Scanner Nikkor vs Canon MP-E 65 Test at 1.3x

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RobertOToole
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Scanner Nikkor vs Canon MP-E 65 Test at 1.3x

Post by RobertOToole »

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Working on 5 or more different projects at once, somehow I managed to finish one. My Scanner Nikkor finally made it back from the machine shop where they machined the lens down 0.5mm to press fit a Thorlabs SM1 threaded sleeve.

The first lens I thought to compare is my old faithful Canon MP-E 65.

Both lenses were shot at 1.3x. I found this magnification gave me the best results from 1x to 1.5x on the Nikkor. The MP-E was shot from f/2.8 to f/5.6. F/4 was the sharpest aperture at 1.3x. Both lenses were focus bracketed over a wide range of points. The sharpest images were used for the selected 100% crops.

The original post on my site: https://www.closeuphotography.com/scann ... ment-lens/

The test set-up

Camera: Sony ILCE-6300, also known as: A6300
Sensor size: 23.5 × 15.6 mm. APS-C. 28.21 mm diagonal. 3.92 micron sensor pitch
Flash: Godox TT350s wireless flash x 2 with one Godox X1s 2.4G wireless flash transmitter

The Canon MP-E 65 was used on the Sony with a Sigma MC-11 E-mount to EOS adapter. The Scanner Nikkor ED 7 element lens was mounted on my 42mm studio set-up, for more information on the setup used for this test, follow this link: https://www.closeuphotography.com/42mm-setup

The Sony ?6300 camera used for the test was vertically mounted on a Nikon MM-11 stand. Manual mode was used at ISO 100. To avoid any sharpness loss due to vibration I used the two Godox TT350s wireless flash, at 1/128th to 1/16th power triggered by a Godox X1s 2.4G wireless flash trigger/transmitter. The flashes remained in place for the entire test to avoid changes in light angle, the flash was mounted on a flash bracket bolted to an optical breadboard shooting into a 4-3/4 inch (12 cm) Godox plastic half dome diffuser placed over the target.

Each lens was focus bracketed and the single sharpest image for the center and corner were chosen at 100% view in Photoshop. All images were shot as RAW Sony ARW files and processed in PS CC with all noise reduction and lens correction turned off, all settings were zeroed out (true zero) and the same settings were used for all of the images.

Please remember this information is not a sales pitch to sell you a lens, I am not trying to convert anyone over to Canon or Nikon, I don't make any income if you buy one of these lenses or not. I am sharing this info for your information only. Hope you enjoy the results, I know I did.

Crop areas in green.

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100% center crop.

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100% corner crop.

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100% edge crop

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OOF focus crop to show LoCAs

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Sorry but it looks like if I post the links to the full size crops the forum software will not preview or post the topic. Maybe there is a link limit?

Anyway, questions and comments welcome.

Robert

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