Lens comparisons / lab tests...

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

Hi!

While browsing through some "old" photo magazines, I have found an overview of lens lab tests.
These were the results of a renown and respected German magazine...

They rank lenses like this:
...
7.6 pts. up: good
8.1 pts. up: good - very good
8.6 pts. up: very good
9.1 pts. up: excellent
9.6 pts. up: exceptional
10 pts.: perfect (only very rare lenses achieve 10 pts., some tele primes have, e.g. Leica APO-Summicron-R 2.0/180)

50mm:

Nikkor AIS 1.8/50 - 8.5 pts.: sharp and brilliant, from f5.6 on very good
Nikkor AIS 1.4/50 - 9.6 pts.: satisfactory at f1.4, from f2 on excellent
Zeiss Planar T* 1.4/50 - 9.4 pts.: good to very good wide open, excellent at f4, green is dominant colour
Zeiss Planar T* 1.7/50 - 9.0 pts.: very good at all apertures, but slight barrel distortion
Pentacon 1.7/50 (1992) - 9.0 pts.: good at f1.7, at f8 very good

80-90mm:

Leica Summilux-R 1.4/80 - 9.4 pts.: excellent sharpness and from f2 on very brilliant
Leica Elmarit 2.8/90 - 9.6 pts.: excellent even when wide open (f2.8 )
Nikkor AIS 2.0/85 - 8.6 pts.: sharp but low contrast at f2, stopped down very sharp and brilliant
Zeiss Planar T* 1.4/85 - 9.4 pts.: very good at all apertures, blue/green slightly dominant

135mm:

Leica Elmarit-R 2.8/135 - 9.4 pts.: very sharp and contrasty even at f2.8
Zeiss Sonnar 2.8/135 - 9.6 pts.: exceptional performance at all apertures
Pentacon auto 2.8/135 - 8.4 pts.: good to very good open, from f8 on very good

28mm:

Nikkor AIS 2.8/28 - 8.8 pts.: very sharp and brilliant, slight barrel dist.
Olympus 2.8/28 - 7.5 pts.: rather sharp but some vignetting
Pentacon 2.8/29 - 7.8 pts.: sharpness and contrast poor and vignetting wide open, very good from f8 on
Sigma 2.8/28 - 9.2 pts.: very good at all apertures, some vignetting in the corners
Soligor 2.8/28 - 8.0 pts.: open almost very good, stopped down very good, slight vignetting
Zeiss Distagon 2.8/28 - 9.0 pts.: excellent sharpness and contrast, very small vignetting, some barrel distortion

35mm:

Leica Summilux-R 1.4/35 - 9.5 pts.: exceptional performance, only very slight vignetting until f5.6
Zeiss Distagon T* 1.4/35 - 9.4 pts.: very good wide open, excellent when stopped down, green is dominant, almost no dist. or vign.

Superwides:

Leica Elmarit-R 2.8/19 - 9.9 pts.: exceptional performance at all apertures
Nikkor AIS 3.5/18 - 9.4 pts.: excellent at all apertures
Nikkor AIS 2.8/20 - 9.4 pts.: excellent at all apertures
Pentax SMC A 2.8/20 - 9.4 pts.: excellent at all apertures
Tamron SP 3.5/17 - 8.2 pts.: sharp and contrasty, some vignetting, slight barrel distortion
Tokina SL 3.5/17 - 9.4 pts.: very good at all apertures
Zeiss Distagon 4.0/18 - 9.8 pts.: An exceptional lens, excellent performance
Zeiss Distagon T* 2.8/21 - 9.4 pts.: very good, blue weaker than red and green

Some excellent zoom lenses:

Leica Vario-Elmar-R 3.5-4.5/28-70 - 9.6 pts.
Nikkor AIS 3.5-4.5/28-85 - 9.2 pts.
Sigma UC 3.5-4.5/28-70 - 9.6 pts.
Tamron MF 3.8-5.6/28-200 ASL - 9.4 pts. (a big surprise then!)
Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 3.3-4/28-85 - 9.6 pts.

Angeniuex 3.5/70-210 - 9.0 pts.
Leica Vario-Elmarit-R 4.0/80-200 - 9.8 pts.
Nikkor AIS 4.0/80-200 - 9.5 pts.
Soligor 4-5.6/60-300 - 9.2 pts. (cf. Tamron SP 3.8-5.4/60-300 - 8.5 pts.)
Tokina SZ-X 4-5.6/70-210 - 9.4 pts. (cf. Vivitar Series 1 2.8-4/70-210 - 7.6 pts)

So, if you look at some lenses we use, the criticism at our own lenses is what we call in German "Jammern auf hohem Niveau" (which means, we complain although we have excellent lenses.) Wink