Question:
I’ve been away from photography for a few years, and I’m now thinking of taking it up again. My old camera (Pentax K1000) always yielded a disappointing lack of sharpness no matter what film or lab I used. This is something I want to avoid this time around. My thoughts are leaning towards buying top quality lenses, but a body that might not have all the latest bells and whistles. Any suggestions? Are the pro quality lenses really that much better than the so called consumer grades? I don’t mind saving up my magic beans and going for the good lenses, but not if I’m not going to see a difference in an 8 x 10 or 11 x 14. Can anyone recommend a site that shows good comparisons of lenses? Thanks, Scotty Moore
Response:
http://i31www.ira.uka.de/~klaus_s/lenssurvey.htm
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I’ve been away from photography for a few years, and I’m now thinking of taking it up again. My old camera (Pentax K1000) always yielded a disappointing lack of sharpness no matter what film or lab I used. This is something I want to avoid this time around. My thoughts are leaning towards buying top quality lenses, but a body that might not have all the latest bells and whistles. Any suggestions? Are the pro quality lenses really that much better than the so called consumer grades? I don’t mind saving up my magic beans and going for the good lenses, but not if I’m not going to see a difference in an 8 x 10 or 11 x 14. Can anyone recommend a site that shows good comparisons of lenses? Thanks, Scotty Moore
Response:
First, make sure it really is your lenses and not your camera focusing system being mis-aligned or eyesight problems. For tips on testing lenses and cameras, see my camera and lens testing pages at http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/broncameratest.html check the film – not a print – many photofinishers deliberately defocus and reduce sharpness of image to mask poor process control, scratches on film and other defects – you may have to shop around to find a mini-lab that doesn’t do this – or use a pro lab or mail order processor as I do 
That’s one reason I still prefer to shoot mostly slide film (lower $$ too I have both pentax K series system (with mix of pentax and third party lenses) and nikon F/F2/FE.. and nikkor and third party lenses. I can’t tell the pentax prime from the nikkor prime shots, frankly, on my slides. Even worse, I doubt I could reliably tell the third party lens shots from the nikkor shots, unless I am enlarging beyond 8×10, and often not then! While OEM prime lenses (nikkors, pentax) are often generally held to be sharper than third party lenses, the differences are often not dramatic, and many third party lenses are as sharp or sharper than some OEM primes. If you aren’t doing a lot of enlargements beyond 8×10, you may find many third party or consumer lenses to be quite acceptable. For examples, see http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/third/quality.html – How much quality do you need pages my general experience has been – that absent a defective or abused lens – the quality of most modern 35mm prime lenses is very good, and recent zoom lenses can also be surprisingly good optically – even for the moderate cost consumer grade lenses. You pay a whole lot more oftentimes for a modest improvement in sharpness (lpmm) or contrast, often only seen in the corners of a wide open lens, relative to a much lower cost third party lens or pro model. If you really want to have fun, shoot two identical focal length lenses – one a prime OEM (nikkor) and the other a third party (e.g., osawa) – on the same slide film, on the same camera/tripod/light/scene – just switch the lenses and take a shot on each, for various subjects/distances/settings. relabel the slides with random numbers, taking notes so you know which slide was made by which lens (white-out any imprinted numbers). Now try to sort out slides into two piles – prime OEM and prime third party lens shots – using a loupe. Compare the numbers on your slide piles to your list of random numbers and actual lens values. In such a blind test, you may be surprised to find how many third party lens shots ended up in your OEM pile, and vice versa. Now if you really want to have fun, have some of your amateur photographer friends try this blind sorting test. It is truly amazing how many of the folks who say all third party lenses are junk can’t tell them apart from the "real thing" Even worse, let them try again – best 2 out of 3 – gets even funnier. in short, don’t expect huge and obvious mega-improvements from higher priced lenses – a 15% improvement for a 60% increase in price is typical (on lpmm) – and most of us don’t notice that small an improvement except in our wallets… if you are going to be doing a lot of 11×14 and above, consider medium format see my medium format on a budget pages at: http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/mf/budget.html regards bobm — * Bronica 6×6 medium format: http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/bronica.html site * * Medium Format Cameras: http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/mf/index.html megasite*
Response:
: I’m pro-lenses. : -Q
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