Lens Review Sites?
- Thread starter Kenai
- Start date
Soldato
Don't really visit any particular site for reviews... I just use Google to find reviews on the lens I'm interested in and read those.
Soldato
I've always been a fan of Photozone.de the reviews always seem to match my experience and he mixes numbers with objective reasoning pretty well.
Soldato
Photozone.de gets my vote. Shame they aren't bigger and able to review more lenses.
DxO Mark is also very good : http://www.dxomark.com
Soldato
Caporegime
http://www.dpreview.com/ I like.
In order of of descending quality.
lenstip.com For more casual reviews but detailed and with good methodology and a large test set these guys can't be beaten.
lensrentals.com The only review site to use an optical test so you can avoid effects of sensors, but those effects can be important. They also test at larger distances that can be more relvenat tan typcial test chart distances. they also test mutliple lenses looking for varianc an centering issues, and they test the lens at multiple rotations. More detailed comparisons of actual optical phenomena rather than sensor based analysis. You have to understand MTF graphs and know their value to use these reviews effectively. A lens projects a circle and its optical par maters must be described in the 2 dimensions of a circle: sagittal and tangential http://www.2020mag.com/ce/2020exams/106734/Ophthalmic Lens Design07-01.jpg , rather than the X-Y dimension of a square sensor.
but as Is aid, the sensor does matter so it is useful to cross reference these reviews with lenstip or others.
SLRgear.com Clear results, reasonable methodology.
photozone.de I like these guys but they depend on people sending them samples and their methodology is not great. E.g they test jpes for example.
dxo/dpreview . DXO's data is Good but there stupid score is useless, you need to look through the graphs in much the same way as you do the sensor data. The good thing is they test all combinations. Dpreview uses the DXO data and presents it is a much better way.
In the end it is useful to look at all of them to get a good idea.
lenstip.com For more casual reviews but detailed and with good methodology and a large test set these guys can't be beaten.
lensrentals.com The only review site to use an optical test so you can avoid effects of sensors, but those effects can be important. They also test at larger distances that can be more relvenat tan typcial test chart distances. they also test mutliple lenses looking for varianc an centering issues, and they test the lens at multiple rotations. More detailed comparisons of actual optical phenomena rather than sensor based analysis. You have to understand MTF graphs and know their value to use these reviews effectively. A lens projects a circle and its optical par maters must be described in the 2 dimensions of a circle: sagittal and tangential http://www.2020mag.com/ce/2020exams/106734/Ophthalmic Lens Design07-01.jpg , rather than the X-Y dimension of a square sensor.
but as Is aid, the sensor does matter so it is useful to cross reference these reviews with lenstip or others.
SLRgear.com Clear results, reasonable methodology.
photozone.de I like these guys but they depend on people sending them samples and their methodology is not great. E.g they test jpes for example.
dxo/dpreview . DXO's data is Good but there stupid score is useless, you need to look through the graphs in much the same way as you do the sensor data. The good thing is they test all combinations. Dpreview uses the DXO data and presents it is a much better way.
In the end it is useful to look at all of them to get a good idea.
