At 05:35 PM 4/5/02 +0000, Alan wrote:
(I have never used the canon 28-70f2.8L but have seen plenty of pictures
from them -- I have used a 50mmf1.8 zuiko (both sc and mc). It is a ok
lens but nothing special for a 50mm).
Hi Folks,
Would someone mind telling me for the nth-teen time how to tell one of the
gooduns in the 50mm f1.8? The reason I ask is that I recently completed
some informal tests on several of my lenses. One thing I was looking for
was to determine how much I was giving up if I chose to leave the 50mm at
home and take a 35-75 zoom instead.
I didn't do a very exhaustive test. I used a tripod and shot a USAF 1951
resolution chart at a distance of 40 times the focal length on Velvia
film. The camera body was an OM-4 and in several cases I took two shots
with a given lens, one using the self timer and the other by cradling the
camera with my finger on the shutter release. I made one shot at f8 on
each lens and for several I shot at both wide open and completely stopped
down.
I make my own prints using a Polaroid SS4000 scanner and Epson 1270 printer
and I was interested in which lens would give the best image on a print so
I scanned the slides, cropped out the resolution charts, enlarged them to
1/12" square and printed them on glossy photo paper. I then used a
magnifying glass to evaluate the differences in the shots. Bottom line is
that the 35mm, f2 was easily the sharpest lens by one grade. The 24mm,
f2.8 and the 35-70mm, f3.5-4.5 and 35-70mm, 3.6 zooms (at 50mm) were next
and were marginally sharper than my 50mm, f1.8. The worst performer was
the 75-150mm, f4 zoom (at 100mm). It was four grades softer than the 35mm,
f2. Well, I take that back - the worst performer was a hand held Olympus
RC rangefinder which was softer than a 1968 Russian FED-3 rangefinder.
Anyway, from all I'd heard I expected a much better performance from the
50mm, f1.8. It's marked on the number ring with "Japan", "MC", and "Zuiko"
and the serial number is 2,8xx,xxx which I thought would identify it as one
of the better ones but - maybe not.
BTW, in the cases where I took two shots, one with the self timer and the
other cradling the camera and my finger on the shutter release - these were
at slow shutter speeds in the 1/8 to 1/2 second range and those using the
self timer were sharper. I wonder if the results would have been different
using an OM-2 without mirror pre-fire.
Later,
Johnny
__________________________
Johnny Johnson
Lilburn, GA
mailto:jjohnso4@xxxxxxxxx
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