Which digital back for Rodenstock/Schneider wide angles?

[Enda Cavanagh]

Hi Guy.
Unfortunatly all these great features mean nothing if I can't get a workable image because of the extreme colour casts on the Schneiders which can not be corrected without a significant drop in quality. LCC is an affect you get with all view cameras but no where near the extent you get with the IQ's. From what I've read the 28mm is unusable even with no movements. Not much point when one of its main selling points is that it is a very wide angle lens with a very large image circle facilitating very large lens movements.

[Guy Mancuso]

Well I can't speak for the Sk28 but what I heard is a no go on the IQ 180 but will work on the 160 i will be trying that in two weeks and update here. Now not sure the 23 would work past 3mm since it gets cut off past 3mm that is with a 180 or 160. So probably the same for any FF back for that matter. I agree there is more head room with the Rodie's but again the 23 and 32 are 8k. I got about 15mm with the 32 and yes less color cast and more movement than my SK 35 so that is a pretty equal comparison. Sad news is about a 5 k difference. At least myself going with the 160 I can use the SK 35 which really is a great lens but I do have limits on it. But I can do a 2 shot stitch at 15mm left and right and squeeze a 28 focal length. The problem here is costs , image circle and wide angles. You absolutely no doubt about it will have to make compromises until you at least get to the Rodie 40 and SK 43 than life gets a little easier. Plus you can stitch these 2 40,43 and get pretty wide with good rise and fall to boot. But yes the Rodie's by design have more headroom over the SK in the very wides after that they both scream going up in focal length. Honestly I will put my SK 60 XL against anything out there it's that good. So I don't want to be down on the SK's but the Rodie's in the very wides are more friendly.

[phoTOMgraphy]

hi enda, hi guy, and others here in this fascinating topic...

i would like to know, which lenses you are using in particular. and which movement they allow. or which ones you recommend for landscape an architectural work.
i'm pretty near to get into an large investment in an arca, but it seems to be a bit more complicated with the choice of lenses as i used to believe.

so it would be a great thing, to know your specific experiences with those lenses.

cheers,
thomas

[BernieKohl]

Technically the Schneider lenses are superior since they are symmetric, but I guess only multi-shot or non-Bayer sensors can reproduce the difference in sharpness. Regarding distortions I'd say Rodenstock kept them incredibly low for a retro-focus design plus they can be corrected in post whereas color shift has its limitations. Personally I would rather have the SKs though since I see them as the better investment considering future sensor improvements.

Since color cast appears to increase with smaller photosites and micro-lenses shouldn't the Leaf Aptus-II 5 with a pixel pitch of 9 micron and from what I've read no micro-lenses have hardly any issues with color cast? After studying the available backs for two weeks now I am most intrigued by the Sinarback eMotion 75 LV, which has a lot of positive response – even on this forum with many of P1 users.

[Alan W George]

With tech cams and wide angles, LCC are a fact of life regardless the back you are using.  True, some backs (IQ180) are more susceptible than others (IQ160, P65+), but LCC is still a must with every back.  I hate using superlatives, but somebody prove me wrong.  If LCC is too much trouble, then maybe your better off with an SLR.  Just because there are colorcasts, doesn't mean it's broken.

As I thought Guy. It's such a pity about the strong colour casts on the IQ. The system seems like a solution to so many problems, whether it be the the pixel count, high res touchscreen, the live view, the low native ISO amongst others benefits but unfortunately with the colour cast issue it's just not worth changing. These great tools aren't what make a great image at the end of the day. I'd literally have to change my style of photography re. movements.  

The Rodenstocks seem like a solution but I'm afraid it's just not financially viable

[Enda Cavanagh]

Hi Alan
I think you may have misunderstood me. I know that the LCC is a way of life with wide angle lenses on view camera/digital backs. This is easily removed in Phocus or Capture 1. The colour casts one gets when using the wide angle Schneiders on the IQ180 can not be removed as the affect is too strong.
Here is a link to Getdpi where it is further explained.
There are numerous posts on this. The Digitar 35 XL and 43 xl Lenses  I believe also have strong color cast again widely reported on getdpi.com.