How good are alternatives (clones) to Mitutoyo lenses

[lothman]

Thanks, I made this.

a little bit fast but thanks. For the new Version you are using another spot as for the other two lenses, see dust particles..

[Adalbert]

Hello everyone,

Before I decided to buy the Mitties, I was using NIKON lenses.
First BE Plan 4x , 10x then LU Plan 5x, 10x, 20x.

I bought the two BE Plan's directly from NIKON (45 / 75 Euro).
They deliver super performance at a low price.

In large ABM's I still use such exotics as:
- Mitutoyo M 50 / 0.65 / ∞
- Union Optical PL M 100x / 0.90 ∞
- Lomo Apo F-4,3 / 0.95
- Reichert Plan Fluor 100x / 0.95 ∞
But also Olympus:
- MS Plan 50 / 0.55 / ∞ ULWD
- UMPlanFl 50x / 0.80 / ∞
- Neo Splan 80 / 0.75 / ∞ ULWD

So it doesn't always have to be Mitutoyo :-)
And you can get most of them cheaper than the clones of Mitties.

Best, ADi

[Scarodactyl]

Thanks, I made this.
I would say the newer copy is on the same level as the Mitutoyo and clearly better than the older one. I brightened the Mitutoyo a little to not penalise the "Mitutoyo alternative".
Are they really brandless?

Nice! For on-microscope usage aps-c is sometimes more achievable than full frame anyway so this could be very useful. The only question now is whether they are more likely to send a good copy or a bad copy.

[Macro_Cosmos]

Thanks, I made this.

a little bit fast but thanks. For the new Version you are using another spot as for the other two lenses, see dust particles..

Yeah, it's not one-to-one, lighting was a bit inconsistent too among the frames, but all three fell comfortably outside of the 30mm acceptable circle. I set the interval to 0.5 seconds, it might be literally blinking depending on the browser.

I'd honestly say it's a real good performer. If you just presented the two shots on a screen's level (Nue vs. Mit), I will be inclined to say Nue is better due to very slightly higher contrast. Now the question, how's their return policy? "Alt" was clearly a bad copy. (alt means old in German, I think)

Hopefully someone tries out the 20x, always the trickiest from my experience. I have handled how many 20x metallurgical objectives? They were all kind of mediocre.

[Scarodactyl]

I'm curious too. I recently got a motic 20x that I need to test against my mitutoyo. I will say my mitutoyo has never struck me as particularly mediocre though.
Still, I think the 50x/0.65 has my greatest attention. Halfway between a normal 50x and a 50x HR while maintaining good working distance. If it actually performs well it would fill a very desireable niche.

[lothman]

I'd honestly say it's a real good performer. If you just presented the two shots on a screen's level (Nue vs. Mit), I will be inclined to say Nue is better due to very slightly higher contrast. Now the question, how's their return policy? "Alt" was clearly a bad copy. (alt means old in German, I think)

Correct alt=old=V1. But for me Mitutoyo has better contrast and sharpness and much better sharpness in the corners. The Laowa 2,5-5x is on the same level as the V2-Version but has better edge quality. For the lightning, I used diffused LED-Panels and a cylinder from tracing paper as additional diffuser. There should be only very little change in lightning. But camera exposure might vary. With the Mitutoyo I get brighter whites and deeper blacks. Later I will do a crop from a singe frame.

Edit: new crop added, selected from the sharpest pic in image centre (14µm steps)

[Klavs]

Here is the 50x 0.65 alternative.
My first test with the Sony 70-350 at 200 mm on aps-c. And my first test with this kind of objective.
There is a lot of vignetting but the contrast and sharpness is ok I think.

100% crop

[Scarodactyl]

Cool! The vignetting could be from using a zoom lens at less than maximum zoom--have you used this lens at 200mm as a tube lens before?

It does look quite promising, though the corners on APS-C are going to be pretty critical for judging it. You're also getting a fair amount of noise which might indicate too high an ISO.

[Klavs]

The vignetting is from the Zoom. Here is it with the Raynox150 at infinity.

[rjlittlefield]

It's nice to see the vignetting gone. What is image quality in the corners now?

--Rik

[Klavs]

Here is 100% crops of the center and the corners.

[lothman]

Here is 100% crops of the center and the corners.

Hi Klavs,
thanks for testing, looks promising but the shots a rather noisy. Do you have some sample shot at low ISO?

regards
Lothar

P.S.: do you need a piece of a SI-Waver as flat test target? I could send it to you to Denmark.

[Klavs]

Hi Lothar
The shots are taken at 320 iso. I think that most of the noise is coming from the stacking with Affinity.
It is my first attempts with tube lenses. So I have a lot to learn.
And I do need a prober test target and will be happy receiving a piece of SI-Waver.

Thank you very much in advance.
Best regards Klavs

[chris_ma]

hmm, that noise looks rather strange..
can you maybe upload a single frame raw file somewhere?

[Klavs]

Here is a jpg:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/146967032 ... ed-public/