CCC Forum

That was the maxim which newspaper picture editors told their photographers. But do all lenses perform similarly when stopped down? Roger Cicala at LensRentals decided to find out. The absolute answer is no. The more expensive a lens is, the better it is likely to perform across the frame at all apertures. (That finding is subject to sample variation. Even with modern manufacturing standards and quality control, there is a lack of consistency as Roger Cicala has demonstrated numerous times in his other articles.) Moreover, an inexpensive prime lens will better a zoom lens, simply because the optical design is less complex. For most practical purposes, the differences are not that great that lens choice will be a significant factor in the resulting image. That only applies to stopped down usage, of course, which is not always appropriate for every image. And sharpness is not the only consideration for lens design, albeit it is the one on which most concentrate nowadays. Manufacturers and consumers alike.

Cicala's articles can be quite long and have more detail than many want, so I have linked to the shorter summary on PetaPixel. The original posts are accessible from there, if needed.

https://petapixel.com/2019/11/06/lensre ... me-at-f-8/