Lens Mega Shootout

Photometric

Or...my quest for a regular zoom and my best attempt to be a pain at B&H...

http://www.djdimages.com/Other/LensShootout/11243760_o3aaR

Featuring:

Nikon 17-55mm DX f2.8
Tamron 28-75mm f2.8
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8
Sigma 24-70mm f2.8
Nikon 85mm f1.4

The Nikons were what I expected them to be, the best and the most costly.
The Tamron was a little bit disappointing in the sense that it was much darker than the others.
The Sigma, optically was very nice, but it hunted alot more than the Nikon

The Nikon 85mm was a very nice lens as well.

All shot on a D90

DsrtVW

No Tokina Lenses

Photometric

I had my list of lenses to try and that was on it. However, in the store, I went off script when I saw what the Nikon 24-70 could do.

I spent time shooting the lenses and then took my memory card over to the computer section, and loaded the images to a MAC and looked at them. In the process, I forgot to look at the Tokina.

cab.in.boston

I see the choice you made, I'm sure you're thrilled! I wish that you had used the same settings for all the lenses, as the varying ISOs make direct comparisons a little difficult. However, you're absolutely right about that Tamron. I'm amazed, the shots with it at 1/90 look similar in brightness to the Nikkor 17-55 at 1/1000! That hardly seems possible.

The B&H store looks wonderful. I can only dream about having a photo store like that anywhere near me. I've told my wife that someday we need to take a trip to NYC so I can spend a few days wandering around all the photo stores in the area.

ziggy53

Florescent store lights commonly "strobe" at 60 cycles per second (old ballasts). At 1/90th shutter speed you could expect some images to be dark as you hit the low side of the energy cycle. The Tamron was unlucky to hit the low power cycle is all.

In order to smooth the light in those conditions I recommend a shutter speed of 1/30th to catch 2 cycles. Normally that requires a tripod, of course.

In houses, especially using compact florescent lighting, if they employ electronic rapid-start ballasts they typically don't have the problem because those ballasts beat in the thousands of cycles per second.

cab.in.boston

ziggy53 wrote:

Florescent store lights commonly "strobe" at 60 cycles per second (old ballasts). At 1/90th shutter speed you could expect some images to be dark as you hit the low side of the energy cycle. The Tamron was unlucky to hit the low power cycle is all.

Ziggy, while that makes perfect sense, I find it terribly coincidental that all 4 of the 1/90 Tamron shots posted are very dark, while all of the Nikkor 17-55 and 24-70 shots taken at 1/90 are bright. All of the Sigma images at 1/125 are nice and bright as well. It took about 1/1000s on the Nikkor to look similar (the difference b/t 1/90 and 1/1000 is about 3.5 stops, if I'm doing my math right).

I wonder if what was going on was more like a communication breakdown between the lens and camera. My Tamron sometimes loses connection with my D90, but when that happens, it requires a power reset or lens remount, it won't just take pictures with bad settings. But I still wonder if that's what happened here.

Photometric

Just to give a little color. Between shots, I was making sure I hit the following focal lengths for each lens if the lens was capable.

17mm
24mm
28mm
35mm
50mm
70mm

So I spent a little time between shots to make sure that I got as close to the correct lengths as possible. I think it would be hard to hit the same cycle between shots.

I never heard of a lens losing connection before, but that could've been it. I have a friend who has the Tamron with a D80, and she never complains about it, she swears by that lens. Also, this was a display lens, maybe it was beaten up.

Cab, B&H is amazing. I took enough time with the long lines and the 5 lenses and focal lengths. I should've set the camera up with the same ISO, but I was more concerned with looking at lens sharpness, feel, tracking and focus to see what was the best long term investment. I was doing alot of research, and came across this essay written up by Ken Rockwell. I went in the store expecting to buy the Tamron based upon my friend's love for the lens but decided to buy what would do the best job.

cab.in.boston

Photometric wrote:

I never heard of a lens losing connection before, but that could've been it. I have a friend who has the Tamron with a D80, and she never complains about it, she swears by that lens. Also, this was a display lens, maybe it was beaten up.

