On 10/16/2010 4:30 PM, John Mustarde wrote:
When did this lens become "semi-legendary"? I've had two; neither was great. I sold my last one for the going rate of about $125 some years ago. It was nicely matched in range and size with the F 24-50/f4, but optically was sub par, suitable only for 4x6 snapshots and cropped 8x10s, at almost every focal length. In the days of when anything faster than ISO 100 was of unexceptional quality, the f5.6 speed was a nuisance.
John, I beg to differ here. I had this lens and its performance was nothing short of stellar _for the money_. Sufficiently sharp wide open including the long end of the zoom range and very pleasant rendering. I did not shoot film with it and only used it with *istD, so may be on more modern bodies it performs differently, but I can only praise it based on my experience.
There was a long PDML thread discussing its measured shortcomings some years back. It was poor anywhere near the edges. But of course, using only the center glass on an APS-C camera, it's performance likely increased substantially. Maybe even to semi-legendary status?
May be, like I said, I only used it on *istD. I also had briefly F 80-200/4.7-5.6. In a nutshell it just sucked.
The problem with "great" glass is that it becomes greater through discussion and praise, rather than objectively evaluated by measurement. I've been as guilty as anyone of promoting lenses based on my limited experience. It is an easy thing to do in the absence of reliable and accurate means of measurement.
Measurement of measurebatement? No offense meant here, John, but IMHO, the lens is judged by its real life performance. That is by real photos (preferably printed at A4 or better yet A3 enlargement) and not by shooting targets.
Personally, I value much more the opinion of my fellow shooters (especially those whom I recognize as having a style similar to mine) rather than endless reviews that are very often either biased or done in a hurry because the lens is a loaner that has to be returned to the original owner all too soon for the reviewer to be able to come up with sensible opinion about its performance.
That said, I have a superb, super fast and semi-legendary M 200/2.5 lens for sale. Cheap, make offer, hurry cause there's a fancy new but soon to be legendary .22 Magnum semi-auto pistol I'm lusting after.
Well, until you buy your Magnum, you cannot *really* convince anyone to rid themselves of their money :-). But once you do, you won't have to offer them the lens, unless it is a bait :-).
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