Nikon Ai Micro Nikkor 105mm f/4 for scanning Sony A7V

Digital Camera Scanning
1

Greetings-
I am considering a used Nikon Ai Micro Nikkor 105mm f/4. I will be using an adaptor to fit to my Sony A7V.
Anyone have experience with this lens or caution that I am not going to experience suitable results?
I have the Negative Supply set up for film transport.

Thanks for reviewing and your response.

The Sony 90mm macro is out of my price range right now and I’m tired of renting.

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Do you mean the A7RV (61MP) or the A7IV (33MP)? I don’t think there is a A7V. It does make a difference because 61MP is going to forensically show up issues with your lens or the rest of our setup. A friend found that his 60mm Micro-Nikkor was slightly better for copying 35mm than his 105mm and this does seem to be borne out by the experience of others on the web. That said it is hard to spot the difference on an actual slide at around 24MP (as opposed to a test slide). There is always the question of sample variation of course.

This article links to invaluable information on macro lenses by Richard Karash:

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Harry- thank you for the reply, Yes, the A7RV- the big pixel deal. I was hoping to save some $ and get this Nikkor manual focus 100mm lens.
The article is helpful. Thank you.

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I use Fuji 24MP so APS-C of course. The impression I get is that the Sigma 70mm ART is the lens to aspire to with Sony full frame rather than the Sony 90mm, and the 105mm Sigma ART is better still at 1:1. See closeuphotography.com for detailed reviews.

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My setup is Sony A7r3 with Sigma 105 1:1 DG DN macro. Excellent results.

1 Like
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Hi, that was my first lens for scanning ! (I scan with an A7R2. I think it’s a great starting point and would fully recommend, especially at the price. Lens is plenty sharp and the f/4 being the slower version of the lens didn’t really make much difference to me once I started using it.

Pros:

  • sharp
  • price

Cons:

  • will need adapting (as you mentioned)

Pretty much as simple as that !

I recently swapped it out for a 2:1 Laowa macro and I do like it quite a bit better, but that was a more serious upgrade. Almost all of my current portfolio is scanned with that lens — shoot me a message if you’d like any samples ! Also, I’m looking to sell mine if you’re interested :slight_smile: