$9 eBay Line Scanner Lens, Initial Impressions

[Macro_Cosmos]

So I picked up one of these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ricoh-Scanner- ... 2749.l2649

It's probably some scanner unit used in photocopiers. I desoldered the line scanner module, smashed the cover glass and took a stack of it under my Mit 10x setup. It says "Toshiba T6287".


The lens says "Topcon 4/34mm". I used an RMS adapter, shaved the internals to the right size and covered up the leaks with some adhesive flocking thingy. Works as intended despite being crude and unprofessional.

The 2 lenses side by side:


The Topcon lens is fairly large compared to the tiny Minolta 5400 scanner lens. The Topcon is multicoated which is promising.

I mounted the lens directly onto the camera without any extension.

Topcon Stack:

Full resolution: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4876/462 ... 7303_o.jpg

Minolta Stack:

Full resolution:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4834/324 ... def8_o.jpg

My flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/133023063 ... otostream/

Being directly mounted, the Topcon has a greater reproduction ratio. About 1:0.73 was measured, rough measurement. Working distance [1] is about 65mm in this configuration, quite nice.

The Minolta 5400 scanner lens is small but impressive, maintaining sharpness corner-to-corner, no visible aberrations whatsoever.

The Topcon is sharp in the centre but fairly bad in the corners. Despite being able to cover fullframe, it's quite soft there. I wouldn't say it's unacceptable, it's alright. There's good contrast [2] and colours are accurate and vibrant.

Considering the cost, for lower magnifications, this lens does work quite well. The Minolta 5400 lens can be had for around $150, salvaged from dead scanners. This Topcon lens despite being a fraction of its cost, does indeed surprise me. I'll configure it for 1:1 and 2:1 to see what happens.

Thanks,
-- MC

[1]: Here, it's from the target to the front of the lens.
[2]: I used reflected light technique for contrast, no diffusion was used. I personally think the high contrast and harse light works quite well on this hex wrench set.

[lothman]

what a nice mount for the 5400 ;-)

[Macro_Cosmos]

what a nice mount for the 5400 ;-)

Absolutely agree, it's well made and fits perfectly!
I wonder who made it...

It's a shame you still haven't received my 8000ED scanner lens. I've been calling AusPost every week and their response have been the same neglectful rubbish...

Not a good Christmas. I was told that tracking was unavailable because the people at PO didn't enable it and I should have asked... what kind of response is that?

I guess I'm bound to return it, I'll just make do with the $9 topcon.

[Troels]

Macro-Cosmos wrote:

The Minolta 5400 lens can be had for around $150, salvaged from dead scanners.

Those I found on e-Bay from European sellers the last couple of weeks went fast up to $400 - $600! Although they were not sold as dead they will probably soon be.

The only ones sold as dead were without lens.

[Yawns]

Macro-Cosmos wrote:

The Minolta 5400 lens can be had for around $150, salvaged from dead scanners.

Those I found on e-Bay from European sellers the last couple of weeks went fast up to $400 - $600! Although they were not sold as dead they will probably soon be.

The only ones sold as dead were without lens.

2 days ago ... 250 euros...(located in Germany) those you see for 450-500 euros "buy now" will probably not sell .. (but there always a fool coming from nowhere )

[Troels]

Thanks for the hint, Yawns.

I believe the main reason it went so cheap was that the seller had no option for international shipping.
In fact I wrote and asked him, when the bidding was at only €100 a few days earlier. And he replied he was willing to send the item to Denmark.

I was the highest bidder until 1 sec. before deadline. If I had not already used far too much money this month the price could probably have ended a hundred euros higher. Still not sure I would have got it in the end.

In fact I don't really need it now. My problem is I am afraid the prices are only going up. And it would be nice to get my best slides scanned and then have a super lens before they are completely out of my reach.

Just now I can see just 3 at eBay, all from USA.

[Yawns]

I was the highest bidder until 1 sec. before deadline.

That sucks and it's depressive ...

I'm not interested in the lens.. I'm just curious.
I'm looking at the local (Portuguese) auction sites.. Extreme Macro is out of the Portuguese pockets.. I know the local "scene" and almost nobody does it.. to much expensive hobby for us.. if a broken up shows up in the local auction websites nobody will care. I saw a full fucntional one recently for 350€ and did not want it.

I need / want the lens as much as a kick in the arse... .. My interest is just out of curiosity and moved by this late collective hysteria in the forum... all in all it's just a lens with very low magnification...
Remember the JML ? .. who cares about it these days... ? the hype will pass.. I saw the JML going on eBay (France) for 200 euros last summer.. a lot less than before.

