Symmar-S 150 f5.6

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Hello All,

Can anyone please advice me on a lens I am thinking of buying on mail order?

It is a Schneider Symmar-S 150 f5.6 (serial no. 12671323). What is the approx. age of this lens and is it single or MC? Any comments on sharpness and will I have room for movements on 5x4?

The lens has a few particles of dust in one of the elements. Will this affect performance.

Thank you in advance for your help.

-- mo alam (moalam01@yahoo.com), May 20, 2002

Answers

While I have not used this lens, I can give you some of the information that you are looking for. The lens has an image circle of 210mm at f/22, meaning that you will have quite a bit of room for movement with a 4x5 (32mm rise in portrait and 37mm in landscape). The lens is single coated. The lens was manufactured in approximately March 1974 and schneider did not begin multicoating the lenses until March 1977. As to the dust, I have not had that problem so will let someone with more experience in that area handle that as well as the sharpness questions. Good luck.

-- Randy Redford (redford01@attbi.com), May 20, 2002.

Hi Mo,

I have a Symmar-S 150 f5.6, and it is very sharp.

If your lens is multicoated, it will say so on the lens barrel (mine clearly says "multicoated"). Some of the earliest Symmar-S lenses were not multicoated, so it is worth checking.

Plenty of room for movements.

Sorry, can't tell you the age from the serial, but I think there is some info on this on the Schneider site somewhere.

-- QDB (sales@barleigh.com), May 20, 2002.


You can get the info here:

age

http://www.schneideroptics.com/info/age_of_lenses/

specs

http://www.schneideroptics.com/info/vintage_lens_data/large_format_len ses/symmar-s/data/1,5,6-150mm.html

-- Tim Atherton (tim@KairosPhoto.com), May 20, 2002.


Mo,

I'm borrowing one of these lenses right now. I'd suggest making sure that the shutter is accurate. On the one I'm using the shutter (a Synchro-Compur) is about 1/3 stop slow. It's not a big problem for B&W, but I'd like to use transparency film, too.

-- Matthew Runde (actorm@hotmail.com), May 20, 2002.


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