Lenses for Scanning (film digitizing)

[neuromantism]

I use Tamron SP 90mm F2.8 Di Macro USD (F004 from 2012) for A-mount adapted on Sony A7IV, and with Nikon's ES-2 rip-off made by JJC backlit by a light therapy lamp. The lens is quite sharper than my Sony 90mm G2.8 G macro, costed a fraction of its price (either new or used Sony's) and the only downsides to the first party non-adapted are AF performance (Sony's reaaaallly good) and lack of in-lens stabilization. The upside is that this lens rocks on Minolta cameras.

 

[xkaes]

Plenty of people have discovered close-up lenses from scanners, fax machines, mini-labs, fiche readers, etc. They can often be found for very little money, but adapting them to other gear can be a challenge -- for example, and they often don't have an aperture. Fujinon, Minolta and many others have made these optics and they are superb at what they do. But like great lenses, they are designed to be used under certain parameters, such as magnification and distance. Here are a lot of them:

https://www.closeuphotography.com/lenses

 

[silvergelatin]

Plenty of people have discovered close-up lenses from scanners, fax machines, mini-labs, fiche readers, etc. They can often be found for very little money, but adapting them to other gear can be a challenge -- for example, and they often don't have an aperture. Fujinon, Minolta and many others have made these optics and they are superb at what they do. But like great lenses, they are designed to be used under certain parameters, such as magnification and distance. Here are a lot of them:

https://www.closeuphotography.com/lenses

My aunt had a fax machine with a lens that Robert O'Toole said was really good, and she sold it on ebay and retired off the lens monies.

Anyone reading his thread has already seen that site. Except the people recommending lenses panned on that site.

 

[xkaes]

That's great for your Aunt. I certainly would not buy a lens designed for a FAX machine, but that's just me.

However, I have seen some great results from FUJI EFC lenses. I won't bet my retirement on them however.

https://www.subclub.org/fujinon/efc.htm

 

[silvergelatin]

That's great for your Aunt. I certainly would not buy a lens designed for a FAX machine, but that's just me.

However, I have seen some great results from FUJI EFC lenses. I won't bet my retirement on them however.

https://www.subclub.org/fujinon/efc.htm

"Like"
I have looked into these, but cannot find a lot of information as to which, if any, are optimized for 1:1 reproduction of 35mm onto full frame. Seems like they optimized to work within the narrow parameters of the machines they were made for.

 

[MattKing]

The lens designers who worked on dedicated scanners probably were designing for sensors that were a lot smaller than the sensors in a digital camera.
Such a lens might produce an image that was sharp in the corners of the camera's sensor, but it would be a fluke.

 

[John Wiegerink]

I have a couple of lenses I robbed from a two of high-end Agfa flatbed scanners that were supposed to be extremely good but haven't really tried either of them yet since I'm not into "camera copy/scanning" yet. Like Matt said, the lenses weren't designed to cover a full-frame sensor, but for closeup work they should be fine. I'm sure some folks have already tried pirated scanner lenses for do camera scanning and would know much more than me as to whether they are worth fooling around with or not.

 

[originalwinslow]

I'm sure some folks have already tried pirated scanner lenses for do camera scanning and would know much more than me as to whether they are worth fooling around with or not.

At this point @silvergelatin just reverse-engineer a modular fuji frontier but with a GFX sensor

 

[silvergelatin]

At this point @silvergelatin just reverse-engineer a modular fuji frontier but with a GFX sensor

Nah, just broke down and ordered the 75 Apo Rodagon D. It arrived today and looks good so far. Need to run more film to put it through its paces, but this is the end of the search. I'm not going to bother adapting rare and expensive lenses.

 

[John Wiegerink]

Nah, just broke down and ordered the 75 Apo Rodagon D. It arrived today and looks good so far. Need to run more film to put it through its paces, but this is the end of the search. I'm not going to bother adapting rare and expensive lenses.

Definitely keep us posted on how it works out for you. I'm seriously thinking of dumping my Nikon LS-8000 for camera scanning with my Sony A7RII.

 

[xkaes]

Definitely keep us posted on how it works out for you. I'm seriously thinking of dumping my Nikon LS-8000 for camera scanning with my Sony A7RII.

That's the way I've gone too -- but that's because I already have that gear. In my case it's a Sony a900 and a Beseler Dual-Mode Slide copier with 4x5" attachment.

But if you are starting from scratch, it's a whole 'nother story.

 

[silvergelatin]

Definitely keep us posted on how it works out for you. I'm seriously thinking of dumping my Nikon LS-8000 for camera scanning with my Sony A7RII.

I wouldn’t dump the 8000 if I were you, but I would finish your camera scanning setup so you can compare for yourself. Also, camera scanning is MUCH faster, so you could use both - run everything through the Sony, and if you find you like the 8000 scans better, use that for the selects. Do you have a light source, copy stand, and carrier?

 

[John Wiegerink]

I wouldn’t dump the 8000 if I were you, but I would finish your camera scanning setup so you can compare for yourself. Also, camera scanning is MUCH faster, so you could use both - run everything through the Sony, and if you find you like the 8000 scans better, use that for the selects. Do you have a light source, copy stand, and carrier?

I was planning on hanging on to the 8000 until I had tested out the camera scanning. I also have an Epson V850 so I have most of the bases covered. Have a couple options to try for camera scanning. I have bellows/slide copy setups of several kinds. I'm going to try my Vivitar 285HV flash with a diffuser first. I used to use that to copy slides, and it worked great. I also have a lighted scan lid from a high-end scanner that I figured out how to get the light in the lid to work.

 

[silvergelatin]

I was planning on hanging on to the 8000 until I had tested out the camera scanning. I also have an Epson V850 so I have most of the bases covered. Have a couple options to try for camera scanning. I have bellows/slide copy setups of several kinds. I'm going to try my Vivitar 285HV flash with a diffuser first. I used to use that to copy slides, and it worked great. I also have a lighted scan lid from a high-end scanner that I figured out how to get the light in the lid to work.

The light source is the most important piece of the puzzle for color negs. Flash is good - better than most LEDs, probably - but RGB is the gold standard, albeit still relatively uncommon. Jack’s Big Scanlight is great. I haven’t tried the new Cinestill.

 

[John Wiegerink]

The light source is the most important piece of the puzzle for color negs. Flash is good - better than most LEDs, probably - but RGB is the gold standard, albeit still relatively uncommon. Jack’s Big Scanlight is great. I haven’t tried the new Cinestill.

I'm doing B&W almost exclusively so what I already have should work fine. My Sony A7RII does pretty much all my color work now. I do have some 4X5 and 8X10 Fujichrome 100D and 100T film stashed away, but I won't probably ever get the urge to use it.