[lothman]

I was the highest bidder until 1 sec. before deadline. If I had not already used far too much money this month the price could probably have ended a hundred euros higher. Still not sure I would have got it in the end.

I saw very similar offers on another German site (from same city Sinsheim), so I suppose this scanner will show up again ;-)

[Macro_Cosmos]

Macro-Cosmos wrote:

The Minolta 5400 lens can be had for around $150, salvaged from dead scanners.

Those I found on e-Bay from European sellers the last couple of weeks went fast up to $400 - $600! Although they were not sold as dead they will probably soon be.

The only ones sold as dead were without lens.

You have to look around more then I'm afraid...

For example, this one, ended very recently: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/113449793390?ul_noapp=true

Which is the scanner I based my $150 claim on.

I've seen "for parts" scanners go anywhere from a sub-$100 to $300+. Definitely look around and don't let the irrationality of "win the bid" get to you. Also always bid at the last second, early bidding isn't a good idea; when a bid is placed, a notification is sent to the person being outbidded, notifying them to put another bid. If both are early biddedrs, the price is jacked up, and since the item is gaining traction... it might get tossed on the front page. Early bidding surely is something I as an ebay seller love.

I also recently acquired the 7-element scanner nikkor for $50. Hopefully that will replace the 5400 scanner lens I'd have to send back to Lothman.

If you're looking to use the 5400 lens at beyond 2:1, then there's far better alternatives. The 5400 lens rocks at lower magnifications, as illustrated by this post.

[Troels]

Thanks Macro Cosmos for your kind advise!

I have experienced the hard way, that unless I really need it (and as mentioned I don't in this case) it is often a bad idea to buy photo equipment from USA or Australia when you live in Denmark.

The scanner you linked to would cost me US$ 42 in postage. That makes almost $200. a parcel this size is at risk beeing caught in the customs control. Then I have to pay for taxes, customs, toll you name it, and on top of that I have to pay the authorities a salary for handling, opening and closing my parcel and calculate the extra payment.

It is not very unlikely to end up with an extra 50% or more of the original price. That is the reason why I prefer EU sellers. I know the exact prices.

Perhaps after some months or years I wil jump in anyway :-)

[Macro_Cosmos]

Thanks Macro Cosmos for your kind advise!

I have experienced the hard way, that unless I really need it (and as mentioned I don't in this case) it is often a bad idea to buy photo equipment from USA or Australia when you live in Denmark.

The scanner you linked to would cost me US$ 42 in postage. That makes almost $200. a parcel this size is at risk beeing caught in the customs control. Then I have to pay for taxes, customs, toll you name it, and on top of that I have to pay the authorities a salary for handling, opening and closing my parcel and calculate the extra payment.

It is not very unlikely to end up with an extra 50% or more of the original price. That is the reason why I prefer EU sellers. I know the exact prices.

Perhaps after some months or years I wil jump in anyway :-)

Yeah the taxation is ridiculous over there, especially in countries like Denmark and Norway where supposedly the wages are also extremely high... kind of equalises when we take the cost of basic living into account.

$42 for the entire thing is actually rather fair. If it was shipped from Australia, you're looking at around $120+ for something that big. If you didn't catch it already, the 5400 lens belongs to Lothman. I sent him my Scanner-Nikkor 8000ED lens and... it's been almost a month, still not received. I paid over $30 to post it and it didn't come with tracking. So it's pretty much lost in the ether. I don't have my 8000ED lens which I paid a lot for anymore and I will have to send the 5400 back to Germany which is another $30+ in shipping costs.

One thing you can always do is ask the seller to pull the lens assembly out and toss the remaining components. It's an easy disassembly and I'm sure most sellers would be happy to do it, I know I would.

Another thing you can do is use a freight forwarder that allows you set the price. Shipito for example allows that, you do have to check an impromptu box to verify the authenticity of the amount declared but hey... it's not my fault for missing a zero. You can even use their special request function and ask them to pull the lens assembly out. It costs $5 generally, they might charge a bit more, I don't know.

A catch would be, if the parcel is lost or damaged, an invoice that matches up with the declared amount is required to claim insurance. Tough luck if that happens... but inspect element is always available.

[enricosavazzi]

I have experienced the hard way, that unless I really need it (and as mentioned I don't in this case) it is often a bad idea to buy photo equipment from USA or Australia when you live in Denmark.
[...]

Feel free to add Sweden to the list. 24.something% sales tax and a fixed fee of about 7€ (both non-refundable if the package is lost, which it often happens) are tacked by Swedish Mail to anything coming from outside the EU. Some EU sellers automatically add the 24.something% tax to the invoice for orders to Sweden, others do not. I don't know why/why not.

