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.