Is my lens a good one?

[glsammy]

Has that question ever bothered you? If so read this link, it's very informative and the conclusions may not be what you expect.

“This Lens is Soft”…. Canon Rumors

[Geoff F]

Yes, an interesting article.

Apart from a real cheapie lens which came with a secondhand camera a few years ago I have only had one problem.

That was with a Canon 24-105 L lens which I purchased around 2 years ago.

I kept getting occasional poor focused images but just blamed myself. But the problem didn't improve when I took extra care with my technique.

Eventually after over 15 months, I began to consider that it might not be my fault after all and sent the lens to a repairer for a strip and check.

They found a slight movement in the rear element assembly and replaced it. Everything now seems fine. Or my technique suddenly improved.

The repairer said it was probably either produced with a faulty part or, more likely, the lens had a serious fall before I received it.

It cost me £200 extra but was probably worth that to stop blaming myself for something which was beyond my control.

[Jim Ford]

Many years ago when I started with film SLRs I used to fret about lens quality. It didn't take me long to realise that because all the light had to pass through the lens, the final image quality was probably over 90% dependant on lens quality, and that the body was only an accessory to the lens. I'm still of this opinion.

You can produce excellent images with a first class lens on an entry level body, but a poor quality lens will inevitably produce a poor image on the best quality body. It doesn't take much searching through the Gallery to find 'iffy' images taken with competent body, but with an obviously inferior lens fitted.

Whether you own a Canon 'Mega XXX' or a Nikon 'Super-Plus' is of secondary importance - it's down to the lenses you hang on them.

Jim

[Ollie]

Excellent read Graham. And I guess I have been lucky in that all my lenses seem to be fine with my 7D.

[GTH]

A very interesting read, thank you. I must say that I`ve had a niggling feeling with my Canon 500mm f/4 for some time with sharpness, comparing some photographs I`ve looked at on here, and have tried a few adjustments in my Canon 7d, however today I took the plunge and dropped it in to Canon at Elstree for calibration. I do hope this solves my problem !!

Geoff

[turkeyneck]

Originally Posted by GTH

A very interesting read, thank you. I must say that I`ve had a niggling feeling with my Canon 500mm f/4 for some time with sharpness, comparing some photographs I`ve looked at on here, and have tried a few adjustments in my Canon 7d, however today I took the plunge and dropped it in to Canon at Elstree for calibration. I do hope this solves my problem !!

Geoff

Hey Geoff, let us know how you get on after your calibration, be interesting to see how much it improves it,

cheers

Lee

[Bruce Williams]

Interesting link Graham - Thanks for posting .

Bruce

[GTH]

Originally Posted by turkeyneck

Hey Geoff, let us know how you get on after your calibration, be interesting to see how much it improves it,

cheers

Lee

.......Of course I will Lee !!

[GTH]

Well I picked my lens and 7D back up from Elstree on Monday ( took them 4 days ) The cost was £108-00. I haven`t had time to take it out so I took some random shots in the garden this afternoon. This was taken in raw from about 45ft away and heavily cropped. I`ve slightly adjusted level and sharpened it.

I`ll leave you to decide if it was worth the cost ???

Geoff

[GTH]

Taken from 50-60 ft away...not perfect as the sun was behind the woody !