Rodenstock HR Digaron-W 50mm f4 (X-Shutter)

The Rodenstock 50mm f/4 HR Digaron-W Lens is a wide angle lens specifically designed for use with digital backs, which require a smaller image circle with extreme resolution, colour correction, and maximum performance at a large aperture. This lens is recommended for use with backs having a 40 x 54mm maximum image area, and provides a view similar to that of a 32mm lens on a 35mm format camera.

In many cases, digital photography is superior to conventional photography if the desired end product is a printed image. To achieve this ideal, however, a much higher demand is made upon the image reproduction quality of the lens. This is because of a digital image chip’s smaller area, which means finer details in a scene are squeezed into a smaller image recording area, as well as their sensitivity to color fringes.

But Rodenstock’s digitally-specific lenses such as this HR Digaron-W provide image quality which allows the maximum capacity of a digital back to be realized. The lens utilizes every technological possibility to get as close as possible to the absolute limits of diffraction- determined resolution, even accounting for the properties and thickness of a CCD’s protective glass. With the HR Digaron-W, you can use digital backs with a pixel pitch as small as 5µ.

Despite this lens’ shorter focal length, it provides adequate flange focal length extension and spacing between the rear of the barrel and the image receiving area to permit unrestricted use on nearly any camera which accepts a medium format digital back. Because it is designed for a view camera without an optical concession to clear a camera’s mirror box (such as in an SLR camera’s lens), this lens is commonly adapted to be used with DSLR cameras because of its remarkable resolution.