New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

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RobertOToole
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New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by RobertOToole »

1.4-x-test-www-Closeuphotography-com.jpg
All the best for 2021!

Just posted this 5 minutes ago (Please excuse any typos or errors)

12 lenses at 1.4x.

The full test page on my site:

https://www.closeuphotography.com/1-point-4-x-lens-test


Lens List:

Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x macro lens
Linos Rodenstock Magnagon 5.6/75 scanner lens
Linos Rodenstock Magnagon 4/75 scanner lens
Minolta DiMAGE Elite AF5400 scanner lens
Rayfact GF 2x 80mm f/4 line scan lens
Rodenstock Scitex 5.6/80 scanner lens
Scanner Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 scanner lens
Schneider Kreuznach Makro-Symmar 5.6/80 line scan lens
Schneider Kreuznach Macro Varon 4.5/85 line scan lens
Schneider Kreuznach Componon-S 4/80 line scan lens
Schneider Kreuznach Componon-S 4/80 Makro-Iris line scan lens
Schneider Kreuznach M-Componon 4/80 macro lens

General setup:

Individual lens setup details are on the full test on my site.

Camera: Sony α6300, model # ILCE-6300, also known as: A6300
Sensor size: APS-C. 23.5 × 15.6 mm. 28.21 mm diagonal. 3.92 micron sensor pitch

The Sony A6300 camera was used for this test with my Thorlabs SM2 studio setup vertically mounted on a Nikon MM-11 stand for this test. For each lens and each aperture setting focus was bracketed and the sharpest image was chosen at 100% view in photoshop. Manual mode was used at ISO 100. To avoid any sharpness loss due to vibration, two Godox TT350S units were used at 1/128th to 1/32nd power. To avoid any change in light angle, the flash units remained in place and never moved over the entire test, mounted on a flash bracket that is bolted to an optical breadboard.

Sony Raw image files were processed in Ps CC ACR with all noise reduction turned to zero, and lens correction profiles disabled. All settings were zeroed out and the same white balance setting used for all the images. You should know that with Sony lenses (and Leica, Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic) chromatic aberration correction is baked into the RAW file using opcodes that cannot be disabled.

All of the test images are single frames, none of the images were stacked. To avoid focus shifts with aperture changes, a series of images were made at 10 micron steps at each aperture. Each lens was shot from wide open to f/5.6 to find sharpest image. The sharpest images were chosen at 100% actual pixel magnification, cropped and saved in Photoshop CC.

Test disk

1.4x-disk-www-Closeuphotography-com.jpg


Crop areas


Outlines.jpg

These are smaller detail style crops, the full test on my site has larger normal style crops.


The crops below are setup in order of increasing sharpness.


Center 100% view crops

Center-crops-100-percent-1.4x-www-Closeuphotography-com.JPG

Edge 100% view crops

Edge-crop-100-percnt-at-1.4x-www-Closeuphotography-com.JPG

Corner 100% view crops

Corner-crop-100-percent-view-at-1.4x-www-Closeuphotography-com.JPG

If anyone has some spare time please take a look at the test page on my site and assist me with any feedback and or corrections.

Questions comments welcome.

Best,

Robert

chris_ma
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Re: New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by chris_ma »

Great way to start the new year :)

lovely write up as always. a minor point: on the Minolta the optimal magnification isn't listed (I think it's designed for about 1.8x?)

the Nikon Scanner lens has impressive resolution, but seems not as clean as the other top contenders - like on the Xerox letters there's some haloing going on, so I'm not sure if I'd put it on the top spot.

Curious why you didn't include your Rayfact VL 1.4x in the line up - too long a focal length?

all the best to everybody for 2021!
chris
chris

lothman
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Re: New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by lothman »

Thanks Robert,
excellent as usual.
I hope I get my Nikon Scanner lens 45/2,8 mounted and can compare it against the Laowa 100mm macro.
All the best in 2021 to everybody.
Lothar

ray_parkhurst
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Re: New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Great test Robert! Interesting to see the M5400 NOT winning, but also surprising to not see the SN8000 lens in the test...Ray

Pau
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Re: New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by Pau »

Excellent tests again, thanks for posting them.

Note: PM sent
Pau

RobertOToole
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Re: New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by RobertOToole »

Hi Chris,
chris_ma wrote:
Sat Jan 02, 2021 4:22 am
Great way to start the new year :)

lovely write up as always. a minor point: on the Minolta the optimal magnification isn't listed (I think it's designed for about 1.8x?)
Good point. Someplace buried in the text I said its best at 1.5-2x. I'll make sure to add it to the notes so people can see it.
the Nikon Scanner lens has impressive resolution, but seems not as clean as the other top contenders - like on the Xerox letters there's some haloing going on, so I'm not sure if I'd put it on the top spot.
I did notice that. On small details its best but on some larger details its not the case. DOF? I should also note that I chose the crop comparison images based on the small micro-letters, not the larger Xerox text.

Some of that is moiré and some kind of artifact. Some of the higher res lenses show strange things on disks for some reason, like with a stacked setup and a fast front lens.
Curious why you didn't include your Rayfact VL 1.4x in the line up - too long a focal length?
Forgot about it! #-o
all the best to everybody for 2021!
chris
All the best for 2021 Chris!

