Re: filmscanners: SS120 & Nikon 8000 ... how do they work?

[Raphael Bustin <rafeb@channel1.com>]

On Fri, 13 Jul 2001, Arthur Entlich wrote:

> I'm looking over my Nikon lens chart here, which is admittedly a bit
> outdated, but other than some very wide lenses (13mm, 15mm, 18mm, 20mm
> and a fast 24mm) one 200mm, one 300 mm ED and one 105mm micro, no fixed
> focus Nikon lens has more than single digit number of elements. 
> However, almost every zoom lens has more than 10 elements, and up to 20
> (a 360-1200mm ED lens)


I don't pretend to understand lens design, 
and must admit that the number of lenses 
and lens-groups in the 8000 ED scanner 
lens seems.. er.. rather large, on first 
blush.

Perhaps an optics expert would care to 
comment.

I'll hazard a guess that larger film 
formats require extra optical trickery to 
maintain focus across the entire film 
plane -- particularly where wide apertures 
are a factor.

IOW, it may not be valid in this case 
to use a Nikon lens chart as a reference. 
If there were a comparable Mamiya or 
Hasselblad chart (for wide-aperture 
lenses, 6x6 film format) that would be 
more revealing, maybe.

In any case, the discussion is perhaps 
a bit academic.  Lawrence Smith's sample 
scans from 2-3 days ago show that the 
Nikon 8000 ED is no slouch in terms of image 
sharpness.  Seems like we're all trying to 
2nd-guess Nikon's optics engineers here.



rafe b.