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Schneider Componar-S 50mm F2.8 Macro
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 4:32 pm    Post subject: Schneider Componar-S 50mm F2.8 Macro Reply with quote
I put this enlarger lens on some bellows adapted to my Panasonic GM1. These shots were taken after some rain, just as the sun was coming out. This lens is 4 elements in 3 groups and designed for enlargements between 6x and 10x - I was well without the bounds of that. Bellows were set at 50mm of extension to get 1:1 (or 2:1 if you include the crop factor). Everything is shot handheld at F5.6 which I determined to be the best aperture for centre sharpness. Corner resolution does improve quite a bit at F8, even on the crop-sensor, but it brings the centre sharpness down to the same level. Overall, CA is well controlled as is to be expected.

There was not much light accounting for the bellows factor, and F11 would have been more ideal for the depth of field but I still got some interesting shots. I have a Componon 50/4 that I need to buy an adaptor for, which I expect will be a bit better. I paid $5 for each.







This was taken with the built-in flash at the low maximum sync-speed of 1/50!


This was natural light.


PostPosted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 11:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
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Very nice. I am very impressed with the resolution of these schneider enlarger lenses.


PostPosted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 1:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
jamaeolus wrote:
Like 1

Very nice. I am very impressed with the resolution of these schneider enlarger lenses.


Indeed, I was surprised by how well it did for a 4 element lens. Besides the shot with the flash, the other images were taken at ISO 1600-2000 to keep a high shutter speed so naturally they will not be too detailed. You get a hint of the sharpness with the flash shot but the 1/50 flash sync makes some blur of its own.

The difference in build quality between the 50/4 and 50/2.8 is night and day, too. In the future I will try to get one of the newer Componon-S 50/2.8's, which will probably only offer a slight improvement over the 50/4 since they are the same design. In fact, I believe I've read that the 50/4 is F2.8 and simply stopped down to F4 at the factory - the aperture is partially closed even wide open. And they should perform even better when reverse-mounted which I can do on the Componar-S 50/2.8 but not the 50/4 which lacks front threads. When I was testing the 50/2.8 before I don't think I could discern any improvement with it reverse mounted since they're pretty much diffraction-limited wide open anyway.

I will eventually get a 80mm F4 lens to try in the future, which will be way better than the 50mm's while giving me more flexibility on the bellows and a longer working distance.
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