Optikos Teradyne 106mm f/2 Inspection Lens

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Recently I Stumbled on an interesting looking lens on Ebay, and thankfully, the seller accepted my offer. Once the lens arrived I realized that I got seriously lucky. The lens box has 2.82X printed on the label, and if thats true, at f/2, it has the potential to be resolve some seriously good detail. The bad news is that the lens has custom threads so I was not able to do any testing other than handholding. The good news is that the images were sharp over the entire frame at f/2 and the lens shows very good CA control, much less than a microscope objective at least.

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After I have custom adapters made to mount the lens I can give it a real test and publish the results. 

If you know anything about this lens please send me a message. 

Thanks for looking.

Schneider-Kreuznach Vario-C-Claron 1:1 lens

These lenses appear on Ebay occasionally without any name, only the words, Lens made in Germany, and the 1:1 engraved on a wide adjustment ring. The 1:1 reproduction ratio is a big giveaway that this lens was optimized for work at 1X. The aperture ring has 1/4 stops, and the range is limited from f/5.6 to only f/16, so the lens was likely designed for copy work. But, the most important detail, the serial number, tells you its a Schneider-Kreuznach lens for sure.

Considering these no-name lenses sell for a bargain price, I payed less than $50 USD, what could go wrong?

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When the lens shows up, I couldn't help wonder, why the box was so big and heavy for one lens.

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This is a huge lens! 

Using the search terms "huge Schneider 1:1 lens", google turns up an old archived Schneider C-Claron copy lens brochure in PDF format.

These are the specs for the lens:

Schneider-Kreuznach Vario-C-Claron copy lens
8 elements in 6 groups
240mm f/5.6 optimized at 1:1
to
255mm f/7.0 optimized at 1:0.61
Image diagonal 450-354mm
Multicoated
Lens production, late 1974.
No lens mounting threads or filter threads.

Since this is a copy lens, the field should be flat, chromatic aberration control should be very good, and vignetting should be almost zero, but this lens was designed to be mounted to a bracket, it doesn't have a lens mount, or even any threads, so it looks like it is going to be sitting on my bookshelf in the future.  

Schneider Makro-Symmar lens package I couldn't pass up

Right after I promised, for the 10th time, to stay off Ebay, I came across another deal that looked too good to pass up. A line-scan machine with servo motor driven X-axis stage, camera, tubes, adapters and a lens. Question is, what lens was it built around?

Since the lens was covered in electrical tape, it was impossible to see any details, but I did recognize the Schneider front lens cap! Feeling lucky, I took a chance and paid the $100 asking price. I couldn't resist.

Underneath all the tape and residue, was a Makro-Symmar HM 120mm. The lens included a really well-made 2 inch long adapter that took the odd-ball 32.5mm threads to a standard 42mm x 1mm. The adapter attached to a 5 inch long thick-walled 42mm x 1 extension tube, both with extra-long threaded sections.

Schneider recommends the 120mm Makro-Symmar for 12K machine vision applications for sensors with a 5µm pixel pitch and a line-scan sensor size up to 12,000 pixels wide. That is interesting, since that is a pretty good match for the D810 with 4.88 µm pixel sensor and the D850 with 4.35 µm sensor. Its also interesting that the 80mm Makro-Symmar is not recommended for 12K sensors. 

This lens is available in a few mounts, this metal lens body is known as B-0 iris mount. 

If you are not familiar with the Makro-Symmar lens, it's a true macro lens, optimized for 1:1 reproduction, sharp and chromatic aberration free at 1X, thanks to the ULD (Ultra Low Dispersion) glass in an 8 elements, 4 group design. 

When I received the lens had no idea what to expect of the 120 Makro-Symmar performance. I do own an 80mm Makro-Symmar but the performance was not that good.

A 12K line-scan spec lens, like the 120 M-S lens, should be excellent on a DSLR like a D810 or D850.  I was right in the middle of a studio 1X sharpness test when I got the lens, so of course, I included it, and I am glad I did.

