Hi
to add a tinge of seriousness in all this discussion.....though i do know Jed started it all for humour....
Equipment choices are a very personal thing, and everybody has a healthy amount of emotional baggage attached to their own choices.
It's long been a favourite snicker of photographers to comment on fellow shooters with the more expensive equipment (or in this context, German glass) that "of course he thinks it's the best - he threw a lot of money in it", and to frequently throw snide remarks and passing sacarsm. Reverse discrimination at its best - subtly done....
However, wat is unconscious to those same pple is the fact that maybe they are too emotional about spending too much money to be objective, and thus, jumping at every possible justification to burn / flame equipment (and their respective owners) at the proverbial stake so as to pacify themselves that they have stuff of similar quality at much lower prices.
All it takes is one parrot to
casually say "i don't see a difference!" and the rest of the parrots will jump on the bandwagon eagerly singing the same song, satisfied in their new found knowledge their equipment is just as good - without attempting to seek objective opinions or trying it out for themselves. After all, why bother? Better to live in the well and be content, than jumping out to find out. And while we're at that, let's ask others to limit themselves too, regardless of their needs!
Worse are those who see it to themselves to impose their own equipment choices on others, giving "sage" advice when they have barely mastered whatever they have, or worse, the basics of photography.
Of course i'm not advocating that just because a lens is more expensive, it must be better. (Anyone who jumps to that conclusion must surely belong to the class of people I mentioned above).
Since photography is such a tool based endeavour, therefore it follows that the acquisition of tools must
1) Meet one's needs and expectations
2) As a result of (1), suitably inspire the user of the tool.
A skilled craftsman needs tools he is comfortable with, and inspired by, to produce great work. The best writers in the world may not be using the best pens or quills, but you can bet they have strong opinions about the pens or quills they use. Ditto for painters.
The best lens is the lens that you can afford and you can fully make use of, and be inspired by enough to produce great work with.
Sometimes this may be a cheaper third party lens with excellent quality but may be frequently overlooked (i offer the Sigma 20 f1.8 as an example of such); at other times, it may be a highly priced, precisely engineered piece of branded glass with unmatched low light capabilities and unique optical signature (for example, the Leica Noctilux-M 50mm f1.0).
Ultimately it's the pictures you produce that will be revealing of you and speak of you, not the equipment that you use.
Pple who understand this have perhaps, already seen the light. (pun intended)