Using a copy lens for non copy work

[lharby]

Hi

I have a nice Schneider-Kreuznach G Claron 210mm. Most of my stuff is studio based and when I have used it I have been very happy with the results.

Does anyone know what happens when you use one of these lenses for landscape work? Is it one of those things where it's horrible (I am imagining it being blurry), or is it a case of being more or less the same to a layman.

TIA

 

[Dave_P]

They are great for landscape/infinity work, absolutely no issue with using them for this sort of stuff. No distinguishable difference in performance compared to other 'normal' lenses in my opinion.

 

[Ian Grant]

When Schneider had a clear out around 2000 G-Clarons in Copal shutters as well as Xenars. and Centre filters were sold of through Robert White in the UK, & Badger Graphics in the US, and at bargain prices. Essentially it was stocks of lens cells and shutters that had stopped selling with the professional switch to digital. Schneider just paired them up and sold them off.

With G Clarons the spacing in a barrel is optimised for close up to 1:1, but in a Copal shutter they are spaced to give good results up to Infinity. There's a rare long CZJ Process Tessar 800 or 900mm lens, might be longer 1200mm, that has a spacer nearly 10mm thick for use to Infinity.

The spacing is critical in terms of spherical aberrations and field curvature at normal to Infinity focus. Nikon 35mm.DSLR Macro lenses use CRC (Close Range Correction).

Ian

 

[Reginald S.]

Decades ago my first LF camera came with an old 305 G-Claron out of the hands of a professional photographer. No problems so far.
Two decades ago I probably have made my most sharp image with a more "modern" Apo Ronar 480mm, sitting on a 5x7" Plaubel with bellows extended to excess. Both lenses barrel-less, without shims between the cells.

 

[Soulstar89]

Hi

I have a nice Schneider-Kreuznach G Claron 210mm. Most of my stuff is studio based and when I have used it I have been very happy with the results.

Does anyone know what happens when you use one of these lenses for landscape work? Is it one of those things where it's horrible (I am imagining it being blurry), or is it a case of being more or less the same to a layman.

TIA

See, we have a great bunch of people who are happy to share their knowledge.

 

[pmviewcam]

I have a G-Claron 150mm, and did have a 305mm G-Claron, both in shutters, , and also a 480mm Apo-Nikkor barrel lens, and I use all of them as lenses for landscapes and architecture. From what I understand, these lenses supposedly provide a flatter field with less softness at the edges from lens curvature. All three are very sharp, and in the case of the G-Clarons, quite compact.

 

[David M]

You’d expect a process lens to be sharp and contrasty over the whole field and that field would be flat. Because the size of the subject would be known in advance the image circle could be fairly restricted. As Ian says above, they may be corrected for relatively short distances.
I don’t know about lens coatings on process lenses.

 

[Ian Grant]

I have a G-Claron 150mm, and did have a 305mm G-Claron, both in shutters, , and also a 480mm Apo-Nikkor barrel lens, and I use all of them as lenses for landscapes and architecture. From what I understand, these lenses supposedly provide a flatter field with less softness at the edges from lens curvature. All three are very sharp, and in the case of the G-Clarons, quite compact.

The corrections are as you say much greater than say a Symmar S, but they only apply across a flat plane parallel to the film & lens planes, hex the term flat field.

If there's a lot of depth in an image you actually get more distortion with a process lens, compared to a modern plasmat. Somewhere in a book there's a comparison of a Process lens and a Plasmat, there's more spherical distortion with the Process lens with circular objects in the foreground towards the edges, they become egg shaped.

You’d expect a process lens to be sharp and contrasty over the whole field and that field would be flat. Because the size of the subject would be known in advance the image circle could be fairly restricted. As Ian says above, they may be corrected for relatively short distances.
I don’t know about lens coatings on process lenses.

Process lenses are not always coated, G-Clarons are coated, but not multi coated.

Ian