camera related things & my new Leica
My old Pentax ME is dying, but still holding on, so I've been considering the
purchase of either a
Pentax ZX-5n or a
Nikon N90s,
for about a year now, so I have been plowing through the WWW lens test archives,
and I've found of some things of note. In the following tables,
x.x,y.y,z.z listings are the barrel/pincushion distortions,
a/b/c are the numbers of C's, D's and F's in the Popular Photography
test results,
e.e|f.f are the FotoMagazin test numbers,
the final numbers in the rows are the ColorFoto results, the total out of 100
first, then (Resolution;Contrast;Centering;Distortion;Vignetting).
I've sorted the results best to worst, though there are some close calls.
However, I went out and bought a
Leica Z2X
instead of the above-mentioned items.
I think I just wanted a P&S like thePentax IQZoom 140 (now sold as the
slightly different
140M)
that I just bought my mom for her birthday. I had to wait a month for the
Leica to arrive--they had to ship it from overseas and all, but I must say I
love it. It has a 35-70mm zoom, flash, and +2 EV override--the only two
complaints I have about this camera are: I can't do any other value other
than +2 EV, and the lens doesn't have threads for screw-on filters. Then
again, the lens retracts and is covered when the power is turned off, so
there's a trade-off there. I also ordered the leather carrying case. My
first roll through the camera was
Kodak
E100S professional slide film, and I've put over a dozen rolls of E100S and
E100SW through since then. I take this camera with me whenever I go on business
trips--it's small enough to conviently carry, and with the carrying case
that I bought with it, it's protected from me as well! I'm really happy that
I bought this camera. I'm still considering purchasing a 35mm SLR, but
I'm also seriously thinking about a medium format camera--I have three 35mm
cameras now, and the format is starting to annoy me.
Lens Distortions POP CDF FotoMag ColorFoto
------------------------- ----------- ------- ------- --------------------
spanning 25mm
-------------
Nikkor 20-35 f2.8D 1.8,0.7,0.9 9/1/0 68
Tamron 20-40 f2.7-3.5ASL 1.3,1.5,2.2 6/0/0 58 (15;20;10;7;6)
Tokina 24-40 f2.8D 1.9,1.3,1.8 11/2/0 9.0|9.0 58
spanning 50mm
-------------
Nikkor 35-70 f2.8 D 1.6,0.6,1.8 8/1/0 9.0|9.0 75 (18;24;16;9;8)
Sigma 28-70 f2.8 2.4,0.0,0.9 6/3/1 9.0|9.0 64
Tokina 28-70 f2.6-2.8Pro 1.4,1.4,1.4 11/1/1 9.0|9.0 65
Tamron 35-105 f2.8 ASL 1.1,2.4,2.6 13/1/1 9.0|9.0 61
Pentax 28-70 f2.8 ASL 2.2,0.5,1.8 9/1/3 70 (17;24;13;9;6)
spanning 100mm
--------------
Sigma 70-210 f2.8 APO 1.1,0.7,2.4 3/0/0 9.6|9.2 61
Nikkor 80-200 f2.8D 0.7,1.6,1.9 7/0/0 9.6|9.4 67
Pentax 80-200 f2.8 EDIF 0.7,1.1,1.4 9/0/0
Tokina 80-200 f2.8 Pro 0.6,0.5,1.3 15/0/0 9.0|9.0 67
Tamron 70-210 f2.8 APO 1.8,0.7,1.1 13/1/0 8.8|9.4 59
over 300mm
----------
Nikkor 400 f2.8D EDIF 81
Sigma 400 f5.6 0.8 9/1/0 9.6|9.4 78
Tokina 400 f5.6 ATX 0.9 8/1/0 78 latl color probs!
------------------------- ----------- ------- ------- --------------------
Lens Distortions POP CDF FotoMag ColorFoto
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Thu Dec 13 13:02:11 EST 2001