Six lenses at 50mm compared.

[Blade Canyon]

The rain shot down my tennis match, so nothing to do tonight but mount the D600 on a tripod and shoot six different lenses at the same subject, all shooting at 50mm/5.6 with an SB-700 set to manual, so there should be no difference in exposure time, f-stop, or flash amount. These are crops from a small section in the middle of the picture. The books were at an angle to the camera, falling away. Though it is not obvious from the crop, the tiny picture of Bob Newhart was the focus subject for the auto-focus. These were not focused in Live View, because the whole point was to test IQ as I use these lenses, which is with AF or, in the case of the one manual focus lens, using the camera's round dot to confirm focus. VR on those lenses was turned off because of the tripod.

The lenses, NOT in order of photos, were as follows:

Sigma 24-70 2.8 EX DG at 50mm 5.6


Nikon 50mm 1.8 AF D at 5.6


Nikon 24-85G VR 3.5-4.5 at 50mm 5.6


Nikon 28-105D 3.5-4.5 at 50mm 5.6


Nikon 28-300 G ED VR 3.5-5.6 at 50mm 5.6


Nikon 50mm manual 1.4 at 5.6

Obviously, some lenses are front focusing, and some back focusing, so this was helpful to me to make fine-tuning adjustments this weekend.

Now the pics:














So, watcha think? These tests usually convince me to just shoot what I have and don't buy more gear, but one of these lenses was just bought today!

 

[Michael J.]

The third year title on the book shows a different in sharpness

 

[Blade Canyon]

The third year title on the book shows a different in sharpness

I agree. The depth of field is different for each lens, some in front, and some in back. This weekend I will try some fine-tuning for each lens (which the D600 saves) and try to even them out to traditional front/back ratios. My main interest is taking pictures of people, focusing on the closest eye, so I need the DOF about 1/3 front and 2/3 back.

 

[Blacktop]

The third year title on the book shows a different in sharpness

Yes it does. Nice catch Michael.

 

[Lawrence]

2nd one looks sharpest to me

 

[BackdoorArts]

This is a site I use that does a fairly great job at staying up to date on available lenses and displaying them at various focal lengths and apertures.

Lens Comparison Tool

Choose two lenses from the database, plug in focal length and apertures and mouse over to change from the LEFT lens to the RIGHT. Compares sharpness and CA in the center, edge and corners. Third party lenses tend to be tested on Canons, and full frame lenses are always tested on full frame sensors. This has helped me make several important decisions, and saved me a bit of money.

 

[Rick M]

I've found that most lenses are sharp in the middle, great lenses are sharp outside of the middle. Since I really enjoy landscapes, I look more at edge/corner sharpness.

 

[Blade Canyon]

This is a site I use that does a fairly great job at staying up to date on available lenses and displaying them at various focal lengths and apertures.

Lens Comparison Tool

That is a very cool website. Thank you. It really shows that the quality lenses (Nikon 70-200 2.8, Nikon 24-70 2.8) are genuinely better.

Although I have once again sworn after yesterday's purchase to never buy anything else.