> From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> I suspect this test is so compromised by these factors as to be useless in
> evaluating differences between the lenses.
Don't you think this is a bit harsh? Did I hurt your feelings by dissing the
mighty Soligor 180/3.5? Did the wind or subject motion cause all that flare? :-)
I agree with most of your criticisms, but I never claimed it was a definitive
test. More like an interesting data point.
There's one thing you can say about "the other" IQ tests: they select for
people who are good at taking IQ tests!
I think the same is true of lens Image Quality tests. Pictures of test charts
bore me. If I want a copy stand lens, I'll pay attention to the chart photos...
and probably grab the Zuiko 28/2. But I don't do much of that these days. Give
me something real to look at!
Yea, there may have been some air motion and subject motion going on. And the
600/6.5 that did so well in that test has consistently let me down since. But
the 500/8 Reflex continues to amaze me. I did get rid of the Tamron 300 shortly
afterward, but also got rid of a Zuiko 350 that left me consistently
unimpressed.
It's still nigh impossible to make a crappy lens perform under difficult
conditions, while a good lens might be able to. And there's also sample
variation to consider, as well as usability issues. And don't even talk to me
about 1:40 ratios for testing. How many real-world subjects are shot at exactly
1:40? It's an arbitrary number, is all.
Bottom line: I hope nobody went out and bought or sold a lens based on my
humble eagle photos, but I also think this series was not entirely without
merit. It answered the question, "Under these conditions, which of these lenses
would you consider grabbing?"
To me, the biggest surprise of this test was that certain shorter lenses
CONSISTENTLY out-performed longer ones, even after cropping to achieve a
similar subject size.
Jan
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