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Sam Reeves wrote: > > > Not to be nitpicking, why would you want to repair a zoom lens? Throw it in > the garbage can. Fixed focal length lenses will be sharper than zoom lenses. > Ask any of my instructors at Foothill College and they will sing the perils of > zooms lenses for you. When you blow a slide/negative up to 8x10 and 11x14, > the loss of sharpness of a zoom will show! Sorry, but its the truth. ; - ) > Sam, Sam, Sam...tell your instructors to hop in their Packards and Stuedbakers and go to any camera store that carries high-end Canon or Nikon zooms...check out the Canon 70-200f2.8L and Nikon 80-200 f2.8. These are probably the finest zooms ever made and are standard equipment for photojournalists worldwide. Expensive lenses but tack sharp. A quick study of how pros use their equipment will reveal that photojournalists, not college instructors, probably use their equipment in a more similar fashion to railfans. And most photojournalists will be out of a job if the images are constantly fuzzy. I was a "prime lenses only" person until I switched to EOS six years ago. Now, the bulk of my shooting is done with two lenses--the 80-200f2.8L (the 70-200 replaced this lens in the Canon line a couple of years ago) and the 20-35f2.8L. The camera bag's much lighter and the shooting routine simpler. I will hold their sharpness up against any prime lens out there, and I'll also hold up many published photos (and unpublshed ones) that were gotten with the zooms, in "run and gun" situations, that just couldn't be had with a bag full of prime lenses to fumble with. I am certain your instructors will not have any good things to say about autofocus or auto exposure, either. That's fine as long as you remember that the vast majority of "photography instructors" are long on theory and short on the practical aspect of taking pictures under pressure--when you get one chance to produce. Rick Newton's post said it better than I ever could, but I had to throw my opinions in, being a "zoom lens fan" who discovered the truth just a few years ago. There are several zooms out there that are very expensive and well worth it. You get what you pay for. --David R. Busse Diamond Bar, California ======================================================= -> SPORRS: 'Serious Photographers Of Railroad Related Subjects' -> Web Site: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs/ -> Message © 1998 SPORRS® - All Rights Reserved =======================================================
