Nikon Plan Apo 4X/0.20 vs 5x Mag.x LD Plan APO Test

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RobertOToole
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Nikon Plan Apo 4X/0.20 vs 5x Mag.x LD Plan APO Test

Post by RobertOToole »

This is the second part of my test of the Mag.x 5x, this time I compared the Nikon Plan APO 4x/0.20 at 5x.

See the first test, Mag.x vs the Mitutoyo 5x here: http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=36876

HarisA gave me the idea to push the Nikon PlanAPO to 5x, which I had never run before, to help boost the corner performance and at the same time eliminate the tube lens performance question since they use the same 250mm tube lens at 5x.

The Nikon PlanAPO corners do look at little better at 5x than at 4x.

Lenses
Nikon CFI Plan Apochromat 4X/0.20 Nano Crystal Coating Objective
Qioptiq Mag.x LD Plan Apochromat 5x / 0.20 Objective

Tube lens
Century Optics +4 diopter. https://www.closeuphotography.com/centu ... c-diopter/

Test setup

-Camera: Sony A6300
-Godox TT350s wireless flash x 2, diffused
-Godox X1s 2.4G wireless flash trigger/transmitter


Both objectives were used with my standard M52 studio tube lens set-up. For more info, follow this link: https://www.closeuphotography.com/52mm-setup

The Sony A6300 camera used for the test was vertically mounted on a Nikon MM-11 stand. Manual mode was used at ISO 80. Each lens was focus bracketed and the single sharpest image for the center and corner were chosen at 100% view in Photoshop. All images were shot as RAW Sony ARW files and processed in PS CC with all noise reduction and lens correction turned off, all settings were zeroed out (true zero) and the same settings were used for all of the images. No auto-CA correction was applied, I double checked!

Test images:

Click on any of these images to open a larger version.

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This is a brand new wafer that just arrived, made in the 80s for Xerox. Picked this one up on Ebay.

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Mag.x 5x file resized to 1500px. Nice and consistent corner to corner. Interesting difference in colors but both were shot and processed identically.

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Nikon Plan APO 4x/0.20 file resized to 1500px. You can see some corner softening here.

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100% crop areas indicated above.

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100% center crop with 200% crop area indicated. Sharpness is very similar but CA suppression is not.

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200% center crop area. CAs are an issue here for the Nikon.

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100% off-center crop with 200% crop area indicated. Close in sharpness but CAs are an issue again.

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200% off-center crop area. CAs are a problem off center for Nikon while the Mag.x is 100% clean.

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100% far corner crop. The Mag.x is almost perfect in the corners the Nikon is softer but not horrible and better here than 4x.

For more info on the Mag.x objective and more tests see the page on my site:

https://www.closeuphotography.com/qiopt ... objective/

Questions and comments welcome.

Robert

harisA
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Post by harisA »

Thanks for this comparison. First impressions:

1)Both lenses are nearly equal in terms of contrast and resolution with the exception of corner performance where mag.x is a clear winner.
2)The previous wafer (used in the comparison of mag.x vs mits 5x) is better for testing purposes since there are more fine details in it.
3)I'm curious to see a comparison between Nikon 4x@5x vs Mitutoyo 5x in the edges of aps sensor.In the center of course Nikon is an absolute winner.

mjkzz
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Post by mjkzz »

once again, amazing pics and thanks for your effort.

Just curious, are these pics single shots or stacked (I did not see any info there) . . .

and yeah, I did what you suggested in another thread, I searched for it in China, no, zip, nothing came up. I think I will just settle for a Mitutoyo 10x :-)

RobertOToole
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Post by RobertOToole »

mjkzz wrote:once again, amazing pics and thanks for your effort.
Glad you found them interesting!
mjkzz wrote: Just curious, are these pics single shots or stacked (I did not see any info there) . . .
All are single shots picked out of a stack at 100% view. I did the same for off center, center, and corner.

BTW the Nikon APO Plan corners were not as plan corrected as the Mag.x

Getting the subject stage parallel isnt too difficult with practice.

Sorry for not including that, its on my site, but maybe I neglected to add that to the post.
mjkzz wrote: and yeah, I did what you suggested in another thread, I searched for it in China, no, zip, nothing came up. I think I will just settle for a Mitutoyo 10x :-)

mjkzz
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Post by mjkzz »

thanks, Robert.

mawyatt
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Post by mawyatt »

Robert,

Do you think this Mag 5X lens would work well with say the Nikon 300mm F4 PF prime as a "tube", instead of the 250mm? This would put it at ~6X I would think.

Thanks for all the effort and posting this, very interesting as usual :D

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

RobertOToole
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Post by RobertOToole »

mawyatt wrote:Robert,

Do you think this Mag 5X lens would work well with say the Nikon 300mm F4 PF prime as a "tube", instead of the 250mm? This would put it at ~6X I would think.

Thanks for all the effort and posting this, very interesting as usual :D

Best,
Hi Mike,

Thats an idea!

Yes, the mag.x works very well with longer tube lenses, I even tried it on Sigma's 100-400 lens. The only problem I had was stability since the objective is so big and heavy and I didn't have the right rig for a longer tube lens.

I might try your idea, I don't have a PF, but my local dealer, 5 min away, told me I can borrow anything for one day.

Robert

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