Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x &2x

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pppjw
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Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x &2x

Post by pppjw »

First I would like to thanks dmillard who gave me the adviser on viewtopic.php?t=41029

This lens covers GFX sensor perfectly. It makes me easy to shoot film between 0.5-1x.

(Update 2x test on 12 Aug)

Camera: GFX100

1x test
I crop 5 position of 3 different aperture photos for comparison.

ImageSCHNEIDER KREUZNACH MACRO VARON 4.5/85 CAS overview by Jack MMM

Comparison result
ImageSCHNEIDER KREUZNACH MACRO VARON 4.5/85 CAS test by Jack MMM

You can download the full size on

f4.5@ https://www.flickr.com/photos/186734762 ... ed-public/
f5.6@ https://www.flickr.com/photos/186734762 ... ed-public/
f8@ https://www.flickr.com/photos/186734762 ... ed-public/


2x test
I crop 3 position of 3 different aperture photos for comparison.
Imagetest area by Jack MMM

Comparison result
Image2x_full by Jack MMM

Hot spot issue
Thanks to chris and lou for pointing this out. In the new 2x test, I blocked the front of the lens to reduce hot spots. The following is the result without blocking.
Imagehotspot_test by Jack MMM
Last edited by pppjw on Wed Aug 12, 2020 8:56 am, edited 3 times in total.
JACK

Macro_Cosmos
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Re: Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x

Post by Macro_Cosmos »

Wow, those are some beautiful wafer images, they look so lovely! Nice lighting you have going on there.
Oh and welcome to the forums.

The Schneider MV is a very solid lens for its design range, would love to some day own one.

ray_parkhurst
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Re: Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Seems I'm not using the lens to full potential on my lowly APS-C sensor! But maybe someday I'll graduate to FF, and it will still be useful.

chris_ma
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Re: Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x

Post by chris_ma »

great images, and it seems that it's diffraction limited even on the small pixel pitch of the GFX100.

not sure why the overall contrast gets so much lower when stopping down though, any ideas?
chris

Enoplometopus
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Re: Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x

Post by Enoplometopus »

That wafer is fantastic! Any chance to get one like that to Germany? I never saw one like that...
Best regards,

Daniel Knop/Enoplometopus
My website:www.knop.de
Instagram: danielknop10

pppjw
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Re: Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x

Post by pppjw »

chris_ma wrote:
Tue Jul 28, 2020 9:59 am
great images, and it seems that it's diffraction limited even on the small pixel pitch of the GFX100.

not sure why the overall contrast gets so much lower when stopping down though, any ideas?
I think one of the reasons may be related to the electronic shutter. I used an LED board as the light source and used the electronic shutter to shoot, which may conflict with the frequency of the LED (you can see obvious light and dark areas at f5.6 and f8). Next time I will use higher ISO(now is 100) and use the mechanical shutter test.
JACK

pppjw
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Re: Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x

Post by pppjw »

ray_parkhurst wrote:
Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:32 am
Seems I'm not using the lens to full potential on my lowly APS-C sensor! But maybe someday I'll graduate to FF, and it will still be useful.
What surprised me the most was its control of colour aberrations at the edge. If you use shift-shift shooting, this increases the range of movement.
JACK

ray_parkhurst
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Re: Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x

Post by ray_parkhurst »

pppjw wrote:
Tue Jul 28, 2020 8:28 pm
ray_parkhurst wrote:
Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:32 am
Seems I'm not using the lens to full potential on my lowly APS-C sensor! But maybe someday I'll graduate to FF, and it will still be useful.
What surprised me the most was its control of colour aberrations at the edge. If you use shift-shift shooting, this increases the range of movement.
I think the same can be said for a few other line-sensor lenses such as the Rodenstock Inspec.x L, and the Rayfact 3.5x fixed and VF variable lenses. All seem to very well-corrected out to the edge of the frame. I tested the RF3p5x out to 82mm and it actually improved slightly at the extremes! I'm continually impressed by these relatively new lens designs, and it always makes me wonder what else is out there with maybe similar or better performance.

chris_ma
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Re: Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x

Post by chris_ma »

pppjw wrote:
Tue Jul 28, 2020 8:25 pm
chris_ma wrote:
Tue Jul 28, 2020 9:59 am
not sure why the overall contrast gets so much lower when stopping down though, any ideas?
I think one of the reasons may be related to the electronic shutter. I used an LED board as the light source and used the electronic shutter to shoot, which may conflict with the frequency of the LED (you can see obvious light and dark areas at f5.6 and f8). Next time I will use higher ISO(now is 100) and use the mechanical shutter test.
Could be, but wouldn‘t that just result in light/dark stripes rather then lower contrast? And usually stopping down would lead to longer exposure times which in turn would decrease problem with LED flickering?

One though I have is that on smaller aperture stray light in the lens system might become more of a problem, did you flock the lens extension parts?

PS: looking at the crops again, it looks to me like the contrast falls much stronger in the center then on the corners.
chris

Lou Jost
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Re: Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x

Post by Lou Jost »

Chris, that's an interesting observation. Infrared hot spots behave this way: they get worse on stopping down, and are worst in the center. I wonder if something similar is happening here. One partial solution in IR photography is the use of a very exact lens hood, so no stray light gets in. Forum member Enrico Savazzi used this technique to eliminate the hotspot of the Coastal Optics 60mm IR-visual-UV lens:
http://www.savazzi.net/photography/coas ... tspot.html

pppjw
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Re: Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x

Post by pppjw »

Thanks Chris and Lou, I will try some experiments to find the problem and the solution.
JACK

pppjw
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Re: Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x &2sx

Post by pppjw »

Updated 2x test result
JACK

Macro_Cosmos
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Re: Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x &2x

Post by Macro_Cosmos »

Good to learn about the hot spot issue with a simple fix. Jenoptik's 60mm UV-VIS-IR suffers from a similar problem at around 0.3x, a tiny ebay lens hood fixed it!

chris_ma
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Re: Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x &2x

Post by chris_ma »

great results, thanks for posting the update!

contrast seems much better at all apertures now, seems like the macro varon is rather sensitive to stray light (I seem to remember that Robert or somebody else had similar findings).

also interesting that at 2x the loss at F5.6 due to diffraction is quite small, less then what I expected - slightly less detail but a bit better contrast.
chris

obturate
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Re: Schneider macro varon 85/4.5 CAS @1x &2x

Post by obturate »

Where can this lens be purchased in the US?
Thanks,
Dan
Dan

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