Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

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seta666
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Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

Post by seta666 »

Hello,

I would like to add a 300mm tube lens to my set up, to push some objectives up like the Mitus? Now I use the raynox DCR-250 and DCR-150 (125mm and 210mm) and sometime I use the DCR-150 plus a teleconverter with OK results, like this Papilio blumei wing at 45X with mitu 20, DCR-150 and M42 2X TC

I am looking for something similar to those raynox lenses (both cost and size wise), better tahn a 300mm canon lens I am going to use only for this or a heavy medium format lens. If infinity focus could be reached with not so much extension (something like DCR-150) could be best but I am not sure if this is even possible.

Regards
Javier

Lou Jost
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Re: Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

Post by Lou Jost »

You didn't mention whether you want to cover APS or FF. If the latter, and if you want uniformity across the frame, I think medium format lenses are the best, in particular the green-striped Pentax 300mm 645 A*. I know you said you wanted something other than medium format but this is the best for FF. At 250mm, the Mamiya Apo-Sekor 6x7 is the best across the frame.

JKT
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Re: Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

Post by JKT »

seta666 wrote:
Fri Sep 03, 2021 3:27 am
with mitu 20, DCR-150 and M42 2X TC
Have you tried with different TC:s? There are huge differences between them and the old ones are usually pretty bad. One of these days I'll try the lower mag Mitus with RF 1.4x and 2x to see how they compare with my not so ideal longer lenses. I've already seen that the 1.4x is VERY good, but I haven't done the direct comparison yet.

seta666
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Re: Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

Post by seta666 »

Lou Jost wrote:
Fri Sep 03, 2021 9:49 am
You didn't mention whether you want to cover APS or FF.
Better if it does cover both formats, but I do not think would not use a 300mm tube lens with APS-C cameras
JKT wrote:
Fri Sep 03, 2021 11:35 am
Have you tried with different TC:s?
I have tried what I own, a crappy 10$ M42 2X TC and a similar 1.5X vivitar TC nikon mount.
I do not think I would spend much money on a TC as I would use it only ocasionaly, a 300mm tube lens seems a better choice anyway

I own a somco 240mm tube lens (similar to the morfanon 172mm tube lens), bought from Surplus shed years ago and will try using it again, it used to work well on FF (an example with mitu 5X and Canon 5D mkII).

I am looking for something similar both in price and size, the fact that raynox lenses, morfanon and this somco work well kind of proves that you do not need to expend much on a tube lens. I rather not having to use a big and heavy mid format tube lens when I don not really see it necessary.

This somco lens for example is longer in size than the morfanon but both fit nicely inside m42 tubes; it needs less extension (from back of the tube lens) to reach infinity focus compared to DCR-150

Image Image
Last edited by seta666 on Sat Sep 04, 2021 12:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Scarodactyl
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Re: Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

Post by Scarodactyl »

I wonder if a surgical microscope objective would work, though that would likely run a bit depending on brand and be pretty wide if not long.

seta666
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Re: Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

Post by seta666 »

Scarodactyl wrote:
Sat Sep 04, 2021 11:55 am
I wonder if a surgical microscope objective would work, though that would likely run a bit depending on brand and be pretty wide if not long.
I would try one if had it.. :D

dolmadis
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Re: Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

Post by dolmadis »

Hi

I was looking around using the Lens Finder on Surplus Shed and this came up in a search for something else. 285mm though.

https://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/L1403.html

HTH, John

Macrero
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Re: Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

Post by Macrero »

Apo-Gerogon 9/300. Works well as tube lens and can be found relatively cheap.

It needs quite a bit of extension to reach infinity, but that's to be expected given the long FL.

The Apo-Ronar 9/300 is another good and relatively cheap option.
https://500px.com/macrero - Amateurs worry about equipment, Pros worry about money, Masters worry about Light

JohnDownie
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Re: Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

Post by JohnDownie »

The Raynox DCR-5320PRO set has a 311mm tube lens. These have generally been considered better than the DCR-150 lens.

NathanM, who seemed to have a generous equipment budget, liked them...

viewtopic.php?t=32346

Lou Jost
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Re: Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

Post by Lou Jost »

I have that Raynox; maybe I will have some time later to compare it with my medium format picks.

seta666
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Re: Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

Post by seta666 »

That raynox seems like a very good option, a bit expensive for a close-up lens though. I wish I could try one before buying

Lou Jost
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Re: Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

Post by Lou Jost »

I'll do my best to test it soon. Workload is currently heavy though.


JKT
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Re: Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

Post by JKT »

I don't know if this helps at all, but...

Mitutoyo 10x & DCR-5320 Pro (+3)
Image

Mitutoyo 10x & Canon EF 300mm f/4 L IS USM
Image

Full size images with Canon EOS RP.

Doppler9000
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Re: Any good 300mm tube lens recomendations?

Post by Doppler9000 »

From a recent article (co-authored by Charles Krebs) describing NathanM’s snowflake camera…

Tests for chromatic aberration, center sharpness, edge sharpness, and vignetting on more than 30 configurations led us to select a macro lens (Raynox DCR-5320PRO) to use as a tube lens. Although the specifications for the Mitutoyo objectives guarantee only a small (~30 mm) image circle, we found that with this tube lens the image circle easily covers the ~67 mm diameter required to illuminate all pixels of the PhaseOne sensor.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals ... 3AD260FC05

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