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60XL or 50HR on IQ3-100

vonalpen

Active member
I was in a similar situation: Since the firmware update last autumn, which brought the ES to my IQ3 100 as well, the whole ALPA system gained even more value for me.
I own the Digaron-HR 60mm, which is optically great, but it's image circle of 70mm hardly leaves room for shifts.
So I organized a comparison of the Schneider 60mm XL with the Alpagon 50HR, directly here in Switzerland at ALPA.
My SWA allows a maximum shift of 25mm. Comparing the sharpness in the corners at those 25mm, the 50HR was even better than the 60XL.
Hard vignetting with the 50HR just started to occur at those 25mm. The image circle of the 60XL is even bigger, as stated in the lens specs.
C1 (latest V10) did a great job cleaning up the obvious lenscast and vignetting with the LLC file.
As I didn't have any centre filters, I cannot comment on it's influence on image quality, comparing those two lenses.
But because of my very positive experience with the 32HR (its centre filter alwas stays on!), I ended up buying the 50HR and the centre filter as well.
I also tested tilts and was impressed by how much depth of field improved (in the appropriate situations). The mechanism on the tilt adapter from ALPA is very precise.
So I also bougt the tilt adapter with the 50HR and am now also adding tilts to my 32HR. Therefore it needs to be remounted by Rodenstock, so the 17mm adapter will fit.
I will conduct more tests in the following weeks to learn the limitations of my new set up, if there are any :thumbup:
By the way: My 60HR will go on sale here in the next few days.

Best
 

pinktank

New member
Interesting, when comparing the 50HR with the 60XL, what specifically did you find more succesful? Were there less color casts (until hard falloff), was it better resolution? I'm thinking maybe I could consider the 50HR with less shift/rise and do a smaller 4 shot stitch and interpolate.

The reason I ask is that the CI test has the 50HR blurry, but I think they just missed the focus.
 
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vonalpen

Active member
Obviously, without the centre filter and without the LCC, the images from both lenses are actually not usable with the maximum shift (25mm) which I was able to apply on my SWA: Lens cast and vignetting are severe.
But as stated above, C1 cleans it up nicely (latest version; they keep improving...).
HR 50mm on top, 60mm XL below, both down shifted 25mm and obviously uncorrected... and I see the dust, too :thumbup:

50HR-60XL.jpg

and corrected, HR 50mm left, 60mm XL right. C1 actually issued a warning when I applied the LCC on both files, it didn't seem to like the strong lens cast.

corrected.jpg


As stated before, I found the corner sharpness of the HR 50mm to be even better than with the 60mm XL (with a shift of 25mm and f11).
Could also be sample variation as well, as the differences were subtle.
Unshiftet there's hardly any difference visible anyway, I would call it a draw.
As I prefer the slightly wider focal lenght, I ended up buying the HR 50mm. Will test the positive effect of the centre filter in the next few weeks.

Best
 
HR 50mm on top, 60mm XL below, both down shifted 25mm and obviously uncorrected... and I see the dust, too :thumbup:
Wow! Thanks for the comparison - it's unexpected that the Schneider counterpart seems to have slightly less color cast!

I've found the same in my 70HR vs 75XL comparison as well - Schneider has less color cast for the same shift.

This is contrary to the wide angles where the Rodenstock counterparts have less color cast.
 

Jamgolf

Member
Thanks for the comparison, Jost.
Rodenstock does not list any center filter for the 50HR, so I am curious to know which CF you are using?
 

vonalpen

Active member
Thanks for the comparison, Jost.
Rodenstock does not list any center filter for the 50HR, so I am curious to know which CF you are using?
That's the one I got from ALPA:
https://www.alpa.ch/en/article/type-e67-alpar-354555-alpagon-4050http://

Because the dedicated centre filter improves image quality so much on my HR 32mm when shifting, I decided to buy the one for my new HR 50mm as well.
I actually expected to see some degradation of sharpness with the 32mm because of this extra filter, but it doesn't happen, nor is it any more prone to flare. So it stays on the lens the whole time, and therefore also works as a lens protector.
The LCC file from the 32mm definitely looks better with the filter when applying strong shifts: less strong lens cast and hardly any vignetting any more, which leaves much more headroom for image processing without getting into trouble because of artefacts and loss of color fidelity into the corners.
The maximum I can shift obviously depends a lot on image content in the borders.

Best
 
Because the dedicated centre filter improves image quality so much on my HR 32mm when shifting, I decided to buy the one for my new HR 50mm as well.
I actually expected to see some degradation of sharpness with the 32mm because of this extra filter, but it doesn't happen, nor is it any more prone to flare. So it stays on the lens the whole time, and therefore also works as a lens protector.
The LCC file from the 32mm definitely looks better with the filter when applying strong shifts: less strong lens cast and hardly any vignetting any more, which leaves much more headroom for image processing without getting into trouble because of artefacts and loss of color fidelity into the corners.
The maximum I can shift obviously depends a lot on image content in the borders.

Best
Agreed. Same reason why I always keep the center filter on for my 23HR - no drop of sharpness or increase of flare.

As for the 32HR, the only drawback is the size of its center filter, which is too huge to accept ordinary filter holders, and this is why I picked the 40HR instead.
 
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