Question about Schneider-Kreuznach Componon

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The “Componon” is a whole series of lenses from Schneider as you no-doubt know. I have been looking and testing a number of Digitar Componons, lenses designed for a digital back, The enclosed image was with the 80mm f4 Apo Digitar/Componon-S, so the image circle is smaller (90mm at f/11) than many LF lenses.

Also, although F/4 is not wide to DSLR owners, in Large Format lenses, f/4 is wide. This lens is sharp wide open and the version I have can be made to fit the Copal #0 lens plate or can be mounted on a Leica plate (39mm). This lens accepts 40.5mm threaded filters.

The lens was designed for digital backs as large as 37x49mm and it covers a fairly broad range of reproduction ratios. There are many versions of the Componon-S lens, in this case it is APO Digitar Componon-S in BLV-L barrel format.

Lenses like these appeared in both barrel and Copal 0 format. I found that, in general, the Copal 0 variety went down to maybe f/5.6 wide open, while the barrel lenses often went to f/4. The wider the better for me, because I want the bokeh that comes with wider lenses.

In search of really sharp lenses for a relatively small amount of money, the barrel versions of the Digital Componon often sell for just a few hundred dollars, and they are not only extremely sharp, but also very well corrected. The APO label indicates the APO correction, but often lenses not labelled APO are, in fact, just as corrected.

These enlarger lenses may be the last frontier of real lens bargains that have the highest quality for use on DSLRs. This shot was taken on the Nikon D810, as mounted on the Cambo actus with a 39mm lens plate.