Nikon LS3510AF scanner: Lens under test

[ray_parkhurst]

I have removed the lens and will be testing it. Content below for reference only.

I have a Nikon LS3510AF scanner to offer:

Has basic windows drivers and a SCSI card, with various film holders, manual, etc. A nice complete unit for someone who wants to actually scan film.

Robert was working on a review of the 50mm lens from this scanner but never finished. He was very positive about it in communications with him and possibly on the forum.

Shipping weight will be ~20lbs.

[bbobby]

Can you get out the lens or too much work?

[ray_parkhurst]

Can you get out the lens or too much work?

I could, but then I'd probably sell it for more, though with the shipping cost it might be about the same. I just hate to be the one to scrap a (supposedly) working scanner for the lens since I don't really need it.

I guess if I end up pulling the lens, I'll do some tests on it, so that might be valuable. I'm not sure how far along Robert's testing went. He does have a page devoted to the lens, but behind a password I don't have.

[simplejoy]

Can you get out the lens or too much work?

The lens is very easy to remove. But as ray has mentioned it always feels bad to remove something from a working device. That being said, how many Minolta DiMage scan elite scanners have been gutted in order to get the lens out? I would reckon quite a few... and that certainly still seems like a very viable scanner, while the Nikon LS3510AF seems quite limited in terms of efficency.

I could, but then I'd probably sell it for more, though with the shipping cost it might be about the same. I just hate to be the one to scrap a (supposedly) working scanner for the lens since I don't really need it.

I guess if I end up pulling the lens, I'll do some tests on it, so that might be valuable. I'm not sure how far along Robert's testing went. He does have a page devoted to the lens, but behind a password I don't have.

I wouldn‘t feel too bad about a scanner like that. It might be usable still but these particular devices seem quite hard to set up and is clearly limited by some parts of the ancient hard- and software. So it seems like the lens isn‘t really put to good use in there anyway these days.

I think if you make some tests and then sell the lens for a reasonable price someone can still use ut to digitize slides and might get significantly better results than with the working scanner.

I personally love that lens - but I‘m no scientific lens tester, as you know! I‘ve talked about that lens here and there with Robert and asked him how it compared to one of his recent favorite 50 mm lenses (the Lasergraphics MTF 50 mm f/3.5). He basically told me that they were both so excellent that it was hard to say. Told me the Lasergraphics had a bigger magnification range, while the LS-3510 AF lens was perhaps slightly better corrected.

As you've surely noticed he mentioned a couple of details about the LS-3510 AF lens in this comparison: https://www.closeuphotography.com/prime ... -lens-test

But while it's stated there that the lens is 51 mm f/3.6 in that comparison, he later told me that was due to some miscalculation and that the actual specs were 51 mm f/3.9 While that certainly doesn't make it the fastest lens around, I still think that it holds up exceptionally well.

In my humble opinion it's absolutely worth it to try the lens - as stated above, it's very easy to remove.

I have lots of shots made with that lens, but as usual no significant comparison. I also don't have the Lasergraphics MTF 50 mm lens, which would be the most interesting in my opinion, somewhere around 1:1 perhaps or slightly higher... I suspect you've got both (+ more) so if you ever get around to testing it, I would be very interested.

[ray_parkhurst]

I gave up on selling the whole unit and went ahead and removed the lens. The unit also has an interesting linear stage that moved the slide to be scanned across the line-scan CCD.

I plan to do some testing on the lens. Turns out I already had one of these (with adapter) but didn't recognize where it came from, so I have two to test.

[mightimatti]

Hi Ray,
I'm in Europe, so unfortunately shipping the scanner would probably be prohibitively expensive.
Seeing that my focus is scanning film and Robert seemed to hold this lens in high regards, I'd be very interested in the lens, should you decide to sell just that.
Regards,
m.