Arca-Swiss DSLR lens Equivalent

[Alun]

I shoot landscapes and looking at my metadata I shoot more often than not in the 18-22mm range on my D800. If you could buy just one lens (initially) for the Arca-Swiss RM3di with a Leaf Aptus 7 back, which focal length would be "equivalent" to my DSLR?

[gazwas]

Thats pretty wide so you'll need to be looking at 28mm lenses.

Schneider Super Digitar 28mm or Rodenstock HR-S 28mm. Both excellent optics on the Aptus 7 but both have issues, especially of you ever go for a full frame chipped back.

[torger]

18-22 would be 25-31. The Schneider 28 is probably the best price/performance in this focal length range for the Aptus-II 7 you can find. A fine thing with the Aptus-II 7 is that it handles technical wide angle lenses well which is not at all true for all backs out there, and the Schneider 28 requires one.

[Paul2660]

A Rodenstock or Schneider 28mm on a non-cropped medium format back would have an equivalent FOV of about a 17mm lens on your D800.  There is a very good review of the Schneider and Rodenstock on www.getdpi.com written by Guy Mancuso.  It's either in the review section or medium format section.  I don't know if your aptus 7 has a cropped sensor or not.   

Each lens seems to have some issues.  I have used the Rodenstock 28mm HR-S on a IQ160 with the rm3di and it's an amazing lens.  You will only get about 5mm of shift before you hit the hard disk that Rodenstock places inside the lens to show you the "edge of the image circle", I would rather not have the disk.  I also feel that the Rodenstock 28mm has some issues when shifted with the Rodenstock CF.  It seems as if you pick a reflection of the filter in the upper corners.  On a blue sky this effect is very apparent and even with a LCC processed, you really can't get rid of the problem. 

Sharpness and clarity of the Rodenstock is excellent. 

Paul

[Alun]

Thanks for the replies - very helpful

[Doug Peterson]

If you'd like a visual representation of the above you can use our visualizer:
http://www.digitaltransitions.com/visualizer/visualizer.html

It's in Beta right now, and in the beta is limited to around 28mm lens on a digital back. In the final version we will allow up to a 23mm on a digital back to be visualized.

[favalim]

I shoot landscapes and looking at my metadata I shoot more often than not in the 18-22mm range on my D800. If you could buy just one lens (initially) for the Arca-Swiss RM3di with a Leaf Aptus 7 back, which focal length would be "equivalent" to my DSLR?

This is an excellent free software: http://www.stegmann.dk/mikkel/barnack/

[Brian Hirschfeld]

If you'd like a visual representation of the above you can use our visualizer:
http://www.digitaltransitions.com/visualizer/visualizer.html

It's in Beta right now, and in the beta is limited to around 28mm lens on a digital back. In the final version we will allow up to a 23mm on a digital back to be visualized.

Was just going to suggest this, you got to it first