SCANNER NIKKOR ED high-resolution/high-performance lens (7 elements in 4 groups including 3 ED glass elements) for reduced colour aberration and minimized image distortion.

The Scanner Nikkor ED lenses were designed by Nikon for their Coolscan, and Super Coolscan scanner lines. The Coolscan ED scanners were sensational performers because of their highly corrected lenses, they were one of only a few on the market at the time, that could actually reach their advertised resolution figures in testing.

In high-grade optics, apochromatic or APO color correction is found in the very best best lenses. Designing an APO lens requires the use of ultra-low dispersion glass; however, this UD glass is expensive and difficult to process and fabricate so this makes APO lenses very expensive. For the Scanner Nikkor ED line, Nikon has somehow achieved the impossible, APO correction over an unheard-of-wide wavelength range, for a low price!

It's interesting that, the Scanner Nikkor ED lenses are virtually unknown in the photography world, even by Nikon experts that specialize in rare high-end industrial Nikkor lenses, yet these are some of the most highly corrected Nikkor lenses ever made.

WHY A SCANNER LENS FOR MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY

Image quality. The Nikon Scanner Nikkor ED lenses were designed to be completely chromatic aberration free, sharp from the centre to the corners, with a completely flat field and free from distortion.  Consumer market macro lens are not on the same level of correction as a Scanner Nikkor lens.

Nikon Coolscan scanners have been out of production for a long time, so the prices of the used scanners and replacement lenses make the price vs performance factor of these lenses just about impossible to beat.