Scitex S-3 scanner lens tests

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ray_parkhurst
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Post by ray_parkhurst »

The S2 110 and S3 110 both did well in my "100mm Shootout", see here:

http://www.macrocoins.com/100mm-lens-shootout.html

Unfortunately, both were shot in forward orientation around 0.75x, so imagine how well they would do shot correctly!

I'm wondering how well the 110 would do for stitching at 1.4x. I have a project looming that requires 1.4x, and I may try it for that. Both the 95PN and 105PN are outside their ranges at 1.4x. I know I could try the 105PN with a 1.4x TC, but I don't own one, and all my 2x degrade the image a bit in the corners of APS-C. I'm wondering if for stitching the 110 would have better coverage than the 105PN + 1.4x TC combo? Worth contemplating.

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

Ray, the corners are very good on the 110mm.

I see that the 110mm S-2 lens did slightly better than the 110mm S-3 lens in your tests. Do you think that the differences between them are significant, or might this be just slight copy variation? I have a set of S-2 lenses in the US, can't test them directly now.

ray_parkhurst
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Post by ray_parkhurst »

The S2 did better in the center, but the corners were nearly identical. Keep in mind I was using both backward from intended orientation, so all bets are off. I'd expect the S3 to do better when mounted correctly, but who knows? One thing about the S2 is it has adjustable aperture, while the S3 is fixed. I did test wide open.

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

I never have had the S-2 lens in my hand, so I didn't know it had an adjustable aperture. So the two lenses are really different? Very interesting.

RobertOToole
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Post by RobertOToole »

Nice post Lou, lots of good info here.
Lou Jost wrote:Ray, the 67mm is the least impressive of the three lenses, in my experience.
I tested a big group of scanner lenses earlier this year and I found the same, the S-3 67m was one of the weakest performers, at least a 2x.
These lenses are easy to mount in any direction by making a "cocoon" of step-up and step-down rings for them. I use this technique with many lenses that have no threads. With careful choices of rings it is perfect. These Scitex lenses are nicely held by 49mm rings. All the Scitex lenses are exactly the same size so one cocoon fits all. By using a 55-52 step-down ring as a female-female coupler, you can have 52mm threads on both ends of the cocoon for easy reversing.
I found a very simple method to mount the S3 in reverse, this is from my site, just a 52mm > 39mm step down ring mounted inside a 52mm tube so you can use it in reverse or normal.

Image



Robert

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