Rodenstock 138mm HR Digaron-Float - Beauty Shots

[Ben730]

I made a quick shot with a 200% crop of the corner in the upper right.
Digitar 180 mm, Cambo Ultima, shift 40mm up and 50 mm to the right with IQ150. No LCC.
This is the maximum shift I can do with the Cambo Ultima.
I would say this lens is good enough for me.
Regards,
Ben

 

[Paul Spinnler]

It is a great lens, no doubt; to point was whether the 138, when enlarged to the FoV of the 180 SK or RS, could be used as an alternative with not much to lose. The conclusion then would be that the 138mm is all you need above 90 except for the 210.

 

[Bill Caulfeild-Browne]

As the OP says to post any reviews of Rodie lenses, here goes.

I'm a comparative newcomer to Rodenstock lenses as I've only owned my XT for a couple of years. I initially bought the 32 mm and the 70 mm. Previously I thought my SK 35 mm BR for the XF was the sharpest wide angle I owned but the Rodie 32 mm is superior. More recently I acquired the 40 mm Tilt and that beats both of them!

Even so, the SK 45 mm BR is one heck of a competitor and has become the lens I leave on the XF.

I want a longer focal length for the XT but the 138 float has its limitations for the XT as noted by others above (to say nothing of the cost). I understand Phase is planning its own 150 for the XT - presumably to be made by SK. Anybody else know anything of this?

Brad Kaye's photos at the start of this thread are a pure delight to those of us who love camera porn!

 

[Paul Spinnler]

My understanding is that there are still digitar SK150 lens elements around somehow, ie these lenses will be based on the older 150 apo digitar designs and then represent a so to say "cheaper" and more compact alternative to the mighty 138. The emphasis is on compact as the 138 is large and heavy, but with unmatched performance to boot and if an XT150 were to come it would for sure also not be cheap as the x shutter costs like 3k alone ... but still cheaper and especially less bulky and heavy. The 138 is a real endgame lens – it is a really serious piece of kit!

One just needs to take these elements and house them with a Cambo helicoid and / or a new custom Alpa helicoid and put an X-shutter on them to get these new lenses.

I would expect the 138 to outperform SK150 lenses if they won't change anything in the optical formula.

More interesting is the rumour relating to the XT2 which would have more shift ways ...

 

[Paul Spinnler]

P1 still has a few system gaps in the XT world:

1) XT2 or "XL" with shift ways up to 20mm - big brother to the compact XT and maybe one day a super compact mini XT with just 12mm vertical or no shift - should be easy enough to take a Cambo cam as a basis. Would be nice to one day have stable EVF solution in a compact XT mini with the new IQ5 generation
2) Tilt factory upgrade option for all lenses except 40 (one should be able to send in an XT50, pay 2k to have tilt built-in)
3) Longer lens than 90mm (138 ist a non-integrated Cambo mounted lens with cable)

From a design perspective it is a bit unfortunate that one cannot have tilt and swing at the same time though, not sure this could be alleviated any day.

XT150 would allow for shift metadata too, but then again with SK you have no distortion and low to no vignetting, even on an XT2, so not that important. It would be, though, finally a real XT native long lens.

Anything above 150 gets super bulky and maybe market too small ...

So could be a good year, next year, even with no IQ5 ... for the XT crowd!

 

[Smoothjazz]

Has anyone ever tested the 138mm against the Phase 240mm Blue Ring lens?
Just curious to know as this may be my next lens to aquire.

 

[Paul Spinnler]

I have the Phase 240 - it is optically not comparable to the technical camera teles ... technical camera teles are significantly better optically IMHO. The 138 is a whole other class overall, one cut above the other technical camera lenses. It is the state of the art with crystal clear rendition across the frame, fully apochromatically corrected. The colours pop as if had added a polarizer onto the lens.

The allure of the 240 is focus stacking and AF in my view. Ie if you want to do a headshot, for example. In the center of the frame it is ok, so this to me is the main use case.

