Lens sharpness

ynot

ynot

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Afternoon all.

Just taken the same shot with the same settings but all with different lenses. Was really just an experiment to see what would be the sharpest.
Please let me know what you think.


Untitled by ts446, on Flickr

Untitled by ts446, on Flickr

Untitled by ts446, on Flickr

All photos straight out the camera and uploaded via the iPad (not sure if this holds back on quality?)

Also wasnt sure what forum to post this in, hope its ok here, if not please advise and ill get it moved.
 
Well I think we can safely say it's a pineapple... Not seeing much difference on my current monitor - why not post some crops so we can see the detail close up...
 
To me, the second one's the best. The third one is less sharp or has a bit of back focus.
 
Well, the edge sharpness looks pretty similar on them all :)
 
What lenses did you use....Flickr indicates a 32mm focal length along with two 50mm lenses ?
 
To be honest I've found it easier to examine the cloth the pineapple is sat on and that looks better to me in the second, the first comes in a close second and the third is definitely third (I think that makes sense!)
Colours also don't look quite right in the first - a hint more red in the pineapple
 
...so you are looking which one was focused the best? How is the central 5% of the photo can tell you about the whole lens? And at macro distances they are not at their best unless they are designated macros
 
If looking at the central part then image 1 is clearly very poor compared to 2 and 3 with 2 and 3 being pretty close. What is this proving as I am guessing you can see this yourself?
 
I'm guessing it proving how sharp a cheap lens is stopped down compared to an expensive lens stopped down a little or how faulty the lens in pic 1 is.
 
So a second opinion thing to prove a faulty lens more than anything else?
 
Where they all taken at the same aperture? If not, how is a test of one lens against another?

[edit]

Exif says yes... would have been nice to put that in the post though.


If you've done nothing whatsoever to these images in post processing... then lens 1 is clearly inferior..... assuming you focused manually. The little leafy bits poking out of the sides look equally as sharp on all, despite the centre of the pineapple being softer. This makes me think there's more to this than meets the eye.

It's not the best subject matter for an objective lens test.

[edit]

Looks to me like shot 1 is not in focus.. not a lens problem. Please tell me you didn't use auto focus in a lens test.
 
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Thanks for the replies, in answer to questions asked above.....
I wouldn't consider the pictures being taken at macro distances?
It was done to as a quick experiment to see what the sharper lens was as I'm not sure I need all 3.
I posted as I couldn't tell from the first 3 images, wasn't home so couldn't crop them. Once I had cropped I could see, I posted as someone had asked and I'd already started the thread.
All 3 were the same aperture, I did say the same settings in the first post. No processing done, just the crop. Yes they were taken on auto focus, I tried to make sure they all focused on the same part. Maybe I haven succeeded there?
 
To me, the 3715 crop looks sharpest. But sometimes I wonder anyway, how much of any un-sharpness we see is actually down to CA? After all we can't see every image at a crop size which allows us to clearly recognize CA - what do others think about this?
 
Looking at the crops. 3716 looks sharpest to me but there's not much to choose between it and 3715. 3714 looks quite a bit softer than the other two. When do we get the big reveal?
 
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Between me and munkee it seems that the 50mm prime has produced a less sharp image than the two zooms (although the Tamron is really good, I had it on a Canon). If this is also your impression, would that lead to the conclusion that you need to fine-tune the AF for your 50mm prime?
 
I've never tried the Tamron but I was certainly surprised that the 50mm prime was beaten by the 18-200mm zoom. My copy seems to be razor sharp stopped down a bit.
 
It does look like the outcome from your experiment is not what was sharpest but how reliance on AF can let you down.
 
It would be interesting to see the same three lenses compared using manual focus and without any in camera sharpening.
 
First shot has focus problems if you ask me, and as they were shot using AF.... test is not really valid.

A test like this should be focused manually, using a zoomed in live view to make absolutely certain focus is as good as possible. On that first shot, it looks back focused. The bits poking out of the side look sharp, yet the front of the pineapple isn't.
 
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