Robert

RobertOToole
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Re: New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by RobertOToole »

lothman wrote:
Sat Jan 02, 2021 4:34 am
Thanks Robert,
excellent as usual.
I hope I get my Nikon Scanner lens 45/2,8 mounted and can compare it against the Laowa 100mm macro.
All the best in 2021 to everybody.
Lothar

Thanks Lothar!

Robert

RobertOToole
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Re: New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by RobertOToole »

ray_parkhurst wrote:
Sat Jan 02, 2021 7:24 am
Great test Robert! Interesting to see the M5400 NOT winning, but also surprising to not see the SN8000 lens in the test...Ray
The Minolta 5400 is just slightly out of the best range at 1.4x, it's super in the 1.5 - 2x range. This test just happened to hit the best range for the Nikon.

The 100mm Scanner Nikkor is best closer to 1x, something like 1.1x, so I didn't think about it since I already too many lenses lined up anyway. 8-[

Looking at the results, I really am glad I took the time to run the test and I don't when I'll have the time to run such a big test again. If anyone here on the forum can can appreciate all the time it takes to shoot and process something like this test, its you! It takes longer than most people would assume I think. :-k

Best,

Robert

RobertOToole
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Re: New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by RobertOToole »

Pau wrote:
Sat Jan 02, 2021 10:09 am
Excellent tests again, thanks for posting them.

Note: PM sent
Thanks for the PM Pau! :D

All the best,

Robert

chris_ma
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Re: New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by chris_ma »

RobertOToole wrote:
Sat Jan 02, 2021 11:31 am
the Nikon Scanner lens has impressive resolution, but seems not as clean as the other top contenders - like on the Xerox letters there's some haloing going on, so I'm not sure if I'd put it on the top spot.
I did notice that. On small details its best but on some larger details its not the case. DOF? I should also note that I chose the crop comparison images based on the small micro-letters, not the larger Xerox text.
ah yes, DoF would be an explanation.
If you still have the original files with the different focus steps it would be possible to verify (but working through a backlog of 5 months of pictures myself at the moment I know how time consuming this is).

Curious why you didn't include your Rayfact VL 1.4x in the line up - too long a focal length?
Forgot about it! #-o
[/quote]

typical case of "too many lenses" I guess :)

at F4.9 it probably can't quite hold up to the scanner nikon and minolta lenses on APS sensors anyway.
I'd expect it beats them in edge sharpness on FF and larger, and also in flat field, distortion and vignetting (the Nikon 45mm seems to have a bit of vignetting already on APS)
chris

typestar
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Re: New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by typestar »

Robert,

thankyou for another great testing and overview --- excellent, as we appreciate & love it.
And thankyou for the time you have spent on this, again.

Nice to see the performance of the tiny Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 7-elements scanner lens again
– in comparison to the "giants" (SK MacroVaron) -- and that - in this row the Minolta seems to be the little sister here ...

All the best for 2021 to you
and all members here

Christian

typestar
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Location: Austria

Re: New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by typestar »

@Lothar
lothman wrote:
Sat Jan 02, 2021 4:34 am
I hope I get my Nikon Scanner lens 45/2,8 mounted and can compare it against the Laowa 100mm macro.
Some of us will be curious about this comparison Laowa vs. Nikon 7-elements 45 mm -
Perhaps you can show your findings here when you have this, then ...

All the best,

Christian

ray_parkhurst
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Re: New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by ray_parkhurst »

RobertOToole wrote:
Sat Jan 02, 2021 11:43 am
ray_parkhurst wrote:
Sat Jan 02, 2021 7:24 am
Great test Robert! Interesting to see the M5400 NOT winning, but also surprising to not see the SN8000 lens in the test...Ray
The Minolta 5400 is just slightly out of the best range at 1.4x, it's super in the 1.5 - 2x range. This test just happened to hit the best range for the Nikon.

The 100mm Scanner Nikkor is best closer to 1x, something like 1.1x, so I didn't think about it since I already too many lenses lined up anyway. 8-[

Looking at the results, I really am glad I took the time to run the test and I don't when I'll have the time to run such a big test again. If anyone here on the forum can can appreciate all the time it takes to shoot and process something like this test, its you! It takes longer than most people would assume I think. :-k

Best,

Robert
Yes, it is a very tedious process. My biggest issue is not the actual processing but keeping it all straight so there is no confusion. I'm not all that well organized!

Lou Jost
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Re: New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by Lou Jost »

Excellent and very informative test as always. Our community owes you a huge amount of gratitude for these!

RobertOToole
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Re: New 1.4x Lens Test Results Online

Post by RobertOToole »

Lou Jost wrote:
Sat Jan 02, 2021 5:39 pm
Excellent and very informative test as always. Our community owes you a huge amount of gratitude for these!
Hi Lou,

Thanks.

Happy New Year!

The Scitex 5.6/80 was actually sharper in the center than the Magnagon, but at 1.4x the corners were a little softer, I believe I tried it in both directions and that did not help. Sharp lens, at least in the center.

I wonder where the best magnification is for that lens. I have some notes on that lens, but I need to search an older hard drive for the notes. The Scitex 5.6/80 was from the 340 smart scanner? My Scitex 320 only had the 110S3, 65 Rogonar-S, 67S3, 89S3.

That high sharpness did come with some red fringing on the 5.6/80 images, where the Magnagon 5.6/75 with a pink/red filter cut a tiny amount of sharpness but really helped CAs so I rant it with filter for the test.

At sometime in the future I plan to create a page/post for the Scitex 5.6/80 so I should look for those notes. :-k

Best,

Robert

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