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Best Macro Lens for Scanning Negatives

Started Aug 6, 2020 | Discussions thread
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bastibe
bastibe Senior Member • Posts: 1,236
Best Macro Lens for Scanning Negatives

I am looking for an affordable macro lens, mostly for scanning film negatives with my X-T2.

As far as I can tell, the contenders are:

  • Fuji XF 80 (€900)
  • Fuji XF 60 (€650)
  • Zhongyi 85 (€550)
  • Laowa 65 (€450)
  • Samyang 100 (€450)
  • Meike 85 (€350)
  • 7artisans 60 (€190)
  • An adapted Canon macro lens (I have the Fringer adapter), i.e. 60 (€250) or 50 (€130)
  • A Fuji lens with a macro filter or extension tubes

(roughly in order of price from high to low, based on current ebay prices)

Do you have any first hand experience with any of these lenses for film scanning?

I hear that a flat field is important for film scanning, but can't find a mention of that for most of these lenses.

For my use case, I don't require autofocus, and a magnification of somewhat less than 1:1 should be sufficient.

Thank you for any other piece of advice you might offer.

 bastibe's gear list:bastibe's gear list
Ricoh GR III Fujifilm X-Pro2 Fujifilm X-T3 Fujifilm XF 35mm F1.4 R Fujifilm XF 60mm F2.4 R Macro +5 more
Fujifilm X-T2
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