Canon EOS 350D
- Thread starter Basil
- Start date
Cav
pfm Member
There are of course "better and worse" lenses depending on how you choose to define those terms. If in terms of resolving power, lack of chromatic aberration, flatness of field etc. then the more you pay, generally the better these measurements are at the aperture extremes.
Whether it makes any difference is a completely different question.
Whether it makes any difference is a completely different question.
If you have perfect conditions for photography, good indirect light, and stop down to around f/8 all 'normal' lenses perform more of less identically. You'll get some colour casts from some lenses, but nothing that can't be sorted out these days in software to give you more or less identical images.
If however you want to do something a bit off the well trod path, say wider than 28mm, or longer than 70mm, or directly into the sun, or very close focus, or very open, or very closed, then that's what you pay your money for.
Cesare
If however you want to do something a bit off the well trod path, say wider than 28mm, or longer than 70mm, or directly into the sun, or very close focus, or very open, or very closed, then that's what you pay your money for.
Cesare
matthewr
spɹɐʍʞɔɐq spɹoɔǝɹ ɹnoʎ sʎɐld
The “source first” essential element in photography is and always was the vision of the photographer.
Well yes in exactly the same way that music is ultimately "source first" and The Pixies on a transistor radio are better than Steely Dan on the world's best hi-fi. This is not a great argument for not buying a good hi-fi though and certainly not an argument that shows that the CD or record player is not more important than the speakers.
"As a comment, not a criticism, I wonder whether some people here are becoming too fixated on equipment rather than on the final image."
I completely agree. But the people who post a lot of pictures or take an interest in other people's pictures are as easy to spot as the people for whom is next on the list after they bought a fancy dishwasher. And -- arguably even worse -- the people who buy expensive cameras and then post pictures that show less than zero effort in imagination (nothing wrong with being a bad photographer but I do object to the people who don't even try to get better). Interest in photographs does not, of course, preclude or forbid an interest in cameras.
And, FWIW, I have consistently advocated small, cheap, simple cameras over these ludicrous, over complicated and expensive DSLRs that people seem to think will revolutionise photography when they are released each Autumn. Despite this I do think lenses make a difference and I that you can justify spending the money on them. At least to an extent; the most expensive lens I have ever bought cost £299 and I have avoided a number of lenses I would really, really like to have becuase the cost £600+.
Well yes in exactly the same way that music is ultimately "source first" and The Pixies on a transistor radio are better than Steely Dan on the world's best hi-fi. This is not a great argument for not buying a good hi-fi though and certainly not an argument that shows that the CD or record player is not more important than the speakers.
"As a comment, not a criticism, I wonder whether some people here are becoming too fixated on equipment rather than on the final image."
I completely agree. But the people who post a lot of pictures or take an interest in other people's pictures are as easy to spot as the people for whom is next on the list after they bought a fancy dishwasher. And -- arguably even worse -- the people who buy expensive cameras and then post pictures that show less than zero effort in imagination (nothing wrong with being a bad photographer but I do object to the people who don't even try to get better). Interest in photographs does not, of course, preclude or forbid an interest in cameras.
And, FWIW, I have consistently advocated small, cheap, simple cameras over these ludicrous, over complicated and expensive DSLRs that people seem to think will revolutionise photography when they are released each Autumn. Despite this I do think lenses make a difference and I that you can justify spending the money on them. At least to an extent; the most expensive lens I have ever bought cost £299 and I have avoided a number of lenses I would really, really like to have becuase the cost £600+.