How good are alternatives (clones) to Mitutoyo lenses

[lothman]

Thanks Chris for cleaning up :-)

[lothman]

Soon I will have another Mitutoyo 10x what should be better than my copy :-)
In the meantime some information and statements from the polite seller (Jerry) I talked to.

For all of you who would like to contact or purchase from him, he said distributors and end users are welcome.
@Admins I am no trader nor do I have any connections with the seller, I hope this thread is not seen as commercial, my intention is just to provide information.

Aliexpress:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002 ... 3e5fZvjNZy
Shop Name: Scientific-Optics-Lab-OEM Factory Store

Email: opticsexpert@hotmail.com
Name: Jerry
Factory name: Nanjing Huapu Optronics Co. LTD
Web: http://www.fluoscope.com/ (although I did not find the new high NA lenses on that homepage)

some quotes from email conversation with Jerry:

• Most Some chinese seller selling very low level lens , but we are not

• China has somehow good technology , For future , it will be more strong , this is no doubt , Because our students are working extremly hard ,
  We also work extremly hard

• We design and manufacture various standard microscope objectives and also custom microscope objectives for meeting customers’ specific needs. With various types of advanced in-house manufacturing and World-class testing equipment, we can produce both prototypes and large quantities of precision microscope objectives in an economic and fast way.
  To address special custom needs such as Ultra high N.A. or Super long working distance or special coatings, We make cost-effective solutions available to customers.
  We is highly qualified to support engineers, researchers, scientists and microscope manufacturers with microscopy and imaging challenges. our production team can manufacture the lenses with high quality in very efficient and economic manners.
  Parfocal from 45mm, 60mm 95mm all type APO Objective lens

• BIG NA Series is good now

• Cooperate with us, we will not let our partner disappointed we work with Dealer or end user

• we open store , because smart end user will try to buy from aliexpress , it is good for them to buy , because it is very cheap
  Aliexpress should be a heaven place for small buyer or small dealers, but Giant bid dealer will not buy that way especially scientific level
  So Distributors and enduser are all welcomed , trade way is changed

• Our brand is HOOPOU, or SOUTHOPTICS, we just a local brand in china . So you can not find in google

• But the the lens , normally we assemble without brand, mitutoyo lens was more than 20 years design , quite old,
  our big NA lens is using your german Leica , Zeiss Optical designing software . testing indtruements also german instrument

• Our workshop supplying OEM Service for Famous optical group .
  our assemble lens technique is world class level .
  and our optical design capabilty is top

• From our view , such kind of 10X objective lens is a very basic products for us

may be we discovered a jewel and get the photomacrography.com-Monster-Lens done one day

regards
Lothar

P.S.: Do me a favour and refer to this thread when contacting Jerry in order to show that his willingness to help is noticeable in a positive way

[JKT]

may be we discovered a jewel and get the photomacrography.com-Monster-Lens done one day

That would be nice. Meanwhile you could suggest them duplication and improvement on the Minolta 5400 lens...

[Scarodactyl]

I assume it was a chinese company that made my 40x/1.0 apo water immersion objective, given the lack of branding. Maybe it was even them. It is a truly superb objective.
I'm putting together a system for an acquaintance soon, and I wonder if I can get more bang per buck going this route for some or all of the objectives. I'm still not 100% sold on the CA performance but I am definitely intrigued. No question you've hit on something very cool.
Maybe another good or intermediate test to run would be against the Nikon plan 10x which also covers full frame, but with lesser ca performance vs a good mitutoyo.

[lothman]

now another Mitutoyo 10x what is better than my old copy. This time the left side is Ok and the right side is worse. Also another Si-waver.

new Waver

new Mitutoyo 10x Crop

China 10x_Crop

Comparison Screenshots (Mitutoyo left, China right):
Top Left
Top Right
Bottom Left
Bottom right
Center 100%
Center 300%

Full size Mitutoyo
Full size China

The corner perfomance of the China is also way better than the second copy of a Mitutoyo 10x. But colors in Center seem to be better with the Mitutoyo.

What's your opinion.

regards
Lothar

[Macrero]

Hi Lothar,

thanks for taking your time to make this comparison and share it.

The new Mitty performs clearly better than the first one. The "clone" does much better than I'd expect. Resolution seems about on a par with the Mitty.
It is obviously far from being APO though.., but the huge image circle is striking. Have you tried to push it down on FF?

Best,

- Macrero

[lothman]

In order to have something natural I took a butterfly wing.
On the wafer the colours look quite dramatic different in the image centre, not so much on the butterfly wing. The better corner resolution of the China version shows up again.

Overwiew:

3x Center

Center top

top left

top right

[lothman]

Hi Lothar,

thanks for taking your time to make this comparison and share it.

The new Mitty performs clearly better than the first one. The "clone" does much better than I'd expect. Resolution seems about on a par with the Mitty.
It is obviously far from being APO though.., but the huge image circle is striking. Have you tried to push it down on FF?

Best,

- Macrero

Thanks
No I have not pushed it down, the 60 MP of the Sony are more than I need, no need for me to push it down.
Those wafer shot might lead to "far from APO" but on the butterfly wing I prefer the "Clone" by far
Here a processsed version of the Butterfly from the "Clone"

[Macrero]

Thanks
No I have not pushed it down, the 60 MP of the Sony are more than I need, no need for me to push it down.
Those wafer shot might lead to "far from APO" but on the butterfly wing I prefer the "Clone" by far
Here a processsed version of the Butterfly from the "Clone"

The processed scales looks really good. Still the wafer test shows that the clone is not Mitty-level corrected, though that's to be expected.

The poor right-side performance of the second Mitty is weird. A fair comparison would be brand new vs brand new, but that's too much to ask.

Best,

- Macrero

[lothman]

Editing a little bit:

100% crop from the "Clone" first unedited and then edited. This is a 1024x768 crop from a 9500x6300 Pixel shot

[JKT]

I wonder what that blue haze is on the clone. It doesn't look like normal chromatic aberration - it is too far spread from the strong highlites and pretty uniform all over. Without it the much larger uniform image circle would definitely balance the slightly lower resolution at center. Though I have to wonder just how far the Mitutoyo retains the edge in sharpness. If it does it to the over 30mm image circle, it would be be considerably better on APSC-C.

[Scarodactyl]

I downloaded the full size files and had a quick look.
Looking around aps-c corners the clone does maaaybe a little better on CA--this mitutoyo shows some faint lateral CA which isn't present the same way on the clone, though it does have the general blue-violet haze (which I have seen before on some stereos, I think maybe just the blue isn't being focused as well without a similar error in red?)
The mitutoyo is definitely distorted on the right side in addition tot he coma/astigmatism, decentering being the likely culprit here. Not as bad as it could be though.
Both objectives look to be pretty good on aps-c imo even if imperfect.
Bottom left aps-c mitutoyo:

bottom left aps-c clone:

Bottom right mitty:

bottom right clone:

[lothman]

some pics of the lenses, it seems on the clone they made the backside less prone to reflection.

[lothman]

Hi all,

after the good experience with the 10x I ordered a 5x and another 10x. So stay tuned ;-)

Has anybody also bougth a lens from this vendor? Is any body considering to do so in the future?

regards
Lothar

[dolmadis]

Has anybody also bougth a lens from this vendor? Is any body considering to do so in the future?

regards Lothar

Yes, I am/was considering the 5x as it happens.

Have you gone direct to Jerry? Or via the Selling Site?

I would be interested to see/hear how the 10x performs at 100mm pushed down to 5x though.


Best, John