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You are here: Home / GFX 50S / Schneider 90/4.5 Apo-Componon HM on GFX 50R

Schneider 90/4.5 Apo-Componon HM on GFX 50R

October 17, 2020 JimK 3 Comments

The Schneider 90/4.5 Apo-Componon HM is an enlarging lens that I happen to have lying around from my film days. I remembered it as a great enlarging lens. I wondered how it would perform in a completely different role: as a camera lens. This is asking the lens to perform well outside of its comfort zone. It was designed for reproduction ratios on the order of 8:1, which would be a really tight portrait with the GFX 50R. I’m tested it at a much greater distance, about 12 meters. I also tested it wide open. The full opening was designed to be used for focusing.

First, you might ask how I got the lens mounted to the camera. Here’s how:

The “lens adapter” is a Cambo Actus.

Here’s my test scene:

And here’s a look at the target, with the lens wide open.

In the center:

And in the corner.

You can’t judge light falloff from those because I goofed and used automatic exposure.

Test protocol:

  • 12 meters target distance
  • ISO 100
  • f/4.5
  • Subject in the center and the upper right corner.
  • Manual focusing.
  • Six shots at each setting, focusing anew for each shot, picking the best using the Imatest sharpness ranking utility. This method calibrates out focus curvature.
  • Developed in Lightroom
  • Sharpening set to zero.
  • White balance set to gray background on Siemens Star target
  • Adobe Color Profile
  • Minor exposure adjustments, with same adjustment applied to all images from both lenses, so corner darkening is unaffected.
  • Chromatic aberration correction turned off.
  • Everything else at default settings

MTF testing using the slanted edge follows.

In the center:

Center

That is quite sharp. Lots of aliasing, thanks to the small pixel apertures on the GFX 50x cameras.

In the corner:

Corner

That is still quite sharp. I was hoping for a bit better performance, since the lens was made to cover a 6×6 negative.

Here are the MTF calculations at various angles using the star part of the target:

Center

 

Corner

Same data in a spider plot:

Center

 

Corner

 

And, finally, a Shannon information capacity plot. I’m still trying to figure out how to use these:

Center

 

Corner

 

This is good performance, but with respect to the corners, my socks are firmly in place. I’ll try stopping it down a bit.

 

GFX 50S

← 70-200/2.8 E vs S at 70mm, quantitative Schneider 90/4.5 Apo-Componon HM on GFX 50R, f/5.6, f/8 →

Comments

  1. Glenn says

    October 17, 2020 at 5:46 pm

    Where did you get the bright red grip?

    Reply
    • JimK says

      October 18, 2020 at 12:00 pm

      https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/62375216

      https://www.ebay.com/itm/PEIPRO-Quick-Release-L-shaped-Plate-Holder-Camera-Handheld-for-Fujifilm-GFX-50R-/123627124172

      Reply
    • Steve says

      October 29, 2020 at 7:02 pm

      Small Rig sells a nice L-bracket with a wooden handle. I find it comfortable and a handsome addition to the camera. https://www.smallrig.com/smallrig-l-bracket-for-fujifilm-gfx-50r-apl2339.html

      Reply

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