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Re: [OM] Wide and wider

Subject: Re: [OM] Wide and wider
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 15:55:39 -0800
I have no personal knowledge of the Tamron, but I do recall Winsor's repost of an old post showing that Vivitar & Tokina 17/3.5s were significantly poorer performers than the major camera manufacturer's lenses, so don't assume what Walt found with his Tamron applies to those others. Original post copied below.

Happy owner of the winner,
  Moose

Brian Swale wrote:

Hi Walt & co,

Thanks for the endorsement of the Tamron 17/3.5.

Very useful to know it is so sharp. Presumably the other characteristics are OK as well.

----------------------------
Winsor Crosby wrote:

I thought I might recycle an interesting submission from the past. Richard Schaetzl was a list member who always had something interesting to say.

Ladys and gentlemen,

here are some reasons, why you shouldn´t sell your 18mm Zuiko, congratulations to the buyer.

Based on a lens test  by the Magazin Color Foto, published in 9/89, 11/89.

...and the winner is:

Lens Sharpness Contrast Distorsion Vignetting ---- ---------------- --------------- ----------- ----------
Stop  Cen.  Cor.  Tot. Cen.  Cor. Tot.               in stops
Olympus Zuiko Auto-W 18mm 3,5
3,5   8.4   7,3   8,0  9,0   7,8  8,6   waveform,     2,6
5,6   8,5   7,6   8,2  9,3   8,1  8,9   slightly to   1,7
8,0                                     clear         1,3
Contax Zeiss Distagon T* 18mm 4,0
4,0   7,6   6,4   7,2  7,9   6,9  7,6   barrel,       2,3
5,6   8,7   6,8   8,1  9,0   7,6  8,5   slightly to   1,7
8,0                                     clear         1,4
Leica Elmarit-R 19mm 2,8
2,8   8,4   5,4   7,4  8,6   6,6  8,0   waveform,     2,6
5,6   9,2   6,4   8,3  9,3   7,6  8,7   slightly to   1,5
8,0                                     clear         1,2
Nikon Nikkor 18mm 3,5
3,5   8,0   6,9   7,6  8,5   7,4  8,1   waveform,     2,6
5,6   8,6   7,2   8,1  9,2   7,9  8,8   slightly to   1,6
8,0                                     clear         1,2
Canon  FD 17mm 4,0
4,0   7,4   6,1   7,0  8,3   6,4  7,7   waveform,     2,3
5,6   8,1   6,6   7,6  8,9   7,6  8,5   slightly to   1,5
8,0                                     clear         1,2
... and now some really bad performer.

Vivitar 17mm 3,5
3,5   6,7   3,1   5,5  6,2   3,6  5,4   waveform,     2,4
5,6   8,3   4,7   7,1  9,1   6,8  8,3   clear         1,5
8,0                                                   1,3
Tokina SL 17mm 3,5
3,5   7,7   5,4   6,9  7,7   5,2  6,9   waveform,     2,3
5,6   9,0   6,7   8,2  9,3   7,9  8,8   slightly to   1,6
8,0                                     clear         1,4

If somebody complains, that the test is pretty old and new lens designs migth be better, to whom I like to tell, that CoFo tested recently the new 18mm 2.8 AF-Nikkor and it showed,that the old 18mm 3,5 Nikkor is slightly better. Neither Leitz(Leica) nor Zeiss have changed there lens design since.

Remarkeble is the high performance of the Zuiko with wide open aperture, stoping down has not much influence on sharpness and contrast. Interesting is the difference in quality of the Tokina and Vivitar lenses, as far as I know, they are the same design. I owned the Vivitar lens and found it a quite decent lens (this means either my standard for quality is low :-( or i got a better lens they send to the test :-) or even
better the Zuiko is supernaturely good  =8-O  ).

The quality numbers are basing on MTF measuring, the difference of one whole number marks an, for the critical observer, just noticable difference in sharpnes, contrast. The maximum number is 10, which stands for a flawless lens. The number are computed and weigthed for the central half diameter to 2/3 and the rest to 1/3, the extrem corners are not rated. Vignetting is the combined effect of light fall off and vignetting through the lens barrel. Waveform distortion is a combination of pincushion distorsion in the corner and barrel distorsion in the center.

Richard
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