Two pages on scanner lenses

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enricosavazzi
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Two pages on scanner lenses

Post by enricosavazzi »

I wrote two pages about film scanner lenses on my web site, one about general considerations, the other about the lens of the Polaroid Sprintscan 4000. Eventually a page on the lens of the Nikon Coolscan 8000 will also be available, but it is not in a hurry since plenty of information on this lens is already available.

The pages are not yet linked to the rest of the site. A few things can still change, and a few images added, but you are welcome to look in the mean time.

http://savazzi.net/photography/scanner_lenses.html
http://savazzi.net/photography/sprintscan_4000.html
--ES

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

Nice to see these lenses getting more attention. A few suggestions:

"In online discussions (see above links), these lenses have been called "Scanner Nikkor ED" or "scanner Nikkor". As far as I am concerned, "scanner Nikkor" is good enough to identify these lenses in the present discussion."

This convention throws away important information. Scanner Nikkor lenses that have the ED label are definitely made with ED glass elements; Scanner Nikkor lenses without that label may not have ED glass and therefore may not be as well corrected against color aberrations.

"you probably should expect equally good results at magnifications far from their design parameters"

I suspect you left out a "not" after "should"?

"Although the lenses used in the best Nikon Coolscan models are indeed excellent, it is likely that the lenses of the best film scanners by other brands are comparable in image quality. These scanners, when available "for parts" at heavily discounted prices, may be an interesting source of high-quality lenses...The main specification you should care about is the optical resolution of the scanner, sometimes called native resolution. This is the non-interpolated resolution of the sensor (and hopefully, but not necessarily, the lens)."

In general the optical resolution of many scanner lenses is far less than the resolution of the scanner sensor, though the latter is the only number specified in most scanner spec sheets. A website devoted to actual testing of scanner resolution (http://www.filmscanner.info/en/Aufloesung.html) found that Nikon was one of the few manufacturers whose sensor resolution specs closely matched the real resolution of the output files. Most other scanners created large files but the file size was not fully utilized; downsizing did not reduce resolved detail, because the optics were not good enough to match the sensor resolution. From the site: "There are film scanner of a high quality that exactly meet the specified resolution, and there are other devices that in the practice do not achieve even 50% of the resolution stated in the data sheet. Many times, the cheap flat bed scanners with a transparency unit achieve in the practice only 30% of the nominal resolution."

Nevertheless another scanner that may be worth looking at is the Minolta DiMage San Elite 2 5400 dpi. There is a report in German on this scanner at the website mentioned above, but I did not try to read it.

Edit: I just read the Minolta review using Google Translate, and the measured actual resolution is 4200dpi, slightly higher than that of the Nikkor Scanner ED. But image circle is just 24mm, not 60mm as Nikon.
Last edited by Lou Jost on Mon Oct 30, 2017 5:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

RobertOToole
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Post by RobertOToole »

Very interesting scanner information on your site Enrico, lots of good information.

Thanks for letting us know about it.

Also thanks for the link to my Scanner Nikkor ED page.

We should start a scanner lens list so people don't waste time and money on poor lens choices. I tried a Minolta Scanner, not the Elite 2 or the Multi-scan but the scanner IV and it was a mistake. The lens was encased in plastic and the lens was only 14mm OD, similar to a fiche lens. It took me 40 minutes with a chisel and hammer to even get the lens out of the carrier, I should have saved time and just thrown it in the trash can at the start.

Robert

RobertOToole
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Post by RobertOToole »

Lou Jost wrote:

....In general the optical resolution of many scanner lenses is far less than the resolution of the scanner sensor, though the latter is the only number specified in most scanner spec sheets. A website devoted to actual testing of scanner resolution (http://www.filmscanner.info/en/Aufloesung.html) found that Nikon was one of the few manufacturers whose sensor resolution specs closely matched the real resolution of the output files. Most other scanners created large files but the file size was not fully utilized; downsizing did not reduce resolved detail, because the optics were not good enough to match the sensor resolution. From the site: "There are film scanner of a high quality that exactly meet the specified resolution, and there are other devices that in the practice do not achieve even 50% of the resolution stated in the data sheet. Many times, the cheap flat bed scanners with a transparency unit achieve in the practice only 30% of the nominal resolution."
......
Very good points Lou and I agree that Filmscanner site is a valuable source.

I have spent a lot of time on that site, pouring over the test results, and you can see that an amazingly few scanners actually came close to meeting the manufacturers resolution specs.

Robert

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

I have a Polaroid CS5000 scanner to dismantle. Anyone ever played with one of those? They scan film up to 5"x4".
Chris R

RobertOToole
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Post by RobertOToole »

ChrisR wrote:I have a Polaroid CS5000 scanner to dismantle. Anyone ever played with one of those? They scan film up to 5"x4".

I didn't even know they made a 5000 model. You can send it to me, I will pull it apart and test the lens :-)

CS5000, hmmmm, what other top secret projects you working on over there Chris?

Robert

RobertOToole
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Post by RobertOToole »

ChrisR wrote:I have a Polaroid CS5000 scanner to dismantle. Anyone ever played with one of those? They scan film up to 5"x4".
Chris, you sure thats not a Polaroid CS-500i Scanner, rather than CS-5000?

If its the CS-500 its only 500 dpi or so! :(

Robert

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