Check out the test results below. Schneider Makro-Symmar HM 120mm on the left, Nikon AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED on the right, both at 1x, f/5.6 and 100% magnification, all lens correction and noise reduction zeroed out in photoshop ACR.

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At the center the Makro-Symmar has a slight sharpness advantage, at least in the lettering, over the Micro-Nikkor, but it is close. Be sure to click on an image below to launch a new window with a full size image.

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The corner crops show a huge difference in image quality. The Schneider lens is surprisingly clean and sharp right to the very edge of the frame. The Nikon, not so much.

This is an interesting comparison, but it's not really a fair since the Makro-Symmar is a more expensive lens, and it is optimized for 1:1. The Nikon 105 VR is about $800-900, or 40% less than what the Schneider costs, has AF, VR, and can give you sharp results from infinity to 1X. The Nikon 105 VR has one ED element, the Schneider doesn't say how much ULD glass is in this lens, but I can guarantee you it's more than one element. Anyway, the results are interesting!

Wafer with 1X test area outlined with blue tape.

1X test area with the crop areas highlighted.

More Info

If you are interested in learning more details about the 120 Makro-Symmar lens follow this link to another page on this site: 

https://www.closeuphotography.com/schneider-makro-symmar-120mm/

Also to see the test results of all 16 lenses in 1X sharpness test, follow this link:

https://www.closeuphotography.com/sharpness-test-1x/

Thorlabs SM2 Lens Tube System For Macro Photography

Thorlabs SM2 Tube System parts including the SM2NFM2 Nikon F-Mount adapter.

The Thorlabs SM2 lens tube system is designed for optomechanical lab set-ups. I put this set of parts together to make a flex and vibration free setup to mount special lenses for macro photography. This system should be more rigid than the system I am using now and a lot easier to setup and use.

Scanner Nikkor lens with and without the Thorlabs SM2 52mm threaded sleeves.

Thorlabs SM2 tube couplers make a very convenient way to mount the Scanner Nikkor when fixed to the lens. The threaded collars will make mounting the Scanner Nikkor and setting the magnification ratio quick and easy.

The male 2.035-40 threads are compatible with female 52mm x 0.75 threads. I used SM2 couplers on both the front and the rear of the Scanner Nikkor. The front 52mm x 0.75 threads will make it easy to mount a hood or to mount the lens in reverse.

Thorlabs SM2 system parts with Scanner Nikkor lens.

The SM2NFM2 Nikon F-Mount adapter at the rear with SM2 tubes with mounts, and the Scanner Nikkor lens mounted with SM2 couplers and a SM2 tube at the front being used as a lens hood. This is just a quick check of the parts, the tube mounts are not fixed to the quick release plate at this point.

Thorlabs makes 42mm, 49mm, T-mount > SM2 adapters so mounting other lenses to this system should be clean and uncomplicated.

More info on the SM2 system on the Thorlabs site: 

https://www.thorlabs.com/navigation.cfm?guide_id=2070

SM2 adapters from Thorlabs:

https://www.thorlabs.com/navigation.cfm?guide_id=2327

Silicon Wafer Photography

Finally I found a simple low cost easy to set up target for lens tests, a silicon wafer!  This wafer makes a target that answered all my dreams, it is perfectly flat, has tons of detail, is easy to clean, and was only $7. 

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With the naked eye, the details are hard to see in the image above, but, here is a section of the wafer photographed at a little over 1X.  To see the images in a larger size, click on the images and they will open in a new window.

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The image was made with a Nikon D810, Scanner Nikkor ED, at 1.1X with a single Nikon SBR200 flash. 

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100% center actual pixel crop. 

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100% crop, lower right extreme corner. 

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100% crop, lower left extreme corner. 

Click on each image to see the image in a larger size. 

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100% crop, upper left extreme corner. 

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100% crop, upper right extreme corner. 

If you are interested in buying a silicon wafer use Ebay search term 'silicon wafer' or search for item number 262635273324