Ladys and gentlemen,
here are some reasons, why you shouldn´t sell your 18mm Zuiko,
congratulations to the buyer.
Based on a lens test by the Magazin Color Foto, published in 9/89,
11/89.
...and the winner is:
Lens Sharpness Contrast Distorsion
Vignetting
in stops
Center Corner Total Center Corner Total
Olympus Zuiko Auto-W 18mm 3,5
3,5 8.4 7,3 8,0 9,0 7,8 8,6 waveform, 2,6
5,6 8,5 7,6 8,2 9,3 8,1 8,9 slightly to 1,7
8,0 clear 1,3
Contax Zeiss Distagon T* 18mm 4,0
4,0 7,6 6,4 7,2 7,9 6,9 7,6 barrel, 2,3
5,6 8,7 6,8 8,1 9,0 7,6 8,5 slightly to 1,7
8,0 clear 1,4
Leica Elmarit-R 19mm 2,8
2,8 8,4 5,4 7,4 8,6 6,6 8,0 waveform, 2,6
5,6 9,2 6,4 8,3 9,3 7,6 8,7 slightly to 1,5
8,0 clear 1,2
Nikon Nikkor 18mm 3,5
3,5 8,0 6,9 7,6 8,5 7,4 8,1 waveform, 2,6
5,6 8,6 7,2 8,1 9,2 7,9 8,8 slightly to 1,6
8,0 clear 1,2
Canon FD 17mm 4,0
4,0 7,4 6,1 7,0 8,3 6,4 7,7 waveform, 2,3
5,6 8,1 6,6 7,6 8,9 7,6 8,5 slightly to 1,5
8,0 clear 1,2
... and now some realy bad performer.
Vivitar 17mm 3,5
3,5 6,7 3,1 5,5 6,2 3,6 5,4 waveform, 2,4
5,6 8,3 4,7 7,1 9,1 6,8 8,3 clear 1,5
8,0 1,3
Tokina SL 17mm 3,5
3,5 7,7 5,4 6,9 7,7 5,2 6,9 waveform, 2,3
5,6 9,0 6,7 8,2 9,3 7,9 8,8 slightly to 1,6
8,0 clear 1,4
If somebody complains, that the test is pretty old and new lens designs
migth be better, to whom I like to tell, that CoFo tested recently the new
18mm 2.8 AF-Nikkor and it showed,that the old 18mm 3,5 Nikkor is slightly
better. Neither Leitz(Leica) nor Zeiss have changed there lens design
since.
Remarkeble is the high performance of the Zuiko with wide open aperture,
stoping down has not much influence on sharpness and contrast.
Interesting is the difference in quality of the Tokina and Vivitar lenses,
as far as I know, they are the same design. I owned the Vivitar lens and
found it a quite decent lens (this means either my standard for quality
is low :-( or i got a better lens they send to the test :-) or even
better the Zuiko is supernaturely good =8-O ).
The quality numbers are basing on MTF measuring, the difference of one
whole number marks an, for the critical observer, just noticable
difference in sharpnes, contrast. The maximum number is 10, which stands for a
flawless lens. The number are computed and weigthed for the central half
diameter
to 2/3 and the rest to 1/3, the extrem corners are not rated.
Vignetting is the combined effect of light fall off and vignetting
through the lens barrel.
Waveform distortion is a combination of pincushion distorsion in the
corner and barrel distorsion in the center.
Richard
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