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 »

Update: Clicking on a 100% crop image will open a new window with a full size 1500 pixel version, thank you Rik!

Image

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.

The Sony A6300 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.

Image

100% center crop.

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100% corner crop.



Image


100% edge crop


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OOF focus crop to show LoCAs


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Anyway, questions and comments welcome.

Robert
Last edited by RobertOToole on Sun Feb 11, 2018 8:08 pm, edited 5 times in total.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Scanner Nikkor looks superb!
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?
No, there is no limit on links. The symptoms that you're describing result from certain malformed url tags. For example, the following line causes this post to preview as blank, if it is not contained in a code block:

Code: Select all

[url]http://janrik.net/RiksLinks.html]Rik's Links[/url]
The malformation in this case is that the first ] should be an =, like this:

Code: Select all

[url=http://janrik.net/RiksLinks.html]Rik's Links[/url]
which without the code block yields
Rik's Links

--Rik

RobertOToole
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Post by RobertOToole »

Thanks for the advice with the links Rik. Sent you a PM for more help with that.

The Scanner Nikkor do perform well, and the CA correction is superb.

When I first decided to try the lower end Scanner Nikkor ED lens. I had no idea of what the 7 element lens even looked like, but I bought 4 of the lenses anyway. The first 3 were $25 each, then I bought a Coolscan VI scanner for $50 and pulled the lens.

Taking a quick look at Ebay those types of deals are over it looks like. The cheapest ED scanners are over $200 now but that is still a deal considering the level of correction with these lenses.

FYI, the 7 element Scanner Nikkor are only in these scanners:

Coolscan IV ED LS-40
Coolscan V ED LS-50
Super Coolscan 4000 ED LS-4000ED
Super Coolscan 5000 ED LS-5000ED

The 4000 is the most common.

Thanks again,

Robert

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

This is a fascinating test result, thanks for doing it for us. I am surprised you were able to get them for $25, because these scanners have an excellent reputation, and that had to be due mainly to their lens.

RobertOToole
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Post by RobertOToole »

Lou Jost wrote:This is a fascinating test result, thanks for doing it for us. I am surprised you were able to get them for $25, because these scanners have an excellent reputation, and that had to be due mainly to their lens.
I normally don't give away my secrets Lou, but for you... :D

I found one Ebay seller that looked like a pro 'ScannerShop' or something and messaged him. He said yeah sure I have 3 of the lenses in stock! So I grabbed them.

After testing the lenses, maybe a month later, and after posting on PM.net. I messaged hm again and asked for more. He said "you know for some reason the market got really tight all of a sudden, its weird, the supply dried up"

ray_parkhurst
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Post by ray_parkhurst »

Interesting comparison. I'm very surprised that the corner of APS-C is so degraded on both lenses, especially the MPE and with very bad CA. The edges look fine but there is apparently rapid degradation on both lenses from edge to corner. How much focal plane curvature do you see with these at the corner?

RobertOToole
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Post by RobertOToole »

ray_parkhurst wrote:Interesting comparison. I'm very surprised that the corner of APS-C is so degraded on both lenses, especially the MPE and with very bad CA. The edges look fine but there is apparently rapid degradation on both lenses from edge to corner. How much focal plane curvature do you see with these at the corner?
Hi Ray,

I think the corners on the scanner niikor are good, but then again I am looking at PSD/Tiffs, not sure if the online Jpegs can show all the detail due to compression.

The MP-E always needs a separate corner frame, it is not completely flat. In this case the edge was okay but the corner was a different image.

The Scanner nikkors, both 7 and 14 element are both flat, they need only one shot. That is of course if you have a parallel stage and sensor :D

Robert

ray_parkhurst
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Post by ray_parkhurst »

Silly me, I downloaded the OOF images instead of the corner ones. Never mind...

RobertOToole
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Post by RobertOToole »

ray_parkhurst wrote:Silly me, I downloaded the OOF images instead of the corner ones. Never mind...
Oh, thats nothing.

Once I searched the office for 40 min looking everywhere for a Scitex S-3 lens that I just shot with the day before.

Finally found it days later, installed inside the extension tube backwards, and right in front of me the whole time. :shock:

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