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  #11  
Old 20th June 2019, 10:31 AM
big paul big paul is offline
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thanks for that piece of information Ian ,what is the different,s between the xenar and symmar .hope you are having a nice rest in the hot sunshine with your pina colada with straw and umbrella ,just like dell boys....



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  #12  
Old 20th June 2019, 11:22 AM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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The Xenar is a Tesar type lens, essential a copy after the Patents ran out. They are a four elements in 3 groups design so only 4 internal air/glass interfaces so an uncoated lens still has reasonable contrast. Not fantastically well corrected so edges and corners get softer as you open up the lens. Best performance of a LF Tessar/Xenar is at f22 for overall critical sharpness, but if you're shooting portraits etc then edge or corner sharpness is less important.

Symmers are plasmats 6 elements in 4 groups so 6 internal air glass interfaces but far better corrected and a significant improvement in edge and corner sharpness at wider apertures. However contrast was significantly lower than a Tessar so before coating became the norm after WWII they were less common and Tessar and type dominated.

With coatings Symmars and other plasmats became the top normal FL LF lenses, Tessar's and Xenar's were still sold as budget lens as they were cheaper to make, also they were often used on Press cameras because of the 2/3 of a stop extra speed f4.5 compared to f5.6, and press photographs were rarely enlarged much anyway.

The differences between a Xenar and Symmar is most noticeable with 135mm lenses on 5x4 cameras. I should have said Symmar's have 70° coverage your 150mm has an image circle of 210mm, your Xenar 62° 180mm so much less room for movements. With the 135mm though the coverage is much less the Symmar IC is 190mm and the Xenar 161mm.

I've used a 135mm Tessar and now have a 135mm f4.7 Xenar and there's barely room for any movements, sharpness at corners drops of slightly at f16 compared to f22 where it's sharpest, by f11 edges and corners are quite noticeably softer.

I'm quite happy using my 150mm Tessar or Xenar, but I'm using my 135mm f5.6 Caltart II-S (a rebadged Symmar S) here in Turkey because it's small and light and sharper. It's part of my light weight LF kit with a 90mm f6.8 angulon and 203mm f7.7 Ektar, important when temperatures are set tone 37/38°C in the next few days, all 3 lenses weigh about the same together ass my 210mm Symmar S

Ian
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  #13  
Old 20th June 2019, 12:10 PM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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Should also add that CZJ made the LF Tessars in a range of apertures.

The first was the f6.3 and is the sharpest of all the versions at wider apertures and overall. Next was the f4.5 which became the most common, a faster f3.3 version was introduced for mostly Press use, later an f2.7 coverage was poor so a 165mm f2.7 Tessar just covers 5x4/

There's a rare f5.3 Tessar made for possibly a Kodak camera butnever sold separately, I have a 165mm f5.3 CZLJ Tessar.

Xenars were made in f4.5 and a few f3.3 versions, and there was an f2.8 which is rarely seen this was the forerunner of the Xenotar.

Then quite late Schneider brought out a redesigned 150mm f5.6 Xenar along with a 210 f6.1 and a 300mm f5.6, these were still being assembled and sold around 2000-2002 and sold at bargain prices. These are probably the sharpest of all Tessar designs.

Ian
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  #14  
Old 20th June 2019, 06:18 PM
big paul big paul is offline
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why do they make different size shutter 0 1 2 .and are 150mm f/5.6 W Large-format W-series Lens with 0 shutter any good
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  #15  
Old 21st June 2019, 08:59 AM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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f number = focal length / diameter of the entrance pupil, or in practice the f stop = the focal length . the diameter of the aperture

So a 150mm f5.6 Symmar the Diameter of the aperture at f5.6 is approx 26.785mm

However if you have a 240mm f5.6 lens that needs a diameter of 42.857mm so needs a much larger shutter.

If you want longer focal length lenses in small shutters you'd go for a slower lens like the 300mm f9 Nikkor M which is in a Copal #1, the 240mm f5.6 Nikkor W is in a Copal #3

The W series lenses are Wide field, the term came into use in the US where many of the Kodak LF Ektars were Tessar type lenses with less coverage than plasmats and they introduced Wide Field Ektras.

Nikkor SW lenses are their wide angle series, presumably the S is for Super wide. The Americans like their superlatives the 159mm f9 Wollensak is an EWA lens, Extreme Wide Angle.

Ian
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  #16  
Old 4th October 2019, 07:23 PM
big paul big paul is offline
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I have sent my compur 1 to the camera doctor at newton and ellis should get it back in a week or two ,its always a funny feeling sending things of for repair and worrying about it, till it comes back all clean and working
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  #17  
Old 11th October 2019, 09:13 PM
big paul big paul is offline
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got my compur 1 back from the menders and its working great , I had a repair and service for the total amount of £114.00 ,my wallet is a little bruised but I am all go on the large format malarkey …..


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