The Schneider 120mm f/5.6 Apo Digitar M Lens is a macro specialist lens for large format digital backs, which require smaller but extremely resolved and color correct image circles. No matter how good a conventional-distance lens is, it cannot compete with a macro specialist when shooting at high reproduction ratios. Digital backs also benefit from use of larger apertures to avoid image degradation from diffraction, and this 120mm Apo Digitar M is designed to be used wide open at f/5.6 (but you can stop down to f/8 at 1:1, and to f/11 at distances further than 1:2). This version of the lens is mounted to a conventional Copal #0 shutter.
The 120mm Digitar M is appropriate for use with backs as large as 63x63mm, and upon such backs it records an image area similar to that of a 107mm lens upon a 6x6 format camera. Because it provides its best images at the maximum aperture along with enough rear flange back to easily clear an internal mirror, it can also be adapted for use with 35mm-size digital SLR cameras or 6x6 and 645 format film backs. In doing so, it provides superior image quality versus any dedicated SLR lens, because it was not designed with the engineering limitations presented by an optical path unnecessarily elongated to clear an internal viewfinder mirror.
In many cases, digital photography is superior to conventional photography when the desired end product is a print. But to achieve this ideal, high demands are made upon a lens' image reproduction quality. This is because of a digital image chip's small image receiving area, which demands that a scene's fine details are squeezed into a smaller image recording area. The Digitar M will capably maximize your digital back's capacity.