> > Chip Louie wrote: > > At the risk of tweaking some people, IMO third party lenses > > are simply not as good overall and to offset this they must > > offer lower prices to create a place in the market. > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > Hi Chip, > > Sometimes it's true, sometimes it's not. I find the plastic > low cost lenses from Canon as poorly made as those from others. > I find the Tamron SP equal to the quality of Canon's better lenses. > Overall, I would say as a group the new Sigma EX lenses are > excellent. > Since the camera manufacturers have the advantage in providing for > compatibility with their own lenses, 3rd parties often get a > bad rep on this that spills over into other things. Price is a > major factor in buying a 3rd party lens, but so is quality. > Tests show the less expensive Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro to be > much better than the Canon, and its cheaper. > Do you recall the 3rd party Vivitar Series 1 90mm macro > from years ago? It was the absolute best macro made compared > then with the best from Nikon, Canon, etc. Even by today's > standards it is still a stellar performer. Personally, if I > like a lens I use it. I do not buy into the new Canon marketing > scheme that says "nothing says amateur like a third party lens." > Mind you, I am not saying you or anyone else does buy into this, > just my two cents. > > Peter K >
Hi Peter, Yes of course what you say is true for individual lenses in a line up but I wrote overall and meant the reader to consider the full line of lenses. There are certainly some lenses in the Canon line-up that can be improved upon and in some cases a third party lens maker has done so. This is easy to observe. What is also easy to observe is that the overall ratings for the pro line lenses from Canon are consistently at or near the top of the ratings. As I mention in a later post, as you work your way down from pro to prosumer and consumer lens lines the ratings show a less clear trend line and third party lenses start to come into their own more often. Personally if I like a lens I use it too. This may be why I have so many and they tend to be "better" lenses from Canon. I like the way they feel and work consistently from lens to lens, the zoom and focusing control rings are all in the same place within a line and the switches all work the same within a line. This is also why I have several EOS 1n and EOS 1 bodies, they all work the same and I don't need to think much when switching from one to another I only need to consider the film and lens which is why I needed to switch bodies anyway. I don't read any of the popular photo magazines so I have not seen these ads, but now I have to go find them on the news stand and see what you are talking about. I think that do people make decisions based on emotion, we wouldn't be people if we didn't, and lot of other people wouldn't have advertising jobs if we didn't. I gotta go to the news stand now. Regards, Chip Louie * **** ******* *********************************************************** * For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see: * http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm ***********************************************************
