Just purchased a 150 lens (crome), to compliment my Hasselblad (500c) with a normal (80) lens. I am reading that this particular lens is great, others claim it's on the soft side. My 80 is as sharp a lens as I have seen, can I expect the same from the 150, or should I return it? Looking for comments on the 150 as far as sharpness...

-- John Clark (john.e.clark@starstream.net), November 08, 2000

Answers

You may wish to ask this on the MF page: http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a?topic_id=35

However, I'll give you a quick answer here. I have both lenses in the Rollei SL66 mount. The 150 is the same design but there may be detail differences between the 80's.

The 80 is a symetrical gauss derived design which gives it the edge when close focussing. The 150 definitely is not as good in this regime because it is a simpler design and has been optimized as a tele lens. I think this is a fine characteristic to have for a portrait lens. Other than that the lenses have similar MTF curves (see the H'blad website) giving similar resolutions. My experience has born this out.

BTW, look at the curves for the older 50 and the 250. I think you'll see they're not as good as the 80 or 150; something that some users have commented on. I've not heard of any complaints on the 150 except when shooting up close.

Cheers,

-- Duane K (dkucheran@creo.com), November 09, 2000.

Greetings,

You may get more responses to this question if you post it on the Medium Format Discussion, but I'll give you my impressions of the Hassy 150. I have an older 150c and while I've never run any kind of test on it (don't need to) it is a sharp lens. The particular lens I have doesn't have the latest and greatest coatings (I think it's single coated, but not sure) so it can exhibit some loss of contrast and flare. I have used the lens in front of extension tubes for macro work and it's very sharp. If you have the older lens, just make sure you use a lens hood and avoid the type of lighting that will reduce contrast. I think this is the only reason someone might say this lens is soft.

Regards,

-- Pete Caluori (pcaluori@hotmail.com), November 09, 2000.

I took a test roll on Fujichrome 100. 150mm Zeiss Sonnar. Shot at all apertures f/4 to f/16, Hassie on tripod. Downtown cityscape. Traffic light was rendered small in the upper left corner. At every aperture from f/4 to f/16, with a 12-power magnifier, I can read "General Signal Corp." on the traffic light. This is no soft lens.

Regards,

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), December 11, 2000.