Hi List Firstly, may I apologise if you've seen this mail on other forums but I'm trying to solve this problem.
I'm wondering if there's anyone out there with a similar problem or can shed any light on this matter . A great number of people have been in touch with me on this subject...thanks...with conflicting answers and I'm beginning to think that the problem might be me! I am using Schneider Digitar lenses with Rollei shutters on an Xact2 with an Imacon 132C back single shot only. All is fine excepting one lens...120mm macro. This lens seems very fuzzy especially at close focussing and in my opinion not very good quality. I've done my testing and found it is focussing at the right plane and tested all the apertures and found it only good up to f16.I use live video for focussing. I've borrowed and tested an identical one with the same results. I've complained to Schneider who replied as follows.. "Dear Mr. Rakusen, With digital backs you shouldn't close the iris more then 2 f-stops, especially when going towards close up photography. Please use f-stop 8 and you will get sharp and crispy images, anything beyond f 8 is disturbed by diffraction. Kind regards Ulrich Eilsberger business unit - photo director productmanagement" Now I really don't know what to do! I've spent good money on a macro lens for shooting product (jewellery) and I'm supposed to use it at f8? Meanwhile I'm going to have a test of a Rodenstock. Maybe I should be using a much longer lens like a 150mm or more? I've tried my 180mm 2.8 for the Rollei 6008, which incidentally I am told was designed over 70 years ago and the results were equal if not better than the 120 digitar. The people who mailed me to say how happy they were with the lens were generally using it with a smaller chip and I wonder if this has anything to do with the problem. POSTSCRIPT. This evening I have been shooting close up with the 80mm digitar which seems to perform better and can handle a greater f number. We have to some extent solved the sharpness problem by shooting with just 100usm on the camera software and then putting another 100 and 10 contrast in photoshop. It seems crazy that this should be necessary when all my other work is fine. Perhaps I'm just asking too much of the optics or is this acceptable? Thanks in anticipation! Monty Rakusen ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This Mail comes from Monty Rakusen's Studio in Yorkshire England. You can see Monty's Corporate work at http://www.rakusen.co.uk You can see Monty's Art work at http://www.itsablackandwhiteworld.com Monty is a member of The Association of Photographers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
