simple-joy
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Because the topic of scanner lenses came up here recently, I thought it's about time to try and create a thread on the matter, in order to give people who are interested in adapting unusual lenses an overview and collect all the possible resources in one place.
You can find a number of excellent sources below, that E Dinkla mentioned here:
For the most part those resources mainly focus on the use of scanner lenses for macro photography, so their qualities at distance are usually not discussed there. The giant deltalenses archive (that I'm also contributing to) is perhaps going to adress that aspect with some scanner lenses, however currently the section is not yet fleshed out:
https://deltalenses.com/product-category/industrial-lenses/scanner/
And there are two more great resources I absolutely have to mention:
Ray Parkhurst's site macrocoins features two tests, one in the range of 80 mm:
http://www.macrocoins.com/80mm-lens-shootout.html
and one in the range of 100 mm:
http://www.macrocoins.com/100mm-lens-shootout.html
both feature a number of lenses used in scanners.
So, if you have any experiences with adapted scanner lenses or some old broken scanners lying around, which you could try to salvage an interesting lens from - please post your thoughts and results here to share them with others who may be interested to know!
You can find a number of excellent sources below, that E Dinkla mentioned here:
Those sites provide some really well researched information and great tests of a number of lenses. I'm a big fan of all of them, particularly closeuphotography - which was operated by late Robert OToole - who unfortunately passed away a couple of days ago... Certainly a big pioneer in the field of adapting and testing unusual lenses for macro photography, including many, many scanner lenses. He was dedicated to provide well-researched information only and did an excellent job at documenting the lenses as well as the devices they were used in. A great one of our field and a also a personal friend who helped me out more times than I can count. I don't remember if he ever posted here on dpreview, but I'm sure quite a few people here have heard about or seen his awesome work! R.I.P.!E Dinkla said:I think it could make nice threads here. On the other hand there are some well documented web pages on the subject. With instructions how to remove the lenses and which lenses are worth it considering image quality at different magnifications. My personal opinion is that almost any scanner lens is worth it to be rescued from the scrapyard, so many scanners became obsolete in the last decades. I suspect that often the better ones are Plasmats, a less common type in SLR and rangefinder lenses
https://www.closeuphotography.com/scanner-lenses
https://www.savazzi.net/photography/scanner-lenses.html
https://coinimaging.com/Lens_tests.html
google 'salvaged scanner lenses' for more.
For the most part those resources mainly focus on the use of scanner lenses for macro photography, so their qualities at distance are usually not discussed there. The giant deltalenses archive (that I'm also contributing to) is perhaps going to adress that aspect with some scanner lenses, however currently the section is not yet fleshed out:
https://deltalenses.com/product-category/industrial-lenses/scanner/
And there are two more great resources I absolutely have to mention:
Ray Parkhurst's site macrocoins features two tests, one in the range of 80 mm:
http://www.macrocoins.com/80mm-lens-shootout.html
and one in the range of 100 mm:
http://www.macrocoins.com/100mm-lens-shootout.html
both feature a number of lenses used in scanners.
So, if you have any experiences with adapted scanner lenses or some old broken scanners lying around, which you could try to salvage an interesting lens from - please post your thoughts and results here to share them with others who may be interested to know!









