EspE1
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Senior Member
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Posts: 1,415
OM 80 mm macro for slide digitizing?
1 month ago
I'm beginning to plan for (the long postponed ...) large slide digitizing operation.
Currently I've available for the operation the digital lenses m43 60 mm macro and the 4/3 50 mm macro (which could possibly also get the the m43 30 mm added, as it is recommended by several being well suited for slides digitizing).
However, I also do have available the old OM 80 mm macro (and the OM 50 mm macro) with the necessary bellows and also slide duplicator. (The duplicator/holder is not so interesting for reasons I'll comment on below.)
The 80 mm, which was optimized in particular for 1:1 magnification recordings with OM 35 mm cameras (range 2:1 - 1:2), raises a couple of questions:
1. While the 80 mm was considered a very sharp lens for the 1:1 tasks in the analog days, how is its resolving power and resolution capability now compared with new macro lenses for digital?
2. If used with a 43/m43 sensor, the 80 mm can only render 1:1 at the extreme end of its focusing range, which is not optimal. Combine that with the the 3:2 aspect ratio of the slides differing from the m43 sensors, and the question becomes:
If the answer to question 1 is favourable enough, could a wise strategy then be simply to buy a used FF camera (and an OM adaptor) for the digitizing act? If so, do you immediately have any suggestion for a suited camera? (Given that it will be sold again when finished, it's mainly a question of quality vs market risk when selling again, than price per se.)
(As for slide duplicators, I once read an article here on dp that argued against the use of cumbersome slide duplicators/holders. It argued to rather lay the slides in a simple low frame on a lighted plane like a light table or flashed diffuser screen and have the camera pointed downwards to it. Then one could (working in a darkened room) very easily and quickly shift the slides by pushing one out with the new one entering (-- "slides" isn't it ?).
Sounds wise to me.)