Hi --
Should I keep the lens ?
Background:
So -- I purchased a 24mm f2.8 (guess you all knew that) and shot a couple
of test rolls (100 gold and 200 gold) and had them developed at the local
ritz shop (they use one of these negative to digital printers) because they
are across the street -- (penn camera would probably do a better job but they
are 15 miles away). The pictures were all taken hand held but the shutter
speed ranged between 1/250 and 1/1000 (10x focal length)
Looking at the negative with a loop and the prints with a loop there is a lot
of vignetting at f2.8 less at f5.6 but very noticeable (I guess this is why
Gary rates the lens a C for vig at 2.8) and maybe just a touch on the edges at
f8.
The images are fairly sharp (well the best I can tell given the prints and
negatives) at 2 to 15 feet range (distances are approx) but as you go towards
infinity they are rather soft (for example I took a couple of pictures of
the washington monument from a distance that required infinity focus and the
scaple around it had almost no detail but a picture of a curvy tree branch
about 5 feet away is rather sharp (for the entire depth of field).
The folks at ritz insist the printer/scanner flattens the negative then scans
and no sharpness is lost -- I think (using a loop) the negative looked a bit
sharper than the prints -- hard to tell they didn't have a 30x loop. This is
the first time I have ever had prints made like this (I'm new to the dc area
and haven't found a good place yet -- back home I had a shop that I liked).
So -- is this lens just plain flat -- is the focus on my camera off at
inifinity (I failed to check the lens focus setting after focusing -- but will
check tomorrow !!) -- is it possible to judge using the above technique --
is this just a flat sample of the lens -- anyways
this doesn't seem to be the same lens that Gary tested.
So -- should I keep it or return it ??
Alan
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