UKH

Could anyone recommend a macro lens for a mirrorless film scanning setup? Requirements:

- Preferably Sony E-mount (full-frame), but adapter is possible if it makes sense in terms of price and quality, particularly Nikon (already have the adapter)

- Affordable (bellow 500 Euros/pounds if possible)

- Focal lens and magnification should suit a scanning distance that works for a standard size copy stand

- Easy manual focus (ideally relative short distance and stiff focus ring)

- Should be available either second hand or new in a reasonable timeframe (lots of stuff out of stock these days)

Thanks! 

I don't know about other makes but I have a Canon EF 100L f2.8 IS macro lens and it is fantastic. I use it with a 5DS (50mp) and it does the sensor justice. You'd be able to get an adapter for it, (I have one I use with a Fuji body). These lenses are available 2ndhand and mint for less than £500.

There is a good FB page about this: https://www.facebook.com/groups/287716734970881

Thanks! that group looks very useful! I have sent a request to join.

Are you scanning 35mm slides? For what use? Any macro lens that goes to 1:1 is likely to be up to the job. I would go for a medium focal length between 70 and 150mm to give you a bit of working distance and likely flatter field. Old manual lenses handle better but a lot only go to 1:2. Modern AF lenses may be sharper but typically shorten the focal length towards 1:1 reducing working distance. Sigma are probably the best value and no less sharp than the main camera brands, if you are spending a few hundred get a lens you can use for photography too. The 70mm DG is highly rated and native FE mount - £450 new/ ~£320 used.

Getting the film flat, parallel to the lens and uniformly lit without causing flare may be a bigger challenge than the lens choice. A tablet can be a good light source if there is enough separation to blur the pixels.

If you don't need high resolution do 4 or more at once and crop them out. If you want high res I'd recommend removing the film from the mount as the cropped area can be surprisingly big.

A word of caution: A tablet may look white but generally they're not very spectrally uniform which means that you likely to get some weird uncorrectable colour shifts, particularly at the green/blue end of the spectrum where LEDs tend to be most 'peaky'. You may be lucky or not too bothered, but either way check before scanning hundreds of slides!

Oh and another thing to check: LED panels are not very 'Lambertian', i.e., they don't look the same brightness from all angles, particularly in the vertical plane. Again, it may not be a problem but if it is then it is easily corrected by taking an image of just the panel (in the scanner, but with no slide) and using that as a 'flat' - i.e., just divide the scanned slide images by the slide-less image.

I think Ming Thein's blog has some decent info on doing this sort of thing.

Thanks! Some very useful advice here!

I have recently started developing black and white negative film at home and want this to also home scan with reasonable quality. I have previously used a Kodak Slide n Scan which is really poor quality. 

I've scanned thousands of negatives and colour slide positives, and can assure you that a flatbed scanner is far quicker and gives much better results than using a camera (I shoot on Sony too). The ability to batch scan 12 at a time whilst preparing the next 12 in a second mount saved hours of time. I used a second hand Epson v800 which was cheaper than your £500 budget. 

Ah, interesting observation! I was under the impression everyone was moving to DSLR/mirrorless scanning for quality. Is this not the case?

I think a lot of people use a camera because they already own one! I'm not convinced it's any cheaper once you've bought a macro lens and a light box than just buying a scanner, although the scanner has the limitation of only being useful for the one job!