I do most of my landscapes with a 4x5 Tachihara and a Schneider 210 and have lately been looking for a wider lens for closer quarters.(specifically Antelope Canyon).
I thought about an older lens like the Ektar 127, and got some good advice from this group, but I don't like the idea of having just enough coverage without movements.
So I am considering a used 90mm for that purpose.
I have few questions that I can't seem to find answers for, and am hoping some of you can enlighten me a bit.

1. How long has the Rodenstock (Grandagon?)90 been manufactured? Are they all multi-coated, or are there old single-coats lurking out there?
2. Can this lens be used successfully without an expensive center filter, or is the falloff too apparent?
3. Are there vignetting problems when using standard screw-in filters?
and
4. as long as I'm on the topic, is this too wide for slot canyon work - should I think more like 150mm?

Thanks in advance.

-- Matt O. (mojo@moscow.com), March 23, 2002

Answers

Matt,

I can answer one of your questions! 90mm is not at all too short for slot canyon work IMHO. When I venture into a slot canyon with a 35mm system, I take a 24mm (`~75mm in 4x5), a 35, and a 50mm although the 50 sees little use. Enjoy!

-- Nicholas Fiduccia (nfiduccia@earthlink.net), March 24, 2002.

Consider a 120mm S.A., or perhaps a 121mm S.A., which is the single-coated version.

-- neil poulsen (neil.fg@att.net), March 24, 2002.

I've used a 90mmm Grandagon-N (f/6.8) for about 15 years, and it was secondhand when I got it! I guess it dates from about the mid 1970s, and it's fully multicoated - I think all the 'N' versions are. I believe there were plain vanilla Grandagons made earlier which were single coated.
A 90 mm lens on 5x4 gives you about the same angle-of-view, across the long side of the frame, as a 28mm lens on 35mm. So, it's not really that wide.
The light fall-off isn't too severe unless the lens is shifted fairly drastically, and then a centre-filter is desirable, though maybe still not essential.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), March 25, 2002.