A while back I posted about trying out some bargain lenses. First, though, let me just say that for those who automatically equate "bargain" with "junk"
that is not the point of this thread.
This is not a thread about junk lenses.This is not a thread about junk lenses.OK, for those left
, how do you think I should go about showing/seeing what these lenses are capable of? All up, I have about 12 primes of varying levels of cost ranging from $43 to just under $1k. One thought was to pick a scene and take shots with every lens. Kinda boring? Maybe a better approach would be to just take them all out and take whatever shots I found interesting, and then post a "challenge" to see who could tell which were taken with the "cheap" lenses?
This is sort of a project over the Christmas break.
For those wondering what I'm smoking, here is the point. Nikon, bless them, used to make lenses in a range of maximum apertures. A 50mm lens came in f/1.2, f/1.4, f/1.8, and f/2.0 versions. A 135mm lens came in f/2.0, f/2.8, and f/3.5 versions, as did the 28s. On the used market, the price difference between the fastest and the slowest versions of these lenses is dramatic i.e. a factor of ten times seems to be typical.
Apart from the speed difference, what's wrong with the slow lenses? Nothing. The optical quality of the different lenses varies and isn't
necessarily tied to the max aperture on that lens! So some of the "slow" lenses are considered optical gems by many.
The other thing to note is that I'm talking about AI lenses, made back in the day when Nikon made all their lenses to the same high standard. This is not plastic junk we're talking about, it's built to last.
