Schn 150mm f4 enlarging lens as a taking lens. Opinions/Experience

[JMC1969]

After attempting to sell this lens with no luck, I have decided to keep it for myself.

Schneider 150mm f4 Apo-Componon HM. I really don't need it for an enlarging lens as I already have a suitable 150mm lens for that area. Because I can't let well enough alone, I took it upon myself to unscrew the elements to see if they would screw into a shutter. They do (copal #1) and I took a couple quick type 55 polaroid shots. My Copal #1 has a scale from F5.6 to F45 so I just used F5.6 marker as though it was F4. My Type 55 is old as dirt, kept in a no a/c room of varying temperatures in Florida and passed to me from another photographer as though it was not good at all. To my amazement, I got a couple of decent shots at asa 25. I will try to get these scanned a little later today, but for now, I would like to hear any opinions of what this lens can do for me as my primary 150mm LF lens. Or, any negative things that might come about besides having a $1200 150mm lens. I may be that you need to see the images I took to form an opinion, if so, I will try to be quick about it, but I don't have a 4x5 scanner and will need to go to the ex-employer to do so.

Thank You,
Jody

[ic-racer]

Image circle will be limited compared to the 'usual' 150mm lenses for 4x5. Since it is a HM lens it should be reasonably flat field for use as a taking lens, especially at distances around 15 feet or so.

[JMC1969]

Interesting. I think I need to go scan these in a few minutes to find out what I really have here.

Shot#1

Approx. 5ft from subject
1" rise on rear standard
asa 25
1/30 sec exposure
f4

Shot#2
approx. 18" from subject
2" rise on rear standard
asa25
9 sec exposure
f4

I need to go see about a studio stand they want me to have anyway. Don't know where I am going to put it, but can't pass it up.

Thanks for the reply

[Ian Grant]

The issue of using enlarger & repro lenses is the flat field design. Somewhere I have some examples in an advanced photography book which illustrate how a round object towards the edge of an image can be distorted by a repro lens focused near infinity while the equivalent LF lens is fine. A similar problem happens with retro-telephoto wide angle lenses, a compromise to allow room for an SLR mirror, which is why a pure WA design like the Seiss Biogon on the Hasselblads SW is better, also the Leica & Cosina designed Ultra WA 21mm & less RF lenses.

With a few Repro lenses there's a spacer ring which is designed to be removed for normal camera use, on some late CZJ/Docter Optics lenses this is quite thick, removing it helps correct the distortion issues at longer focus distances.

Schneider sold LF Componon's as camera lenses in a shutter for macro use and the cells from my 135mm Componon & Componon S will fit straight into a Compur or Copal 0 shutter, coverage & image circle seems quite good surprisingly close to a Symmar.

Got side tracked should have posted this earlier

Ian

[ic-racer]

After checking the MTF curves for that lens it looks like it performs best with a subject distance around 1.5 meters, though at 3.3 meters it is still quite good. So a little better for non-macro work than a Componon-s. If you used that lens on a 6x6cm camera with a 1.5 meter subject distance, the across-field resolution would be near perfect, with almost no degradation at the corners.
https://www.schneideroptics.com/pdfs...n_40_150_2.pdf

[Richard Wasserman]

I've been using a 150mm Componon in shutter, that Ian referenced, for macro photos where it performs very well. I haven't tried it at infinity yet, but am now curious about what it will do.

[JMC1969]

Well, in my haste I have come up with the understanding that 2 quick shots w/ very old Polaroid probably isn't going to give me any definitive answers. But, here they are anyway.

Again, shot#1

5ft from subject, asa 25, f4, 1/30 sec

shot#2
18" from subject, asa 25, f4, 8 sec

[darinwc]

As long as you can get the lens in a shutter, i think it will be perfectly adequate. The only issue will be extra coverage for movements. I think the polaroids you did turned out great.

I have a 135mm componon (the older chrome barrel) that i like better than the tessar types (raptar, optar, etc).
I think I have a pic of some womans legs around here taken with the componon that you can easily make out the texture of the nylons.

[JMC1969]

Darinwc! The provider of my first LF lens, long time, and thanks for the input. Hope all is well. If things go my way, I should have my darkroom completed by the end of the weekend and then maybe I will have a chance to shoot a regular piece of (fresh) film. I also have a Caltar 210mm I have not yet had the chance to shoot. I guess I am going to be in the market for another copal#1. I have scales to go with the Caltar, but they fit the newer version of Copal#1's and mine is older. I do have a few of those Polaroid press shutters if I just can't wait, but that just puts a bunch of math on top of me already teetering on the edge of messing something up while shooting. The 150mm in the copal I have isn't a big deal, because it is basically an equal stop. 5.6 = 4, 8 = 5.6, 11 = 8, etc.... or at least that is what I am going on.

[Wade D]

I wonder where you got those Polaroid shutters from. I hope your experiments with them turned out well.