Schneider APO Componon 60mm f4 line scan lens

Schneider Kreuznach Componon 4/60 Line Scan lens

This is the latest version of the Schneider 60mm f/4 lens in an all-metal makro iris housing with the V-38 mount. I prefer this industrial mount version to older enlarger lens version called the APO-Componon HM 4.0/60 BLV-L, the L is for the Leica mount, M39 x 26 TPI, which was designed for darkroom use. As far as I can tell, the B-V and BLV-L have slightly different optical specs according to Schneider lens data sheets.

This is my 5th copy of the lens and the performance has been very consistent between samples. Optical performance is good all around, just forget about the APO designation, the chromatic aberration control is nothing special at all. You should know that Schneider lens labeling is done strictly for sales and marketing purposes, most lenses designated APO are actually not apochromatic, yet some of the lenses without an APO label, like the Makro-Symmar SR-120 definitely are apochromatic.

QUICK REVIEW

Great image quality across the frame
60mm image circle
100% plastic free, all-metal barrel and mount
Vibration-insensitive design
V-38 mount interface is industry compatible
Locking aperture ring
Continuous diaphragm adjustment without click-stops
Forward and reverse mounting is identical
V-mount allows the barrel to be rotated into any position
Schneider claims that all industrial lenses are 100% QC inspected

APO-Componon 4/60 test at 2x magnification

2500 PIXEL IMAGE SAMPLE

Click on the image below to view a larger version in a Lightbox viewer, but this will only be the largest size image if your screen/window is large enough. The size of the image sent to your device is based on the screen size. The below is 2500 pixels across. To check the size of the image you are looking at, look up at the URL window at the top of the browser, the address should have 2500w at the end. If the image size is anything smaller you can easily change the number to 2500 manually and press enter to bring up the largest image.

Schneider-APO-Componon-60mm-f4-lens-stacked-Schneider-Makro-Symmar-120-f5.6-Line-Scan-Lens-Sony-A6300-2500-pixels-across-Closeuphotography-com.jpg

For best results I use this lens in a stacked configuration. Stacking lenses, also called coupling lenses, is a technique where you mount a lens in reverse, or face-to-face, on a second lens, usually a telephoto lens. With the rear lens set to infinity focus and with the front lens reverse mounted there is no loss of light due to extension. Together the combination has the potential to resolve more than either of the lenses setup for close-focus with extension.

An f/4 lens focused at 2x magnification by extension would have an effective aperture of f/12 using the simple formula, effective aperture = nominal aperture * ( Magnification + 1 ). With the same lens setup in a stacked configuration the effective aperture would be only f/8 using the formula effective aperture = nominal aperture * Magnification. You can predict the maximum possible resolution from a certain lens by using the simple fact that a wider aperture = higher potential resolution.

Crop images at 100% View

Below are the center and far corner crops at 100% view in Photoshop.

To see a larger of the crop image just click the image, right click, or two-finger press, and select Open in a New Tab or New Window from the menu. You can also right click, or two-finger press, and select Save Image As to save and view the image full size.

2x TEST SETUP

Front lens: Schneider Kreuznach 4/60 APO-Componon lens reverse mounted
Rear lens: Schneider Makro-Symmar 120 line scan lens normally mounted focused at infinity
Stacked lens nominal aperture: f/4.0
Stacked lens effective aperture: f/8.0

Camera: Sony α6300, model # ILCE-6300, also known as: A6300
Sensor size: APS-C 23.5 × 15.6 mm. 28.21 mm diagonal. 3.92 micron sensor pitch
Flash: Godox TT350s wireless flash x 2 with one Godox X1s 2.4G wireless flash transmitter
Vertical stand: Nikon MM-11 with a Nikon focus block

For this test I ran a stack of images in 4 micron steps for each aperture. The sharpest frame was then chosen using Photoshop at 100% actual pixel view. Separate images were selected for center, edge, and corner if needed. Each image was processed in PS CC with identical settings with all noise reduction and lens correction turned off, all settings were zeroed out (true zero) and the same settings were used for all of the images.

