April, 2009 | Photocrati

Nikon 28mm f/2 Ai-S Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below. Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Nikon 28mm f/2.0 Nikkor AI-S Manual Focus Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

Photo Zone

Typical for older manual focus lenses the Nikkor Ai-S 28mm f/2 comes with an exceptional build quality and super smooth focusing – most of today’s lenses feel cheap in comparison and the glory doesn’t stop here. At medium aperture settings the lens is capable to produce some of the highest resolution figures tested to date. At f/2 the results are somewhat softer regarding both border resolution and contrast. Distortions and vignetting are quite well controlled whereas CAs could be a little lower at f/8. (more…)

Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 AF Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below.

Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 Di LD Macro Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

SLR Gear

While there are a few standout bargains to be found, the lens world is much like the rest of life: There’s no free lunch, you tend to get what you pay for. It’s thus no surprise that lenses as inexpensive as the Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 don’t perform as well a those costing three or four times as much. Within its price bracket though, this Tamron competes quite strongly against the camera makers’ own offerings, delivering as good or better image quality, a long zoom range, decent build quality, all at an exceptional price. If you need a long zoom on a tight budget, the Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 AF is worth a close look. “¦ READ FULL REVIEW

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Nikon 45mm f/2.8 Ai-P Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below.

Photo Zone

The Nikkor Ai-P 45mm f/2.8 may be a cute lens but it is also a very serious performer with very high resolution, marginal distortions, moderate CAs and quite well-controlled vignetting. The build quality is very good. The problem may be that today it represents an answer to a question which was asked long ago. f/2.8 is not exactly fast for a normal lens so the more common f/1.4 and f/1.8 variants tend to make more sense … at lesser costs. So at the end of the day the meaning of the lens lies in its extremely small form factor. But damn, it is so cute. Read Full Review

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Canon 28-300 f/3.5-5.6 USM L IS EF Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think below!

Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM Lens

Photo Zone:

The Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 USM L IS is an impressive extreme range zoom. The optical quality is on a very high though not exceptional level. The resolution figures are generally very good without any major flaws. Vignetting, CAs and even distortions are very well under control. The build quality is exceptional though some may not like the push-pull zoom design. With a little positive attitude you should be able to get used to it though and the very smooth zoom action helps a lot in the transition phase (from conventional zooms). The 3rd generation IS is a significant and highly welcome addition to the feature list. On the downside the lens is heavy and not exactly small especially when used at 300mm – not exactly a low profile lens. The price lifts it beyond the reach of most amateurs but then this is true for many L grade lenses out there. Unfortunately the lens is no longer a one-size-fits-all solution on APS-C DSLRs but nonetheless it remains an interesting lens for lots of applications. So if you can live with its limitations and the price tag it is surely worth a deeper look! READ FULL REVIEW

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Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di AF Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below.

Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD VC (Vibration Compensation) Aspherical (IF) Macro Zoom Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras

SLR Gear

This Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 could be a good choice if you do a lot of shooting from 35-70mm, with only occasional excursions out to the 300mm limit, and/or if you tend to print many of your shots at 5×7 inches or below. Since this describes the shooting and usage patterns of a lot of casual photographers, the Tamron 28-300mm could indeed be a good choice for vacation use when you don’t expect to need a lot of wide angle capability. READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 135mm f/2 L USM EF Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below.

Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Photo Zone:

The Canon EF 135mm f/2 USM L is a superb lens with outstanding performance figures in all aspects except maybe vignetting at the max. aperture setting (f/2). The mechanical construction is up to pro standards and the AF is as fast as it gets in EOS land. All-in-all a lens that truly deserves the Canon L designation. READ FULL REVIEW

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Nikon 45mm f/2.8D ED PC-E Micro Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below. Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Nikon 45mm f/2.8D ED PC-E Micro Nikkor Lens

Photo Review

Nikon’s PC-E Micro Nikkor 45mm f/2.8D ED lens is the latest in a series of perspective control (PC) lenses that have been produced by the company over many years. Imatest showed overall performance to be very good when the lens was in its neutral position (we were unable to test the lens in either tilt or shift positions). The lens suffered from slight edge softening but it was not enough to create issues for most photographers. READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 14mm f/2.8L USM EF Review Round-Up

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Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L USM Wide Angle Lens

SLR Gear:

The Canon 14mm f/2.8L is a sturdy smooth-functioning lens that exhibits very good Center Sharpness across its f/2.8-f/22 aperture spectrum on both full-frame and sub-frame bodies. Corner Sharpness is, at best, mediocre; Chromatic Aberration is quite poor; Shading is reasonably good; and Distortion is average. Interestingly, the Canon 14mm f/2.8L ($1800) would appear to outperform (by a slim margin) only the Nikon 14mm f/2.8 ($1420). Whatever, the overall performance of the Canon 14mm f/2.8L is a bit of a disappointment (as was that of the Nikon 14mm f/2.8). READ FULL REVIEW

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Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II LD Aspherical [IF] AF Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below.

Get information and user reviews for this lens from Amazon: Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 XR Di-II LD SP ZL Aspherical (IF) Zoom Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

Photo Zone

The Tamron AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II LD Aspherical [IF] is a very serious performer capable to deliver some of the best MTF50 figures to date in this lens class. Vignetting and distortions are about average for a lens in this class. CAs are very high at 17mm and 24mm. Mechanically the lens isn’t top notch but it compares very well here to other third party lenses. AF accuracy could be a little better on the Nikon D200. Thanks to the very moderate price tag the lens is highly attractive and definitely worth a deeper look when shopping for a quality standard zoom lens for your APS-C DSLR and it’s also a very interesting alternative to the genuine Nikkor standard zooms. “¦ READ FULL REVIEW

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Canon 70-210mm f/4 EF Review Round-Up

If you own or have used this lens, let us know what you think! Leave your comments and thoughts below.

Ken Rockwell:

The Canon EF 70-210mm f/4 is sharp and works great. The optics are as good as similar current lenses in actual use, although it’s soft at f/4 and 210mm. The reason to pay more for the newest lenses are features like Image Stabilization, not optical quality. READ FULL REVIEW

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