Yes I got the same evaluation in the Photography community. It shouldn’t be that much play.

Unfortunately I bought this lens specifically to scan film negatives, that play is enough to mess with the focus.

I use pic highlighting and x2 zoom to focus on the film grain, then manipulating the camera menus or adjusting others settings. I often need to get back to x2 zoom and use the free play alone to get back to optimal focus. Not a tripod issue, nor a negative holder slide on the table.

I think using this lens as a portrait lens or something might be perfectly fine.

In my use case : a small Fuji body and the 40mm macro as a glorified film scanner, it is a pretty anoying issue because it is suffisent to mess with the focus, in an unpredictable way.

Scanning is already a delicate subject as you certainly know.

Your precision about how the rotation should not affect focus makes sense. But I see the focus assist highlights slightly fade or enhance just by going to the free play. Could it be insignificant, like an artefact of digital treatment of the focus assist? Or the sensor getting slightly different lighting (like some kind of polarization)?

Thanks for the pointers to big forums, I purposely avoided them to see how Lemmy communities would respond to such a specific subject. Not disappointed that’s great I received many mindful replies.

No other lenses have any play. I have a few primes and the kit zoom, perfectly snug fit.

That’s a shame, I will probably send it back to Amazon and order another one from another seller, fingers crossed it’s just a lemon, not the whole series.

I can’t find any other lenses (vintage lenses with an adapter) that gives me close to 1:1

I second this. I have a few Chinese lenses and they don't have mount issues.

Try getting a replacement first. Maybe you got a bad unit