The Oshiro 60mm 2:1 Macro Lens
Recently I compared two lenses from opposite ends of the market, the low price end with the Oshiro 60mm 2:1 lens and the top end with the Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 macro lens and results are interesting.
Take a couple of minute to see the 100% crops and it would be interesting to hear what you think.
The Oshiro 60mm 2:1 Macro Lens and Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 Macro Lens Comparison Test:
https://www.closeuphotography.com/oshiro-60mm-2x-macro-lens/
This is the perfect microscope objective for people new to photomacrography. You can pick one up for almost nothing, it's easy to set-up and use and most importantly, it makes really clean, sharp images.
Lenses that perform way above their price range are rare, this Lomo can outperform a macro lenses costing about 20X the price! To see more on this lens, follow this link:
After three days of shooting a comparison of 33 lenses at 4x magnification the first part of the comparison is online.
The results of the comparison will be posted in 5 parts:
1. 4X For Less Than $100
2. High-End Objectives
3. Enlarging Lenses Compared at 4x
4. High-magnification macro lenses at 4x
5. 3x and 5x lenses tested at 4x.
Follow this link for the first part, 4X For Less Than $100:
https://www.closeuphotography.com/4x-lens-test/part-one-4x-for-less-than-100-dollars
Part two is almost ready to go and will be online next week.
Any questions, send me a email.
The first part of the 4x test includes, L-R: Lomo 3,7x; Fluor 4x; $17 4x; Nikon BE Plan 4x; Nikon E Plan 4x; and Nikon Plan 4x (gold barrel) objective.
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.
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.
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?
When the lens shows up, I couldn't help wonder, why the box was so big and heavy for one lens.
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.