Yeah the taxation is ridiculous over there, especially in countries like Denmark and Norway where supposedly the wages are also extremely high

Don't know about Denmark and Norway, but wages in Sweden are not that high by international or EU standards, quite the contrary, and retirement pensions are remarkably low. Especially after tax.

And soon we will have to add Great Britain to the list of countries we must avoid buying from.

[Macro_Cosmos]

Feel free to add Sweden to the list. 24.something% sales tax and a fixed fee of about 7€ (both non-refundable if the package is lost, which it often happens) are tacked by Swedish Mail to anything coming from outside the EU. Some EU sellers automatically add the 24.something% tax to the invoice for orders to Sweden, others do not. I don't know why/why not.

I didn't want to be too rude, but if I was to be fair, ALL EU countries fall under my list of "ridiculous taxation and ridiculous policies". 24% really sounds atrocious, it's 10% here in Australia and there's many ways to circumvent it. One way is to just get the seller send an invoice through paypal. Ebay adds the 10% automatically. It used to be within $1000 ~tax free, now they just scrapped it and no one is happy.

Don't know about Denmark and Norway, but wages in Sweden are not that high by international or EU standards, quite the contrary, and retirement pensions are remarkably low. Especially after tax.

Denmark has the highest "minimum wage" in the world. Ours is pretty high here in Australia as well, $18 AUD, but no where as high as Denmark.
Not sure about sales tax, California adds it automatically, ebay does it. It varies depending on the state and/or country I presume.

Careful calculations is required when buying used stuff. Don't want to be paying the price of a new one or even more. All the taxes and shipping must be considered.

And soon we will have to add Great Britain to the list of countries we must avoid buying from.

Depends on how stuff works out I'd guess. Not going to get too political, but I don't see how a "second referendum" wouldn't get everyone extremely annoyed. If that happens, we could be seeing another yellow vest protest; probably not as violent, but it's going to cause havoc.

[rolsen]

Feel free to add Sweden to the list. 24.something% sales tax and a fixed fee of about 7€ (both non-refundable if the package is lost, which it often happens) are tacked by Swedish Mail to anything coming from outside the EU. Some EU sellers automatically add the 24.something% tax to the invoice for orders to Sweden, others do not. I don't know why/why not.

Finland joins the list too. We have 24% VAT, then add customs fees and carrier fees etc. ##### expensive it gets and usually all interesting gadgets are in the USA.

There were times, when Swedish post office was always regarded as terrible slow compared to finnish one. Nowadays safest way to get rid of the body is to post it in Finland, not that I'm having that kind of problems, just mentioning. Perhaps that would be the solution to the nuclear waste too, hmm.

About that situation, that you, as a private person, buy something inside EU and VAT is added, has to be a situation where the seller is a company, VAT-registered business in his own country. EU VAT-regulations in action. If a company buys from a company (both in VAT-register in their countries), then the sales is 0% VAT and the buyer takes care of the VAT-payments (reverse charge mechanism).

[Macro_Cosmos]

Feel free to add Sweden to the list. 24.something% sales tax and a fixed fee of about 7€ (both non-refundable if the package is lost, which it often happens) are tacked by Swedish Mail to anything coming from outside the EU. Some EU sellers automatically add the 24.something% tax to the invoice for orders to Sweden, others do not. I don't know why/why not.

Finland joins the list too. We have 24% VAT, then add customs fees and carrier fees etc. ##### expensive it gets and usually all interesting gadgets are in the USA.

There were times, when Swedish post office was always regarded as terrible slow compared to finnish one. Nowadays safest way to get rid of the body is to post it in Finland, not that I'm having that kind of problems, just mentioning. Perhaps that would be the solution to the nuclear waste too, hmm.

About that situation, that you, as a private person, buy something inside EU and VAT is added, has to be a situation where the seller is a company, VAT-registered business in his own country. EU VAT-regulations in action. If a company buys from a company (both in VAT-register in their countries), then the sales is 0% VAT and the buyer takes care of the VAT-payments (reverse charge mechanism).

Oh my what a massive mess. Reading this stuff gives me a headache already. Having to look up all these robbery tactics oh wait I mean TAXES just to sell on silly Ebay is beyond ridiculous to me.

It's true, all the interesting surplus stuff are in either the USA, China, or Korea. Maybe Japan and sometimes Thailand, these are the places where one can get absolute bargains on industrial surplus goods. It's really funny how it's almost impossible to find surplus equipment from companies such as Rodenstock (now Linos) whereas these are plentiful in China and the USA.

Too many hoops, not good for the average Joe.