When buying a new lens, do you take anyone off the shelf?? What do you look for? Do you test it? Do you test more than 1 piece?
Sorry for the seemingly dumb question... preparing to spend some $$$
Thanks! Just wondering if there was something else I should be looking for...
look at the metal contacts of the lens. if there are some scratches there or it looks a little different from the surrouning metal, then its not a new lens.
Thanks! Just wondering if there was something else I should be looking for...
oo cool. but then how much? This is my most concern. lol.
You got so many lenses. Any websites to view your works?
check sharpness at widest end and longest end (for zoom) at wide open, stopped down one stop or so and f/8 and f/11. note that lenses will not be sharpest wide open, but should not be visibly soft either. most lenses will be sharp for sure around f/8 to f/11 - just zoom in about 8x or so to see, it should be not be prick sharp.
when you buy a lens, there are varying degrees of selectiveness depending on you.
some people like to pixel peep to make sure that the lens is the zomg razor sharp 110% version. they will make the poor shop owner open up many many copies and feel du lan when doing it. the shop owner is after all, obliged to do it if he wants to make the sale.
frankly though, this is what i usually do:
1) i check online to see 100% samples (via google, it's not hard really) from lens tests (official or not) to get a rough idea what degree of sharpness i will be expecting.
2) i call up the shops to make sure that i get a good idea of which one offers a better price (inclusive of gst, so you don't get mixed up)
3) i go to the shop with the best offer, and mount lens, check sharpness at widest end and longest end (for zoom) at wide open, stopped down one stop or so and f/8 and f/11. note that lenses will not be sharpest wide open, but should not be visibly soft either. most lenses will be sharp for sure around f/8 to f/11 - just zoom in about 8x or so to see, it should be not be prick sharp.
getting a relatively sharp (not the sharpest) copy is probably better.
Hi all,
I'm reusing this thread to ask about testing lens at the shops. I'm planning to get the Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 HSM lens. So to test for sharpness, we can test at f8 to f11(since F16 will be too dark?). At this fstop, there should be uniform sharpness across the image right?
If I put to F2.8, I should check for sharpness at the focusing point as see if I like the bokeh?
I'm not a yim cheem person but just want to eliminate glaring problems when I test.
Thanks.
oo cool. but then how much? This is my most concern. lol.
You got so many lenses. Any websites to view your works?
To add to the above. Should I test with A priority or M? For fast lens, I want to be able to use a reasonable handheld shutter speed(1/60 and above) with F2.8 under low light right to avoid a blurry image as much as possible?
Canon 50mm are excellent lenses for kids and portraiture. Some people keep this lens on their camera most of the time. It's a MUST buy. It is so popular that Canon has 3 of these:
EF 50mm USM Mark II f1.8 @ $100-120
EF 50mm USM f1.4 @$580-600
EF 50mm USM f1.2L @ around $2,300.
The price is a good indication of the quality of the lenses. But having said that the first one is really good enough for average use already. You can see the immediate difference in terms of quality as compared to your present EFS 18-55mm. I'm using the second one as I'm investing in a better one (e.g. bigger f-stop and faster focusing) to keep it for a long time.