village. Zoomed in, I can count the nails
holding on that wall cladding.
Finally, I'd like to throw in a real wild-card. This is another image shot in the Otira
Gorge, but with an Arsat 30mm fisheye that had been sitting for ever so long at our
local camera store, and that I bought for the princely sum of $275. It's a weighty beast,
and was designed for 6x6, but it can be tamed on the GFX-Universalis, as long as I
level it up carefully. Here I used as much fall as I could until its hood started to appear
in the image. I've manually stretched out the lower corners to something that
approximates a de-fished image. With a subject involving straight lines, I shift to
shoot images that I can combine into a 6x6 equivalent, and then use the adaptive
wide angle correction filter in PS, which defishes things remarkably well. With this
approach I can shoot a cropped final image that gives equivalent to a 15mm field of view.
The corners aren't as sharp as the centre, but the centre resolution is excellent,
and with all those pixels to play with, it's hard to find something similar that will
do the same. I'm planning to do a writeup of it on my blog idc with more examples
and details of the settings that I use for defishing.
John
I can second what Rob says about the Fujinon EX's. As my blog describes, I'm a big fan of the
Mamiya RZ's on my Universalis/GFX 50SII, but their downside is their weight, particularly when
you're somewhat sidelined with a back injury awaiting treatment. I already had Schnieder
Apo Componons in 60mm and 90mm, but the coverage of the 60mm is meagre, and I find
the 90mm a little too long. At Rob's suggestion, I went with a 75mm and once I had seen what
it delivers, added a 105mm. While they don't match the SKAC's for macro, I'm finding their
infinity performance to be very close behind my RZ's. Based on my assessment, both the
EX's have wider coverage than the SKAC's. And I can carry a couple of these that are about
cotton reel size and that together weigh only a little more than my RZ board - my back sure
appreciates that!
Here are a couple that I took yesterday - this one shows very well why Rob should not have
sold his EZ 75mm - a left right portrait flat stitch in the Otira Gorge at Arthurs Pass National
Park. A dark and gloomy place that was the muse of an early NZ impressionist artist by the
name of Petrus van der Velden. This was a quick dive down off the road with rain in the
offing...
This is also with the 75, but on a more distant subject and with 12.5mm of shift left and
right, subsequently cropped to 16:9 - slight tilt to accommodate the foreground.
And to back up Rob's assessment of the EX 105, here is one straight out of lightroom of
an old holiday cottage in the Arthurs Pass Village. Zoomed in, I can count the nails
holding on that wall cladding.
Finally, I'd like to throw in a real wild-card. This is another image shot in the Otira
Gorge, but with an Arsat 30mm fisheye that had been sitting for ever so long at our
local camera store, and that I bought for the princely sum of $275. It's a weighty beast,
and was designed for 6x6, but it can be tamed on the GFX-Universalis, as long as I
level it up carefully. Here I used as much fall as I could until its hood started to appear
in the image. I've manually stretched out the lower corners to something that
approximates a de-fished image. With a subject involving straight lines, I shift to
shoot images that I can combine into a 6x6 equivalent, and then use the adaptive
wide angle correction filter in PS, which defishes things remarkably well. With this
approach I can shoot a cropped final image that gives equivalent to a 15mm field of view.
The corners aren't as sharp as the centre, but the centre resolution is excellent,
and with all those pixels to play with, it's hard to find something similar that will
do the same. I'm planning to do a writeup of it on my blog idc with more examples
and details of the settings that I use for defishing.
John