To John Hudson, that's PhotoTechniques, the American one, a bi-monthly
photo mag
And George M. asks...
>PS: Did u mean to say that there would be an article on the 10 sharpest,
>or was that an off-hand remark by Mike?
>
He posted this in the Compuserve Photo forum a few weeks ago...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thought I'd throw this out just for fun, based on the very interesting 50mm
f/1.4 threads going on here on the Forum lately--
Here are the sharpest/best lenses I have ever used or tested, either for
myself, for _Camera & Darkroom_ magazine, or for _PHOTO Techniques_ (which
I edit, for those of you who don't know me). I've ranked these in order of
my personal overall admiration for their performance, but also have taken
into account the degree to which others are likely to agree with me--i.e.,
I left off the Leica 35mm f/2 R lens, which is a personal favorite,
because, despite very high contrast for coarse structures, it lacks
micro-resolution for very fine structures compared to some of these other
lenses. I weighted out-of-focus characteristics very lightly, because,
although that aspect of lens performance matters to me very much, I know
there are some people who don't care about it at all (the Konica Hexar
lens, Leica 35mm Summicron-M, Rodenstock Apo-Sironar series, and Canon
100mm f/2.8 Macro would score very well if this aspect of lens character
were weighted more heavily). It is, however, one of the factors which puts
the fast Canon 50mm on my list above all other lenses of similar
specification I have tried.
I speak for myself here, as an individual, and not as a representative of
my employer. This is a PERSONAL list. Certain lenses I really like are not
on this list because, while they have great character, I don't think they
would meet most peoples' expectations for high sharpness. Some lenses of
very high resolving power have been left off because they lack a sense of
subjective sharpness. Also, please bear in mind I typically only use lenses
between the focal lengths of 28mm and 105mm, most not that long or that
short. Bear in mind I have NOT tried anything near every lens in my chosen
range.
Here goes (drum roll, please):
1. Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/2 Macro
2. Leica 35mm Summilux-M Aspherical (type 1)
3. Leica 50mm f/2 Summicron-M
4. Schneider 80mm f/2.8 for Exakta 66 (only 1 sample of the 3 I owned would
rank this high, though)
5. Pentax 50mm f/1.7 (manual or AF)
6. Mamiya 150mm f/4 for Mamiya 6
7. Minolta 40mm f/2 for CLE
8. Zeiss 85mm f/2.8 for Contax SLR (identical design to the 90mm Sonnar for
the Contax G cameras)
9. Nikkor 35mm f/2 AF
10. Canon 50mm f/1.4
Nos. 1, 3, 4, 7, 8,and 9 were lenses I owned; Nos. 5, 6, and 10 were
manufacturer loans; and No. 2 is the property of Oren-san, and I should
state that I have very little experience with it. (But oh, the negs I do
have...<g>).
The lens I'm currently "learning" as it were is the old Nikkor 50mm f/2,
made from 1959 to 1980. I'm also interested in trying the new Leica 50mm
f/1.4 Summilux-R and the Contax 45mm f/2 for the G cameras as well.
Bear in mind that this is _not_ my list of personal favorites...you'll
never get that one out of me. <gg>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Hope you like it, and hope I'm not violating copyrights...
Regards,
Denton Taylor
_______________________________
Photogallery at www.dentontaylor.com
Panoramic and 360deg Immersive Images at
www.threehundredsixty.com
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