Someone is making me a cheap offer on these two Digitars - Digitar 47mm 5.6 and APO-digitar 90mm 4.5 - so I'm wondering how they perform on a digital back. Has anyone used them? I'm most interested in sharpness, CA, how they perform wide open, and how they cope with movements. Thanks.

I have the 90mm, it is very sharp, definately no problems in that area, pretty good movements as well, I think I got about 20mm or so of movements on my aptus 65.

I have a 47 90 and 180 Apo Digitars. They were recommended to me by Cambo. They are a good set of lenses and I have no problems with them. I use them with a Aptus 7.

I have the 5.6/47XL and use it on a Cambo with P45. Actually I didn't see any CAs by now (but lens cast for sure). Wide open very sharp (I think I have some shots wide open... I'll post one later). The good thing about the Schneider is that image circles are very wide. You can shift the 47XL 18mm or even 20mm and it's still sharp at the egdes.

I've just had the 90mm, the 35mm and the 24mm apo digitars tested as part of the shim setup for my back and the 90mm is the sharpest of all (they are all great).

I use the 90mm regularly with movements and have never seen CA nor any edge softness (but I have not scientifically tested!).

I may be interested in a 'cheap' 47mm if it's on an Alpa mount - if it's still going?

Cheers

Murray

Both of these lenses are top notch. The 90mm 4.5 is better than the 47mm 5.6 IMO. If you look at most to today specs on lenses many of them have XL which means they have a large image circle than ones that do not have XL after the number. Example 24 XL, 35 XL, 47 XL are newer designs. GO to the website and compare the lens covergae. You will see what chip they recommend by it's maximum image circle.

I think you have a large size chip so the movements on the 90mm would be fine but do not expect the 47mm to perform like the 47XL. But these would be better thna traditional lenses in terms of CA and sharpness when used with a 22 MP back which I think you are using. I had one of these early on and not much I could do with arch applications because the rise and fall were limited some what to be effective.

Check out Douglas Johns site, www.dougjohns.com He using 90mm for most of his table top images with a 22 MP camera. I have enlarged his images 3x4 ft with great results. So that 90mm is really a nice lens. I see his images in stores that are 4x6ft printed at Oversizeposters in CMYK. They also resolve very nice when enlarged.

Good Luck


Chris Snipes
Image Productions, Inc
Phase One Expert

www.imageproduction.com
chris@imagepoduction.com

Phase One Test Studio Florida

Hi
Last year I have been comparing the 47mm Digitar to my 35mm and 60mm HR Rodenstocks on my ALPA SWA with a P45+ back.
The Digitar has a much bigger circle of image and costs less. Although it would fit the gap perfectly, I ended up not buying it:
There's quite strong CA towards the edges and some vignetting (I didn't have the center filter): Both can esily be dealt with in post, though, and sharpness and contast were very good.
I assume with the new version of C1 (4.5), you could easily correct CA automatically as well as vignetting and get absolutely fine results.
You will however always have to make the lens cast file.
Another small disadvantage is the maximum aperture of f5,6: The images are a little harder to see on the groundglass, compared to f4 on the HR's.
I also use the Digitar 180mm with great success and therefore would expect the 90mm to be of very high quality as well.
If you have them offered at a good price, it sounds very tempting!

Hope that helps

Jost

I have any early version of both and they are great, I maybe selling my 90 if you are interested though, to replace with an 80 and 120.

I have Schneider Digitars in 60, 80, 90, 105, 120 & 150 - they are all wicked sharp. I would of had the 47 is Klane didn't outbid me for it a few months back.

I have both and the 47 is a lovely lens for MFDB .... it's a nice field of view for a wide angle shot that isn't too wide. Very good edge to edge sharpness IMHO but I'm shooting architecture at min f16. One thing I have used it for (on gottschalt mount) is model photography where it is really sharp but does have a lot of colour shift at extreme movement shifts (Aptus 75 contributing to this!) But has little luminance fall-off. I'll post one shot here.

Re the 90mm ... it's funny reading all of the posts that it is v sharp... I have had the opposite experience with mine .. perhaps I need to give it an overhaul.. (Hardly any visible fall off with movement)

Ros

Thanks for all the responses. I know that a couple were interested in the 47mm. I'm waiting for photos from the seller, and I'll be happy to pass on photos and details if I decide not to get it myself.

count me in !

If it helps to identify the lenses, I have some pics now (sent to me by the seller):