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[OM] A little bit more Tokina/Zuiko testing

Subject: [OM] A little bit more Tokina/Zuiko testing
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2006 17:54:54 -0400
It's raining, raining, raining again in the northeast and I haven't been 
out to do anymore testing with the Tokina and Zuikos in outdoor shade to 
match the earlier tests.  But I just couldn't wait any longer so set up 
a little test inside with an 18" ruler slanted at a 45 degree angle away 
from the camera.  I did this so that I could see the effects of depth of 
field at the center of the image and would be able to differentiate that 
from a mis-focused image.

This was a very brief test using only the Zuiko 35/2.8 at 2.8 and the 
Tokina 28-80/2.8 at 35mm and 2.8.  I took both autofocus and manual 
focus shots with the Tokina.

Well, there's no question this time.  The Tokina autofocus wins over the 
Tokina manual focus.  This time I can see that, for whatever reason, I'm 
front focusing slightly.  The Zuiko 35/2.8 shot also shows the small 
amount of front focus.  However, it also shows that the Tokina is sharp 
as a tack in comparison.  When the lens is mis-focused the range of 
what's sharp just shifts slightly toward the camera.  You can see this 
same shift in both of the Tokina and Zuiko manually focused shots.  But 
in the relevant range that's in focus the Tokina zoom is the very clear 
winner.  I guess 30 years of lens development has to be worth something.

To be perfectly fair, I'm looking at these image at 100% on my monitor 
which is about 2X life size and would make a huge print at equivalent 
magnification.  If I were to make a 16x20 print (or 8x10 from a 1/4 
crop) would you see the difference?  I don't know.  Haven't gotten that 
far yet.

But it's clear that me and the camera focus a bit differently even after 
carefully readjusting the diopter wheel.  Not a lot but it's there. 
It's also clear that the old silvernose 35/2.8 Zuiko can't steer light 
beams quite as accurately as its more modern big brother.  Sure is a lot 
smaller and lighter though.  :-)

Chuck Norcutt


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