80XL and BlackJacket Arrived
So I didn’t get out much in the week apart from Monday. I did receive my new Schneider 80XL Super Symmar though only to realise I didn’t have a lens board for a Copal 0 shutter. The lens is beautiful though, very light indeed. The other problem was the filter size, which is normally 67mm but with the IIIb centre filter is 88mm which means the normal Lee filter adapters don’t fit. So, another order to Robert White goes in for an Ebony lens board and a Lee push on adapter with donut spacer. Oh, and while I’m at it I thought I’d order the lens shade clip so I have somewhere to put my ground glass protector.
The next day not only do all of these extra items arrive but so does my BlackJacket. Very good timing as I get to try out the BlackJacket at the same time as the 80XL, which probably needs it. As it turns out, the BlackJacket is fabulous, it’s a cunning design that is made of a material that feels heavy but is in fact quite light. A great combination when it’s hanging on your head (it means it drapes nicely and isn’t affected by the wind much). The 32″ actually does fit over the ebony back, including the rear standard base, although it is quite tight. The gap below the rear standard and the base is covered by the bag that the BlackJacket comes in (see the website for more details).
Mounting the 80XL onto the lens board was a little fraught, although Robert White kindly helped me with simple instructions. They told me one of the critical things which is to remove the grub screw on the front element. They also said that the lens only needs finger tightening up (using two fingernails).
Onto the 80XL. Well, first thing is that it’s not like the 210 symmar where you have a great clear picture that is equal intensity all over the ground glass. There is quite a lot of light fall off that I think is probably normal for a wide angle lens but makes it somewhat difficult to see the whole of the picture in one go. If you look straight one, you can see a ‘hot’ centre spot and the edges are very dark. As you move your head around you get to see the edges better. I’ll have to compare this with other lenses to see if it’s normal. The edges of the 80 are also quite soft at 4.5 although this does sharpen up nicely by f8. You can focus OK at f4.5 but the picture doesn’t snap into focus like the 210 Symmar S. I had a chat with Joe Cornish about it and he said he uses a wide angle fresnel. Robert White also said that Baxter Bradford bought a wide angle fresnel with a new back plate so he could swap easily. I’ve spoken to Maxwell screens about a possible replacement but I’ll focus on getting the basics sorted before I start straying into new screens 
The lens shade clip is a neat device, if a little strange to work with. The one thing I had to do was to stick some foam in the mouth of the clip so it would hold onto the plate better (foam tape is useful for this and many other applications, like stopping your glass protector from rattling).
Finally, the push on filter holder from Lee is a nice bit of kit but I’m now unable to use the polariser whilst using this, although I probably shouldn’t be using it at this wide angle anyway, we’ll see. I think I probably won’t use the centre filter with the 110XL anyway. If needs be, I’ll have to look at getting a dedicated polariser for the push on mount.
I’ll hopefully be getting out with the 80 at the weekend.
