Nikon Ophthalmic lenses

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3417
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Nikon Ophthalmic lenses

Post by ray_parkhurst »

I've had an active search going for nearly a decade for the Nikon 5x and 10x Ophthalmic lenses. I just did a "sold" items search on eBay and found that a mint condition set of these was sold back in mid-June. Here is the link to the closed auction:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-1980-039- ... 7675.l2557

This auction listing represents the most information I've ever found on these lenses, with excellent pictures.

If my calcs are correct, the 5x lens has NA=0.16, and 10x has NA=0.32, fairly respectable wide open.

Did any forum member win these lenses? If so, please give us your impressions. They sold for quite a respectable price, so I don't feel terrible about missing them, but I would certainly have purchased them if I had been fast enough...

Lou Jost
Posts: 5948
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:03 am
Location: Ecuador
Contact:

Post by Lou Jost »

Wow, I never heard of these, but they sound excellent.

rjlittlefield
Site Admin
Posts: 23564
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
Contact:

Post by rjlittlefield »

I had never heard of those lenses either.

I am puzzled by the "5X" and "10X" notation, because the field size shown in one picture would be more like 1X on the full-frame camera that the text says it was shot with.

I'm wondering if the lenses were designed for use with some eyepiece or other adapter that would provide the final boost.

Ray, do you know what these things actually are, or at least what the "5x" and "10X" mean?

--Rik

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3417
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Post by ray_parkhurst »

rjlittlefield wrote:I had never heard of those lenses either.

I am puzzled by the "5X" and "10X" notation, because the field size shown in one picture would be more like 1X on the full-frame camera that the text says it was shot with.

I'm wondering if the lenses were designed for use with some eyepiece or other adapter that would provide the final boost.

Ray, do you know what these things actually are, or at least what the "5x" and "10X" mean?

--Rik
Rik...no, I don't know the way they were supposed to be used, or if additional optics were required to get to the full magnification. I agree that the images provided show relatively low mag, something like 1x and 2x respectively for the 2 images. Both images show poor coverage as well. It would be interesting if the lenses came with documentation, but none was mentioned in the auction listing. Still a big mystery...Ray

abednego1995
Posts: 84
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 11:53 pm

Post by abednego1995 »

Those lenses are from the AS-1(1979) and AS-2(1985) Ophthalmic cameras for non-contact specular photography of corneal cells. The name is a "camera" but the instrument setup is more like a slit-lamp we see at the ophthalmologist.
The 5x is f=50.7mm, NA0.16, the 10x is f=28.4mm, NA0.32. Both indicated mags are achieved with +20cm extension on a normal F-mount provided with a porro-mirror box on the instrument.

John

Macro_Cosmos
Posts: 1511
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2018 9:23 pm
Contact:

Post by Macro_Cosmos »

It also has its own film camera:
http://redbook-jp.com/redbook-e/fan12/b03.html

These appear to be medical lenses. Myutron makes similar looking ones for the industrial F-mount.

ImageMyutron LS07F by Macro Cosmos (DH), on Flickr

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3417
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Thanks guys, great additional info.
abednego1995 wrote:Those lenses are from the AS-1(1979) and AS-2(1985) Ophthalmic cameras for non-contact specular photography of corneal cells. The name is a "camera" but the instrument setup is more like a slit-lamp we see at the ophthalmologist.
The 5x is f=50.7mm, NA0.16, the 10x is f=28.4mm, NA0.32. Both indicated mags are achieved with +20cm extension on a normal F-mount provided with a porro-mirror box on the instrument.

John
You say "indicated images are achieved", were you the seller of the auction lenses? If the intent was to shoot with lens mounted directly to the camera, then I wonder what "5x" and "10x" really mean? Was the "slit-lamp" type of camera large and with much longer extension?

Macro_Cosmos wrote:It also has its own film camera:
http://redbook-jp.com/redbook-e/fan12/b03.html

These appear to be medical lenses. Myutron makes similar looking ones for the industrial F-mount.

Looks to be a relatively normal camera, without extra extension.

What performance do you get from that Myutron lens? Does it have a model number?

abednego1995
Posts: 84
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 11:53 pm

Post by abednego1995 »

Nope, I'm not the seller. I just happen to have a few of them on hand.
Most people just chuck the instrument when they don't need it, just keeping what is removable.

Here's how the AS-1 and the objectives look when in their proper configuration as an instrument.
The box between has 4mirrors arranged in a double porro-prism fashion, giving 20cm extention mount-to-mount. The objectives then give 5x and 10x.

Image

The camera itself is a normal F2 with a special magnifying viewfinder.

Those Myutron LS lenses are also pretty good!

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3417
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Excellent! Mystery solved.

How well do the lenses work when properly extended?

abednego1995
Posts: 84
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 11:53 pm

Post by abednego1995 »

Not bad considering their age, but the Mitutoyo MPAs clearly outperform (if within APS-C).
The image circle is larger and both 5x,10x will fill around dia.100mm@nominal mag. (not saying that the periphery would be pretty)

The "Volks-target", with the AS-1 10x. Fast and dirty test (no diffusion.)
D810, FX, ISO100, dev. in AdobeRAW with no sharpening.
Image
Image
Image

Fuzzy at F1.4 (Fe15.4, NA0.32), much better at F2 (Fe22,NA0.23), corners sharpen up at F2.8(Fe30.8,NA0.16), acceptable at F4 and the rest is mush.
(It's darn hard to align these wafers parallel to the image plane! Does everyone use a gonio-stage for this?)


John

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3417
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Looks pretty good at f2. Nice lens. I'd assume similar performance from 5x. So these are nice, finite, wide coverage lenses as expected. Thanks for the further info...

mawyatt
Posts: 2497
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:54 pm
Location: Clearwater, Florida

Post by mawyatt »

abednego1995 wrote:
(It's darn hard to align these wafers parallel to the image plane! Does everyone use a gonio-stage for this?)
John,

I know what you mean!!

I use this, works well with 5~6" wafers (haven't tried on larger wafers yet). Put double sided sticky tape on Rotary Platform to help hold the wafer in place. You can also put a small ball head on the Rotary Platform and end up with a very flexible subject positing setup.

Image

Wemacro has these:

https://www.wemacro.com/?product=rotati ... men-holder

and these:

https://www.wemacro.com/?product=xyr-st ... men-holder

Hope this helps,

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

abednego1995
Posts: 84
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 11:53 pm

Post by abednego1995 »

Thanks, Mike! That'll probably do the work for the meantime....

I guess Wemacro has to get cheap alpha-beta stages in their inventory eventually! :-)

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3417
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Post by ray_parkhurst »

abednego1995 wrote:Thanks, Mike! That'll probably do the work for the meantime....

I guess Wemacro has to get cheap alpha-beta stages in their inventory eventually! :-)
Another option is a tip-tilt stage. These are simpler than goniometers, and most useful for small shifts from flat. I use an Edmund tip-tilt for trimming and it works very well.

lothman
Posts: 959
Joined: Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:00 am
Location: Stuttgart/Germany

Post by lothman »


Post Reply Previous topicNext topic