FAQ: which lenses are good at more than 1X in a bench setup?

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NikonUser
Posts: 2693
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:03 am
Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Post by NikonUser »

The 50mm f2.8 Bronica Zenzanon-E reversed on bellows for 2.36-5.76x magnification with good working distance
HERE

The old 28/3.5 Nikkor wide angle, reversed on bellows ; great at 4.3x magnification
HERE
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

NikonUser
Posts: 2693
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:03 am
Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Post by NikonUser »

Photos of Nikon CF Plan 2x, and CF N Plan 4x, 10x, 40x
and
Nikon CF M Plan 5x, 10x. 20x ELWD, 40x ELWD
ON THIS PAGE
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

rjlittlefield
Site Admin
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Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
Contact:

Post by rjlittlefield »

Here is a related question that comes up occasionally.
I hear a lot about "enlarging lenses". What exactly are those things and what makes them better than say reversing normal lenses?
Enlarging lenses are short-barrel lenses with manual apertures and simple screw mounts, optically corrected to work best at short distances by themselves with no other optics needed.

They were originally designed to be used for making large prints from small film, hence "enlarging". A good example is the 50 mm f/2.8 EL Nikkor lens. This was excellent for printing 35 mm film (36 mm x 24 mm format) to sizes ranging from 6 inch x 4 inch snapshots up to say 24 inch x 16 inch large prints. For this use, it was important that the lens have flat field and deliver good sharpness corner to corner at magnifications in the range of 4-16X (film to print).

When this lens is reversed and used for macro photography over a small field, it probably out-resolves most crop-factor sensors at 2X and remains quite good even up to 5X. Beyond there, its aperture is too small to compete with microscope objectives and specialized high resolution macro lenses that are optimized to deliver higher resolution over a smaller field.

Compared to a lens "combo" (short lens reversed in front of long lens), it's impossible to say without testing whether a reversed enlarger lens will give higher quality. Some combos have excellent resolution and lack of chromatic aberration; some don't.

The main advantage of a good enlarging lens reversed on bellows is flexibility combined with high quality and low cost. The set in front of me right now gives field width from 18 mm down to 5 mm (using a 23 mm sensor). This is not as convenient nor quite as wide a range as the specialized Canon MP-E 65 (1X-5X), but on the other hand it's about 10X cheaper.

--Rik

SONYNUT
Posts: 635
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2011 2:27 pm
Location: Minnesota USA

Post by SONYNUT »

the best I have for the price (15 bucks) so far is a good old el-nikkor 50 4.

an old film container snaps right in the front as a shade,,just slice the bottom off..

mounted on a sony a55 with minolta bellows

unretouched stacked pics

Image

Image

Image
Last edited by SONYNUT on Tue Feb 08, 2011 11:20 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Just shoot it......


Harold Gough
Posts: 5786
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 2:17 am
Location: Reading, Berkshire, England

Post by Harold Gough »

I would like to thank those who have contributed to this FAQ.

A few years ago I was very impressed by published images taken via a Taylor Hobson 12.5mm f2.7 but I have yet to be able to track one down.

Harold
My images are a medium for sharing some of my experiences: they are not me.

Harold Gough
Posts: 5786
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 2:17 am
Location: Reading, Berkshire, England

Post by Harold Gough »

Find some data here:

http://www.macrolenses.de/

Harold
My images are a medium for sharing some of my experiences: they are not me.

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