L-R; Nikon CF Plan APO 4x/0.20 Finite, Nikon CFI Plan Fluor 4X/0.13, Nikon CFI S Fluor 4X/0.20, Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X/0.14, Schneider Makro-Symmar 120mm f5.9 + Xenon 28mm f2 lens, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x

LENSES in this test

Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo lens

Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X/0.14 ∞/- Objective

Nikon CF Plan Apochromat 4x/0.20 160/- Finite Objective

Nikon CFI Plan Fluor 4X/0.13 ∞/- Objective

Nikon CFI Super Fluor 4X/0.20 ∞/- Objective

Schneider Makro-Symmar 5.9/120 0.75x 0059 Line Scan Lens + Xenon 28mm f2 Line Scan Lens

Schneider-Makro-Symmar-5.6-120-0.75x-and-Xenon-28mm-f2-Line Scan-lens-Closeuphotography-com-1500px-labeled.jpg

the SK Macro-symmar 120/5.9 + Xenon 28/2

After trying more than a dozen combinations of lenses, almost all were a waste of time honestly, but out of the 15 or so pairs, 3 seemed to offer some decent image quality, and out of these 3, one was special. The Schneider Makro-Symmar 120mm f/5.9 and Schneider Xenon 28mm f/2 pair image quality was excellent with corner to corner sharpness and almost no CAs. This pair impressed me so much I decided to pull out some of my best objectives and the MP-E to see exactly how good this lens was and the comparison results were a big surprise.

STACKED vs extended

Stacked lenses, sometimes called coupled lenses, is a technique where you use a two lenses, usually a telephoto and a shorter lens mounted in reverse, face to face, for macro photography. The performance from a pair of stacked lenses at 1x or higher can be much better than a normal macro lens focused using extension. A f/3.5 lens focused at 4x by extension only would have an effective aperture of f/17.5 but when you focus at 4x with that lens reverse mounted on a telephoto, the effective aperture would be f/14. That gain of 2/3rds of a stop can make a difference in image sharpness.

TEST SET-UP

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 a stack of images was made with 5 micron steps, and was repeated 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. All of the images shown here are single files. None of the images are stacked.

The ITL-200 tube lens was used for the Mitutoyo and all the Nikon Objectives. The Thorlabs ITL200 is made by Nikon for Fluor objectives and is one of the best tube lenses that I have tested and much better than both the Mitutoyo MT-1 and Nikon MXA20696 tube lens.

image sharpening for the test

Due to the strong details in the test wafer I was not able to run a sharpening pass after the Raw files were converted. The only sharpening applied to the test images was done in ACR using sharpening settings of amount: 50, Radius: 0.5, Detail: 100, Masking: 30. Any additional sharpening resulted in over-sharpening, so no additional sharpening was applied to any of the images. The MP-E 65 and Plan Fluor images did not show any over-sharpening effects so keep in mind that these files would benefit from an additional sharpening pass. You can always download any of these files and apply sharpening on your own.

COMPARING IMAGES AT 100% VIEW

Click on any image below to view a 900 pixel version in a Lightbox viewer or better yet, to open an image in a new browser tab, 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 and compare the images in any image viewer.

4x-test-wafer-with-crop-areas-highlighted-Closeuphotography-com.jpg

4x Test: 100% Center Crops

Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x: The MP-E was sharpest at f/3.5, but its not enough compared to the other lenses in the test. Chromatic aberrations are also excessive with the MP-E in the center, you can see red fringing around the edges of the squares and around highlights in the center crop.

Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X/0.14: Very good, sharp, crisp, clean and no CAs as expected.

Nikon CF Plan Apochromat 4x/0.20: Awesome center sharpness and contrast, but you can see an issue on the right side edge of the frame where there is some softness . The wafer was parallel with the sensor during this test so this test shows that the image circle is going to have a big problem covering an APS-C size sensor.

Nikon CFI Plan Fluor 4X/0.13: This is one of the slower lenses in the test, so there should be a little less sharpness and resolution and there is. CAs are very well controlled but Fluor lenses do show a slight blue cast but this is normal.

Nikon CFI Super Fluor 4X/0.20: Excellent sharpness and the fine details are better rendered than the other 0.13 and 0.14 NA lenses and without the sharpness drop off of the Nikon Plan APO 0.20 lens.

Schneider Makro-Symmar 120mm f5.9 + Xenon 28mm f2 lens: This lens has an NA of around 0.18 so the sharpness and details should be very close to matching the 0.20 lenses and they are. Actually I see slightly more fine details with the the Makro-Symmar + Xenon results than all of the center crops here, including the 0.20 lenses. The 0.20 objectives have more contrast but the I see more details with the MSXS results.

4x Test: 100% OFF Center Crops

Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x: The results here are very similar to the center, less sharpness and more CAs than the other lenses.

Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X/0.14: Almost perfect. Great contrast and sharpness without any hint of CAs.

Nikon CF Plan Apochromat 4x/0.20: In the center of the crop image the neon blue and red fringing becomes a big problem and along the right edge the image is very soft. This is not field curvature, it’s worse, this lens cannot cover an APS-C sensor.

Nikon CFI Plan Fluor 4X/0.13: The performance off center looks the same as the center. I do see some blue or purple haze but this is normal for this type of lens.

Nikon CFI Super Fluor 4X/0.20: Awesome sharpness with just a slight amount of red and blue CAs.

Schneider Makro-Symmar 120mm f5.9 + Xenon 28mm f2 lens: Amazing sharpness from edge to edge in this crop with absolutely zero CAs.

4x Test: 100% EDGE Crops

Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x: The biggest strength of the MP-E is coverage and the edge crop looks sharper and cleaner with even less CAs than the center crop image.

Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X/0.14: Sharp and detailed without any CAs. The ITL200 tubes lens and 5x M Plan are an awesome combination.

Nikon CF Plan Apochromat 4x/0.20: The edge crop area is outside the usable image circle of this lens and not acceptable.

Nikon CFI Plan Fluor 4X/0.13: Sharpness isn’t so bad here, but the CAs are an issue.

Nikon CFI Super Fluor 4X/0.20: Good detail and sharpness, CAs are well controlled. The S Fluor is not plan corrected so this edge crop is from a different frame than the others.

Schneider Makro-Symmar 5.9/120 + Xenon 28mm f2 Lens: Sharp, lots of fine details without any CAs. The only lens that compares is the Mitutoyo M Plan with slightly better contrast, but less fine details than the Makro-Symmar + Xenon lens.

4x Test: 100% CORNER Crops

Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x: The corner image is not bad at 4x and is actually cleaner and better corrected than the center area!

Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X/0.14: One of the very best results here, with only a small amount of sharpness near the edge in the upper right corner of the frame.

Nikon CF Plan Apochromat 4x/0.20: The corner crop area is outside the usable image circle and not acceptable.

Nikon CFI Plan Fluor 4X/0.13: Very good just some slight CAs and softness.

Nikon CFI Super Fluor 4X/0.20: Slightly softer than the Plan Fluor, but the CAs are better controlled. The S-Fluor is not plan corrected, so the edge crop is from a different frame.

Schneider Makro-Symmar 120mm f5.9 + Xenon 28mm f2 Lens: Lots of details and sharp edge to edge, zero CAs, the best corner performance here, even better the Mitutoyo M Plan APO 5x.

Chromatic Aberrations at 4x

The sharp lines in the design and the letters make it really easy to compare chromatic aberrations between the lenses in this test, to make this easier on the eyes the crops are being shown here at 200%.

The Mitutoyo M Plan looks best in this center crop, the Makro-Symmar + Xenon is in the middle of the pack.

Best to Worse:
1 - Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X/0.14
2 - Nikon CF Plan Apochromat 4x/0.20
3 - Schneider Makro-Symmar 120mm f5.9 + Xenon 28mm f2
4 - Nikon CFI Super Fluor 4X/0.20
5 - Nikon CFI Plan Fluor 4X/0.13
6 - Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro

4X TEST REsults

For this test both lenses were used at the sharpest aperture for the lens at 5x, the Canon 65mm MP-E was used slightly stopped down at f3.5, the Schneider Makro-Symmar 120mm f5.9 + Xenon 28mm f2 lens was set to f/2.8.

The Nikon CF Plan Apochromat 4x/0.20 objective performance was so poor I am going to leave it out of the final results. The center was one of the sharpest but even there the right edge of the center crop was already showing effect of the sharpness drop off.

Center sharpness:

1 - Schneider Makro-Symmar 120mm f5.9 + Xenon 28mm f2
2 - Nikon CFI Super Fluor 4X/0.20 ∞/- Objective
3 - Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X/0.14 ∞/- Objective
4 - Nikon CFI Plan Fluor 4X/0.13 ∞/- Objective
5 - Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo lens

Off Center sharpness:
1 - Schneider Makro-Symmar 120mm f5.9 + Xenon 28mm f2
2 - Nikon CFI Super Fluor 4X/0.20 ∞/- Objective
3 - Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X/0.14 ∞/- Objective
4 - Nikon CFI Plan Fluor 4X/0.13 ∞/- Objective
5 - Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo lens

Edge sharpness:
1 - Schneider Makro-Symmar 120mm f5.9 + Xenon 28mm f2
2 - Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X/0.14 ∞/- Objective
3 - Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo lens - very close to the Mitutoyo here
4 - Nikon CFI Super Fluor 4X/0.20 ∞/- Objective
5 - Nikon CFI Plan Fluor 4X/0.13 ∞/- Objective