 

[Steve Hendrix]

The 138mm lens is a unique lens in numerous ways. Cost - the most expensive Rodenstock available. Design - Has a floating element design. Performance - I don't think there is any lens that matches it.

When it comes to performance, I like to quantify. I shot an early test against the 90 HR-SW and the 138mm seemed to eek out a slight advantage. A few weekends ago, I shot a very basic test against an Actar 120mm and an APO Sironar 120mm. I was intrigued by the 120mm APO Sironar. I've had very few sales of this lens, but some years back, one of my clients who owned one sent it in with their other lenses for conversion to X Shutter and as we tested it, we were pleasantly surprised at the performance.

So I wanted to re-visit this lens, since it is now down to $2,614 in our Rodenstock lens sale, a very very reasonable price. And last weekend I took those 3 lenses out for a quick test, I included the Actar 120 for a similar comparative and the 138mm for what we really would want to see for ideal results at a nearby focal length.

Rodenstock 12 Days of Christmas Sale Pricing

The 120mm APO Sironar outperformed the 120 Actar at larger shift, but it also produced flare. It was the only lens that was shot when the sun peaked out from the cloud, so I don't know if it is more or less prone to flare than other Rodenstocks.

The 138mm was clearly in another category. But it reminded me of a test I did a few weeks prior with the 90 HR-SW and the 70 HR-W. The 70 fulfilled its reputation as a very solid, if not cutting edge tech camera optic at a reasonable price, but the 90 just surpassed it, and most noticeably when shifted 20mm. It just looked perfect. And that is what the 138mm lens looks like when you shift it (even though there is no such thing as a perfect lens).

I'm interested in testing the 180mm lens against the 138mm, maybe in the next week or two, it's been rainy here.


Steve Hendrix/CI

 

[Paul Spinnler]

My impression when testing the lens was that the contrast and colours were something else. The only other lenses I ever tested which had this punch were the Leica Apo S lenses, namely the 120 and 180. They are designated as APO by Leica although all S lenses are basically APO to a high degree already; this said, the 120 and 180 have an extra level of clarity so the 138 felt exactly like that compared to the other Rodies.

Without knowing specifics, it seems to me they are using first class apochromatic glass types in the lens which might also contribute to the cost and fantastic results.

The greenery had a beautiful saturation and the lens resolved the finest details edge to edge.

Extraordinary.

Clearly a notch above the other HR lenses and by extension several notches above the Blue Ring 240 …

 

[Smoothjazz]

Steve,

Did you ever get the chance to test the 138 lens against the 180mm? The reason I ask is that the 180mm would be a better focal length in my lens progression- unless the 138mm is far better and could be cropped/enlarged to match the 138 without any loss of detail.

Thanks,

John

 

[Smoothjazz]

Meant to say match the 180mm...

 

[Steve Hendrix]

Meant to say match the 180mm...

I've not tested the 138 HR-SW against the 180 HR-S, but I have tested it against the 90 HR-SW, which I felt was the most logical comparison, given that the 90 HR-SW would be the best performing optic, previous to the 138 HR-SW. I found the 138 to ever so slightly out-resolve the 90 HR-SW.


Steve Hendrix/CI

 

[Paul Spinnler]

@Smoothjazz Did you see my thread on this here? It gives a good indication I feel ... Although I don't own a 180mm lens, the 138 almost captures the same detail as my 210T so should exceed or equate the 180mm IMHO.

The 138mm is bitingly sharp - almost pixel level. It is one step above the rest and therefore punches above its "mm" weight so to say in my view.

Alpagon 138 X-shutter vs. SK Apo Digitar 210 T

Hi guys Today I took delivery of the world's first x-shutter 138 HR lens from Alpa and it is a stunner both in terms of looks and performance. In another thread I had raised the point that the 138 HR could potentially replace all focal lengths above it till 210, costs aside, so clearly I...

www.getdpi.com