Just bought this.

soupdragon said:
I paid top dollar for but, a fair choice for a 4x8" camera?
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You don't have a 4"x8" camera :D

It's an extreme wide angle that covers 10"x8" stopped down to f22 with little room for movements, I have two 120mm lenses for LF, a 1912 Dagor, and a 1960s Angulon, bot f6.8, they are more useful for Half plate/7x5, although excellent on 5x4. They are also small, and light.

I've always preferred a reasonable gap in focal lengths in my set-ups, with LF that's 150mm, 90mm, 75mm, MF 80mm 45mm, 35mm 50mm, 28mm, 19mm.

Ian
 
Ian Grant said:
You don't have a 4"x8" camera :D

It's an extreme wide angle that covers 10"x8" stopped down to f22 with little room for movements, I have two 120mm lenses for LF, a 1912 Dagor, and a 1960s Angulon, bot f6.8, they are more useful for Half plate/7x5, although excellent on 5x4. They are also small, and light.

I've always preferred a reasonable gap in focal lengths in my set-ups, with LF that's 150mm, 90mm, 75mm, MF 80mm 45mm, 35mm 50mm, 28mm, 19mm.

Ian
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Have you read my rantings about auto-correct?:D
Anyhoo. I bought it for my Tachihara 4X5".
What I am asking is, is it a good choice for 4X5" or should I return it and look for something better?

It's just for general use you know. the odd bridge or building or abandoned boat.
I was after something light but with ample movements when used with 4x5"and good image quality.

Bear in mind, I only shoot colour neg or colour positive.
 
Regarding focal lengths.
I have three useable LF lenses, a 90, 240 and 360 so I think my spacing is ok.
 
Depends on what other focal length lenses you have. With colour, anything wider than 90mm you really need a Centre ND filter, even with a 90mm you notice slight corner darkening.

There's a hug gap between 90mm and 240mm, a 120mm still leaves a huge gap but as the 120mm Nikkor SW also covers 10x8 it's a good keeper, Maybe look for a 180mm, avoid Compur 2 rimset shutters,

Ian
 
I would say its a bit of a handful for 5x4 , big and fragile for when you want to travel more lightly with the “tiny” Tachi. , a 120,135,150, Or 180 would be more portable and with care the shorter ones can be stored reversed in the camera folded I think , it works on my Wistas. I picked up a Yamasaki Congo SW 120 5.6 recently that will cover 5x7 bit rare but good movements with 5x4 physically small. There is a 120 Rodenstock 5.6 only made for a few years but relatively modern and inexpensive .
I think there is a very narrow choice covering both formats sensibly outside of the studio.
 
The Nikkor 120/8 is a superb lens with a lot of movements for 5x4.

I love mine.

Mike
 
After I bought my Wista 5x4 the only two lenses I had for the next 22 years were a 90/8 and a 150/5.6. I bought them together from the same seller for £500 in 1990. That was almost what I paid for the Wista! The lenses have never let me down and I've taken them to Yosemite and back. In the early days I mostly shot E6 and I've never noticed vignetting with my 90mm (Schneider).

You use what you have and make it work. The 120mm is a fine focal length for a lot of things. Use it and see how you get on for the photography you enjoy doing.
 
The Nikkor lenses are great (I have a 65mm) and almost worth buying for the quality of the black paint on the lens body alone, but that 120mm is a BIG 'un, weighs double what a 90mm f/8 weighs. Really aimed at 5x7" to 10x8" formats, 120mm would be a really nice but manageably wide length on whole plate for instance.

For more general use most people would fid it too much of a handful, unless specifically doing things that need a boatload of rise or fall (architecture etc). Alternatively at that focal length a plasmat-type design like a Fuji 125mm f/5.6 or APO Symmar 120mm will weigh less than half that, be much smaller (smaller filters too) and a stop faster, and give you ~200mm image circle, so about and inch or so of rise and fall.
 
I am concerned about the f8.0 thing.
I hope the image will be bright enough for my old eyes to bring into focus.

I'm hoping corner shading will not be an issue given I'm using it on a 4X5.

I originally bought a Schneider 90mm SA XL but had to return it as it was too big to fit through the hole in the front standard.
 
soupdragon said:
I'm hoping corner shading will not be an issue given I'm using it on a 4X5.
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I think there's nothing to worry about there. It'll have less than a 90mm, and even then falloff with a 90mm lens of the biogon-type design (basically all big common-or-garden 90mm lenses) is negligible on 5x4" even with chromes. It's not till you get out to 5x7" or 6x17cm with a 90mm that it gets significant.
 
We use a 72mm lens on 5x4 and with a fresnel, don't find it a problem.
 
Preferred focal length for a given format seems to be quite personal. I really like 120 mm on 4 x 5. This started for me back in 1972 when I got a 121 mm Super Angulon, because, well, I knew Ansel Adams used one on his 4 x 5 (and to some extent 5 x 7).

About 1974-75 I dropped this lens on the road (One of Ted Orland's photographic truths: "Falling lenses are attracted to rocks", in my case it was pavement instead of the adjacent soft dirt dirt). Ended up with an ugly dent to the front rim though performance didn't seem to be affected.

About 1996 Schneider came out with their Super Symmar HM line and had a generous trade-in offer for certain of their lenses, any condition accepted. I traded in the Super Angulon for the 120 mm f/5.6 Super Symmar HM. It continues to be one of my favorite lenses today and I have yet to drop it. Covering 82º at f/22, it doesn't have as big an image circle as the Super Angulon, but it is still quite adequate.

So I'd suggest try this lens out, see how you like the focal length, only you can decide if it's too big or, at f/8, too dim.

David
 
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That Nikon would be very nice for 5x7 use with plenty of movements. Wouldn't mind one of those.
 
It's a very nice lens, just slightly wide on 5x4 and will cover 10x8 if you need to. Virtually unlimited movements on 5x4. The NIkon fact sheet says it's a millimetre or so short of true 10x8 coverage, but I've noticed no fall off. If the corners hold nothing significant, like empty sky, you can even get a tiny bit of movement.
 
HowLarge said:
I would say its a bit of a handful for 5x4 , big and fragile for when you want to travel more lightly with the “tiny” Tachi. , a 120,135,150, Or 180 would be more portable and with care the shorter ones can be stored reversed in the camera folded I think , it works on my Wistas. I picked up a Yamasaki Congo SW 120 5.6 recently that will cover 5x7 bit rare but good movements with 5x4 physically small. There is a 120 Rodenstock 5.6 only made for a few years but relatively modern and inexpensive .
I think there is a very narrow choice covering both formats sensibly outside of the studio.
Click to expand...
It is a 120
 
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