Lomo 20X 0.40 microscope lens

I’ve been using two old Russian Lomo microscope objectives for a while. I’m happy with both—the 8X and the 3.7X. The 3.7X is especially fantastic.

The hero of this post isn’t mine. My cousin Kerem, who also owns a Lomo 8X and trusts its quality, wanted to try another Lomo objective and bought the 20X model. He sent it to me first to test. In the photo above you can see its storage case alongside the Lomo 3.7X for comparison.

We had serious concerns about 20X in general. At this magnification, vibration, lighting, and working distance demand special equipment. The Lomo 20X is an ordinary, non-LWD/SLWD lens with a short working distance, so it’s a risky “let’s try our luck” purchase.

For a subject I picked one of the countless leafhoppers that have turned up everywhere in the garden this season—finding a dead one was easy. I chose the eye and a wing area as targets for single frames.

The working distance is only 1.7 mm—almost touching—so illuminating the insect is extremely difficult. Even with a ping-pong ball diffuser and flash, plus reflective surfaces, I could only get a dim, uneven image.

A frame of the eye region with the Lomo 20X and an illustration of its depth of field. The problem wasn’t just darkness. Somehow stray light kept creating a hazy, “mysterious” look. I decided to try an easier area—the wing. Being relatively flat, it helped a bit with lighting, but I still couldn’t eliminate the haze.

Test shot from the leafhopper’s wing area with the Lomo 20X Compared to the previous image, this one fared better for detail, but still wasn’t usable. I’d like to try other methods with the Lomo 20X when I have time, but with far easier alternatives available I don’t see much chance for this lens when “used with a camera.”

Note: The test was shot on a Pentax K-x body. Without EFSC (electronic front-curtain shutter) there’s no way to run it vibration-free. Considering both the working distance and the CA level, I didn’t feel the need to re-test this lens on a full-frame Sony A7II. In my view, the Lomo 20X isn’t suitable for this job.