SCHNEIDER APO-COMPONON 4/60 TECHNICAL DETAILS

Schneider Kreuznach APO-Componon 4/60 - 0016
Lens applications: Machine vision, OLED inspection, line scan, quality control
Schneider part number: 14802
Filter threads: 37mm x 0.75 standard for the V38 line scan lens line up (M43 x 0.75 for the M39 mount)
Barrel type: B-V also known as Makro-Iris mount
Optics: 6 elements in 4 groups
Mount: line scan industry standard V38 V-mount
Iris: 5 blades
Nominal maximum Aperture: f/4
NA: 0.13
Sensor pitch: 3.65 μm
Magnification range: 1:10 - 1:2, optimized for 0.1x
Coverage: 60mm
Current Retail Price: $1400 USD Schneider Optics USA ($1100 for the enlarger lens version)
Typical used price: $300-500 USD

Schneider APO Componon 60mm f4 line scan lens with and without shroud and mount adapter

RATING

What I Like:
Image quality when stacked
All-metal V-38 mount interface
Locking iris ring
Locking compound applied to the lens cells for long term stability

What I Don’t Like:

Slow maximum aperture
Less than APO correction which is not unusual for SK lenses
Non-circular aperture shape of the 5 blade iris

B-V Mount Notes

The B-V barrel lenses from Schneider use a vibration-insensitive design and I’m not sure if they includes anything internally but you can see locking compound used on some, not all, of the B-V lenses. You can see the compound below the arrows in the image above. You might ask why that is important, but when you use the lenses it is a big advantage in my opinion. About 80% of the lenses I own have hand-tight lens cells that can loosen and will loosen over time. I’ve spent an hour or more testing a lens only to notice that one of the lens cells is loose, so yeah staying tight is important. By the way that orange colored line below the arrows is a brass shim that is used to fine-tune the lens performance from the factory.

Mounting the APO-Componon 4/60

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There are different V-mount mount adapters on the market with some being better than others. Schneider makes V-38 mount adapters (and extension tubes) that do not clear the rear cell of their own lenses, sometimes by less than 1mm! You can’t blame the Chinese manufacturers for make poor adapters since they they just copy parts, there is not excuse for Schneider to make parts that don’t fit some of their best lenses. Out of all the V-38 adapters I have tried the RafCamera adapters work perfectly on all the lenses that I own. The RafCamera V-38 > M42 x 1mm adapter should be available now but I don’t have a direct link at the moment. I will post one once more details are available, you can always contact Raf in the meantime: https://www.rafcamera.com/

For more details on Schneider V-38 adapters and accessory compatibility see the SR-120 page on Closeuphotography.com:

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

CHROMATIC ABERRATION TEST

Coming soon.

OTHER 60mm LENSES

Schneider APO-Componon 4/60 HM enlarging lens
Same lens optically but in a plastic M39 x 26 TPI mount barrel

Schneider APO-Componon 4/60 APO-Digitar
There is no need to test this lens since Schneider lens data information shows that the APO-Digitar and APO-Componon 4/60 lenses are identical in optical design.

Schneider Componar 4/60
Small and inexpensive with an M25mm x 0.5mm mount but the corners do see a drop in performance compared to the APO-Componon.

Rodenstock Rogonar-S 5.6/60
This is an industrial M39 x 26 TPI with a preset aperture that performs better than I thought. Consistent and good CA correction, but it the center sharpness was a little weak.

Schneider WA Componon 5.6/60 enlarging lens
Good CA correction, but I found the center sharpness to be a less than other 60mm lenses but it could be due to sample variation.

Lens Data

The Gaussian data for the Schneider Kreuznach APO-Componon 4/60 types is interesting. At the top is the B-V V-38 mount version, below that is the APO-Digitar version and at the bottom is the APO-Componon 4/60 Leica mount enlarger lens version. As you can see the APO-Digitar and industrial versions are almost identical but the B-v and enlarger lenses are tuned slightly differently. So much for the claims that APO-Digitar lenses were all new designs for digital sensors.