Corner sharpness:
1 - Schneider Makro-Symmar 120mm f5.9 + Xenon 28mm f2
2 - Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X/0.14 ∞/- Objective
3 - Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo lens - very close to the Mitutoyo again.
4 - Nikon CFI Super Fluor 4X/0.20 ∞/- Objective - Nikon CFI Plan Fluor 4X/0.13 ∞/- Objective

THE BEST AT 4X

Overall Best Lens at 4x: Schneider Makro-Symmar 120mm f5.9 + Xenon 28mm f2

The SMSX is the overall best performing lens in this test. The 0.20 NA lenses are very close in the center and some people might prefer the higher contrast and blacker blacks made with these objectives but the SMSX lens has more fine detail and resolution, you can see some fine scratches in the wafer that the 0.20 lenses miss. None of the objectives can match the edge to edge sharpness of the SMSX. The Mitutoyo is very close but not as sharp, and there is a very slight drop in quality at the extreme corner with the Mitutoyo, where the SMSX is sharp right to the very edge.

Runner Up: Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X/0.14 ∞/- Objective

The Mitutoyo puts in a great performance at 4x, with the best APO correction of all the lenses. Some of this image quality is due to the excellent ITL200 tube lens used for this test, it almost seems like the ITL200 was designed for the M Plans. To get to 4x I setup the ITL200 in short focus configuration which in my opinion, produces better looking files than at 5x.

Overall Best Value in This Test:

Schneider Makro-Symmar 120mm f5.9 + Xenon 28mm f2 lens
Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X/0.14 ∞/- Objective

Both of these lenses are awesome performers and they cost about the same. The Mituyoto is $705 new, but you can find deals for a lot less on the used market at about $350-450. The Makro-symmar costs about $1300 new, but these are available even on Ebay for $299. The Xenon lenses pop up from time to time, my 28/2 Xenon cost me $50. That means you should theoretically be able to pick up both the Mitutoyo and SMSX lenses for about the same prices on the used market if you are patient or new for a little more money.

THE WORST AT 4X

Worst Overall Performance Award: Nikon CF Plan Apochromat 4x/0.20 160/- Finite Objective

No other lens I have used does so well in the center, and so poorly everywhere else in the frame, even on a small sensor. Literally the image quality goes from 10 out of 10 to 0 out of 10 in a few millimeters away from the center.

Effective Aperture

Approximate effective apertures of the lenses for this test. The effective aperture will give you an idea of the potential resolution for each lens.

Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo lens
NA: 0.11 at 4x
Nominal: f/3.5
Effective aperture: f/17.5, using the cameras light meter I measured closer to f/18.

Mitutoyo M Plan Apo 5X/0.14 ∞/- Objective
NA: 0.14
Nominal: f/2.98
Effective aperture: f/15.44

Nikon CF Plan Apochromat 4x/0.20 160/- Finite Objective
NA: 0.20
Nominal: f/2
Effective aperture: f/10

Nikon CFI Plan Fluor 4X/0.13 ∞/- Objective
NA: 0.13
Nominal: f/3.2
Effective aperture: f/19.2

Nikon CFI Super Fluor 4X/0.20 ∞/- Objective
NA: 0.20
Nominal: f/2
Effective aperture: f/10

Schneider Makro-Symmar 120mm f5.9 + Xenon 28mm f2
NA: 0.18
Nominal: f/2.8
Effective aperture: f/11.7

LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION

The Makro-Symmar 120/5.9 Industrial 12K lens lineup on the Schneider Optics website (USA):

https://www.schneideroptics.com/Ecommerce/CatalogSubCategoryDisplay.aspx?CID=1353

The Makro-Symmar 5.9/120MM-0059 model used here on the Schneider Optics website (USA) website:

https://www.schneideroptics.com/Ecommerce/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?CID=1353&IID=6000

Schneider’s V38-line Scan Lens lineup including the 120/5.9 lens:
https://schneiderkreuznach.com/en/industrial-optics/lenses-v38-line-scan-macro-system

Makro-Symmar 5.9/120MM Data Sheet PDF:

https://schneiderkreuznach.com/application/files/8115/2845/3944/Makro-Symmar-5.9-120-0.75x.pdf

Makro-Symmar 5.9/120MM talk on Photomacrography.net:

https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=221728&sid=ce04e6ee77464c9e027cb52f2e04cb28

Makro-Symmar HM 120 5.9 lens
A detailed test report on the Makro-Symmar 120 lens in the B-0 mount called the 120 Makro-Symmar HM including comparison images is available here on Closeuphotography.com:

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

Xenon f/2 lens discussion on Photomacrography.net:
This is an older discussion but there is still lots of interesting info:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7354&

Stacked Lens vs High-End Objectives 4x Test