I have a choice of buying a used 210/5.6 Symmar($350) and brand new 210/5.6 APO Symmar ($780). Could you, guy advise, is it the new and APO-ed one worth being paid for more than twicw the price? Is the older one much inferior. I will be grateful for your comments(better within a week). Toly

-- Anatoly Kasyan (akasyan@hotmail.com), January 11, 2002

Answers

Can't comment on the 210, but the 180 Apo is a superb lens! I tried a used 180 Symar S but was much impressed with the Apo version. However, if funds are tight, I would imagine the Symmar versions are well worth the money.

-- paul owen (paulowen_2000@yahoo.com), January 11, 2002.

The APO is a beautiful sharp lens. If you are using color then it might be worth the extra money.

-- Josh Divack (jdivack@worldnet.att.net), January 11, 2002.

Hi Anatoly

Its a tricky question. I have an old Symmar not MC from the 1970 and it is deadly sharp and has no problem against my newer Rodenstock N 150mm MC only the sun is somewhere in the picture or just a bit otside of it then are the MCs better. But if it is also a MC version I would not to much care about the APO! If you have the badest APO version then it could be worser then the a better version with no APO. Good luck!

-- Armin Seeholzer (armin.seeholzer@smile.ch), January 11, 2002.

Anatoly, I (like countless others) own a Symmar-S 210, and it is a great lens. $350 is also an excellent price! Sure, the APO is a better lens, but enough to pass up a great deal on a great lens? If money is no object, get the APO, otherwise, I think you'll be very happy with the Symmar-S.

-- Todd Caudle (todd@skylinepress.com), January 11, 2002.

Anatoly, I bought a MINT Symmar 210 5.6 (1970 vintage) on ebay for $200 including S&H. Just something to think about.

-- Dennis Gazso (dgazso@southbendnc.com), January 11, 2002.

"Anatoly, I (like countless others) own a Symmar-S 210, and it is a great lens. $350 is also an excellent price! " yes, but this is a plain symmar, not the S. If you shoot color, you should shop for an apo symmar in second hand. Do you really need a 180, i've got one apo symmar 180 (image circle of 263mm, weight 385 g, filter size 58, copal 1)and love it, but sometime i think that the 150 apo sironar S (image circle of 231mm, weight only 250 g, filter size 49 only, copal 0) is a very good alternative for back packing !!! by the way, if price is important, the best value for money are the late sironar N MC, they are suppose to be the same as the apo sironar N !

-- dg (sacripant@online.fr), January 11, 2002.

Some years ago I had a chance to test the two lenses you mention side- by-side. I had to decide whether to replace my Symmar-S (MC) with the newer APO-Symmar (which was available to me used at an attractive price). My tests determined, in the case of the two samples I was examining, that the APO-Symmar was ever so slightly sharper. It was certainly not a night-and-day difference and, although I did buy the APO-Symmar, I would not have if I had been forced to buy new. The Symmar-S (MC) is still a *very* good lens.

-- James Meckley (jmeckley@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu), January 11, 2002.