It was just a thought, I don't know that I've heard of a lens allowing you to shoot but messing up the settings. My Tamron is the 17-50 f/2.8, and I like it a lot. The error I've seen has only happened a handful of times, but for whatever reason it will suddenly just act as if the lens isn't there and I can't take a shot. I either have to cycle the power switch off and on, or remove and remount the lens. Then it's all better. I just wonder if for some reason it was stopping down to f/9 or so, even though the camera thought it was sending f/2.8. The drastic difference in brightness in your gallery just doesn't seem possible to me.

Photometric

I was also very surprised. I almost went back and asked for the lens again to see if it was something I did. AND even after getting home with the Nikkor, I was looking at those pictures again to make sure it wasn't something I did wrong. Here's the full exif data from the 28mm focal length:

Tamron 28-75mm f2.8
File Info 1
File: Vday_20100214_0045_.NEF
Date Created: 2/14/2010 3:30:52 PM
Date Modified: 2/14/2010 3:30:52 PM
File Size: 9.79 MB
Image Size: L (4288 x 2848)
File Info 2
Date Shot: 2/14/2010 15:30:52.00
World Time: UTC-5, DST:ON
Image Quality: Compressed RAW (12-bit)
Artist:
Copyright:
Image Comment:
Camera Info
Device: Nikon D90
Lens: 28-75mm F/2.8D
Focal Length: 28mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR:
AF Fine Tune:
Exposure
Aperture: F/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/90s
Exposure Mode: Manual
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: Auto (ISO 800)
Flash
Flash Sync Mode:
Flash Mode:
Flash Exposure Comp.:
Colored Gel Filter:
Image Settings
White Balance: Shade, 0, 0
Color Space: sRGB
High ISO NR: ON (High)
Long Exposure NR: OFF
Active D-Lighting: OFF
Image Authentication:
Vignette Control:
Auto Distortion Control:
Picture Control
Picture Control: [NL] NEUTRAL
Base: [NL] NEUTRAL
Quick Adjust: -
Sharpening: 6
Contrast: +1
Brightness: 0
Saturation: -1
Hue: -1
Filter Effects:
Toning:
GPS
Latitude:
Longitude:
Altitude:
Altitude Reference:
Heading:
UTC:
Map Datum:

Nikon 24-70mm f2.8
File Info 1
File: Vday_20100214_0050_.NEF
Date Created: 2/14/2010 3:32:10 PM
Date Modified: 2/14/2010 3:32:10 PM
File Size: 10.1 MB
Image Size: L (4288 x 2848)
File Info 2
Date Shot: 2/14/2010 15:32:10.00
World Time: UTC-5, DST:ON
Image Quality: Compressed RAW (12-bit)
Artist:
Copyright:
Image Comment:
Camera Info
Device: Nikon D90
Lens: 24-70mm F/2.8G
Focal Length: 28mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Auto
VR:
AF Fine Tune:
Exposure
Aperture: F/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/90s
Exposure Mode: Manual
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: Auto (ISO 500)
Flash
Flash Sync Mode:
Flash Mode:
Flash Exposure Comp.:
Colored Gel Filter:
Image Settings
White Balance: Shade, 0, 0
Color Space: sRGB
High ISO NR: OFF
Long Exposure NR: OFF
Active D-Lighting: OFF
Image Authentication:
Vignette Control:
Auto Distortion Control:
Picture Control
Picture Control: [NL] NEUTRAL
Base: [NL] NEUTRAL
Quick Adjust: -
Sharpening: 6
Contrast: +1
Brightness: 0
Saturation: -1
Hue: -1
Filter Effects:
Toning:
GPS
Latitude:
Longitude:
Altitude:
Altitude Reference:
Heading:
UTC:
Map Datum:

The one thing I noticed even with the Sigma, was that the Nikon lenses had the lowest auto ISO. But that's all very subjective to the camera's whims. In hindsight, I should've set a fixed ISO.

Photometric

Just updated the gallery with 3 photos testing the close focusing accuracy using a mirror. The Lens hood almost touched the mirror.



testing Bokeh


More Bokeh, close focusing testing