You can see differences in very critical situations between today's
aspheric element equipped lenses and yesterday's multi-element
lenses. The differences show up especially well in situations where
you see chromatic abberations, coma, and astigmatism, like point
light sources. Not all the lenses, just the best.
But most photographers don't exploit those characteristics or task
the tools close to their limits. Camera shake and poor execution
negates many of today's advantages.
The one big area that has had vast improvement is the high-ratio
zoom lens. The quality of today's 24/28-200 lens is nothing short
of amazing. That's one lens that I wish I had as an option on my OM
bodies.
I don't know. I don't really have experience with those lenses, but
I read somewhere that the German Foto magazine refers to them as
Suppenobjectiv. Soup lenses because it is like looking through soup.
Personally, I question the longevity of today's plastic-glass
sandwich concoction that incorporates the all-important aspherical
surfaces. I'll bet many won't last. And the
keep-weight-down-at-all-costs construction paradigm of today's
consumer lenses is a poor formula for longevity.
As an aside, I picked up a Canon Rebel-2000 autofocus SLR camera the
other day, and I was FLABBERGASTED at how light it was. It couldn't
have weighed 25 oz. (I just checked at canonusa.com: body 12.6oz,
lens 6.7oz = 19.3oz !!) For crying out loud, it had a plastic lens
mount on the body! I just hope that these things don't get dropped.
I guess the plan is that over their 10-15yr life, they will either
get obsoleted, destroyed, or abandoned.
Plastic lens mount. Ack. Wear may not be a problem if you mount a
24-200 telephoto. You may not changes lenses often, but you still
need to support the weight of the lens, unless it also weighs 6 oz.
:-)
Skip imadinosaurandproudofit
Winsor
Jurassic Park
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|