Winsor Crosby wrote:
>I think your analysis of glass quality is spot on. Nikon posts a MTF
>chart for most of their lenses on their Japanese site as does Canon.
>Nikon like most makers has a few legendary single focal length
>lenses. Even those best ones are significantly bettered by the curves
>for even some of the less expensive recently designed zoom lenses.
>Plus digital with its ISO flexibility has lessened the need for some
>specialized single focal length lenses like the very expensive and
>superfast lenses, especially the ones that don't really hit their
>stride until stopped down a bit. :-)
>
>
I seem to have missed the original post on this thread, so hope I'm not
too far off subject.
One thing that stands out for me about contemporary lens designs vs. the
older ones we largely have for MF. As you pointed out, most of the old
lenses needed to be stopped down a bit, sometimes more than a bit, to
reach their best performance. Based on limited personal experience and
the tables in a lot of Pop Photo reviews, many current zooms have peak
or near peak performance wide open.
This means a lot to me. Other than viewfinder brightness, which has less
importance in an AF world, and shallow DOF, which is desireable for some
shots and distinctly undesireable for others, big, heavy, expensive
lenses aren't necessary. My 28-300 Tamron is only f6.3 at 300mm. In the
"old days", that would mean trying to shoot at f8 or f11, maybe f16 for
good sharpness and contrast. However, this lens is as good wide open as
at f11. (Where it starts to fall down is at small apertures.) So from a
practical viewpoint, it is as useful as an older design lens of about
f3.5 for most of my work, without the weight, size and cost. I've got a
300/4.5, and it's a lot bigger and heavier than the zoom. And although
it's not bad wide open, it doesn't really hit its stride til f11.
I'm just glad linear distortion doesn't much impact my shooting. That's
wher most of the new zooms fall down.
Moose
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