Cambo SK Digitar 120 N or 150 N

[cly]

Thanks, Peter, much appreciated!

Chris

 

[PeterL]

Gareth, probably a loss in the web conversion. I can assure you there is NO softness in the original.

Cheers, -Peter

 

[torger]

Peter, could you perhaps post another crop showing a bit of the area next to the sharp selection? It's interesting to get an idea of the character of the transition - I'm inclined to believe that this is an area where MF lenses really shine ...

As a tech nerd I'd be interested in a "bokeh comparison". To get great bokeh one cannot have a perfect lens, there should be a suitable amount of spherical abberation left, arranged in a suitable way so the circle of confusion disc gets a smooth melting border.

Apart from the ugly polygon copal shutter I really like the smooth foggy bokeh of Schneider Digitar lenses. Mamiya RZ lenses also render great bokeh. I'm suspecting that some of the newer more complex lens designs that have put in great effort in very high resolving power and large aperture at the same time (and thus lots of correction and many lens elements) may lead to less good bokeh, but I don't know for sure as I haven't seen any side-by-side comparisons.

I've also thought about that the digitar lenses seem to lack bokeh fringing, something I get a lot in my DSLR lenses. Haven't looked deeper into that either though, as I very rarely shoot images that actually make use of bokeh (I try to have the whole image sharp and only occasionally do closeup).

 

[Pemihan]

Do any of you find the T/S mount to be a big advantage doing landscape?
It a big premium to pay...

 

[torger]

Do any of you find the T/S mount to be a big advantage doing landscape?
It a big premium to pay...

That depends on shooting style. I could not live without tilt on such a long lens as a 120mm

I sometimes find interesting shapes on the ground or some other flat or semi-flat surface and then tilting the plane of focus is very very useful. The attached image is shot with the 120mm and it would not been possible to make an all-over sharp picture without tilt.

But if you don't do these types of compositions you maybe won't need it.

I'm a view camera user myself and use tilt quite frequently for all my lenses, including the wides. Tilt is integrated in my shooting style. But you can focus stack instead, or let things be out of focus and enjoy the nice bokeh

 

[f8orbust]

Do any of you find the T/S mount to be a big advantage doing landscape?
It a big premium to pay...

Just remembered that the Cambo T/S mount only has 5 degrees of forward tilt - so I'd be careful before dropping $$ on it for the 120, as with a long lens like a 120 and shooting landscapes, 5+ degrees is really where you need to be (e.g. assuming the sensor is perpendicular to the ground plane, and you want the plane of focus parallel to the ground plane, you would need the lens about 140cm from the ground and 5 degrees of tilt. Any lower and you'll need >5 degrees of tilt to achieve the same effect). I guess this is why Cambo don't offer the 150 in T/S mount - it's just too long to make good use of +/- 5 degrees of tilt.

 

[torger]

Just remembered that the Cambo T/S mount only has 5 degrees of forward tilt

That's a really good point, did not think about that. The Linhof Techno I use has +/-10 degrees, and while it at normal distances is no issue for the 120mm lens, if at macro even that is a little bit too little. If doing macro one should get the 80mm lens so the tilt range becomes less limiting.

 

[narikin]

I have the new 120mm Aspheric in SB Alpa mount. a very very sharp lens. and yes a huge image circle. Its called Apo-Helvetar in Alpa-speak.

I'd say its only beaten by the new Rodenstock 90mm HR Alpagon for out and out sharpness, at least of the ones in my lens drawer. But then, none of the newest generation of true digital MF lenses are weak.

 

[gerald.d]

I was going to make a new thread with this question, but looking at this one I think it probably makes sense to add it onto here.

I'm looking at getting a 120mm lens to (famous last words coming up...) complete my lens collection for my Alpas.

Anyone care to share thoughts on comparison between the Schneider discussed above, and the Schneider PC-TS 120mm in Mamiya mount?

Regards,

Gerald.