The Mitutoyo M-Plan Objective for Macro Photography

Want the very best?

Well this is it! There is no better optic available to us mere mortals when it comes to high magnification photography in the 5-20X magnification range.

A brace of Mitutoyo 5X objectives

These are the real deal. The world’s most affordable high end industrial microscope objectives. The Metalurgic “M” Plan Apochromatic 5X infinity corrected microscope objective is the standard by which all other objectives are measured. But amazingly, they manage all this at a price that is, literally unbeatable.

Why so good? Depending on who you ask, there are multiple responses you will hear. They are sharp. Very sharp indeed. With a resolution of 2um, or 10um on the camera sensor, this objective really is wicked sharp!

the real deal

I’m putting this at the top of the post so that you don’t miss it. A viewer helped me find this awesome business and I have been working with the owner, Jeff, to make sure that as many of you who want one of these objectives can find it at a good price. They retail for $720 new, but Jeff has sold dozens at the crazy price of $450. If you want one you need to hurry. He will run out and won’t be getting any more in.

This fly is only 2.5mm long - the detail is amazing!

So besides the incredible resolution, this lens also has the very best chromatic and geometric aberration correction of any of the lenses we use in macro photography. Normally costing thousands of dollars, apochromatic correction is the secret to the fringe-free image quality of photographs taken with a Mitutoyo M-Plan objective. Additional glass element correct for the normal refraction that takes place at the periphery of the primary lens and typically cause green and purple fringing in photographs.

So the images are sharp as a tack and CA-free. But in addition to this amazing optical quality, the long, 95mm par focal distance means that this objective has an incredibly long working distance of 34mm - that is between three and four times longer than the CFO plan 10X objective from Nikon. Which means we can get light onto our subject, no matter how small it may be!

the compound eye in all its splendor!

To hear all my other reasons for raving about this remarkable lens, check out the YouTube video…