[Leica] OT: EOS 70-200L sharpness

[wildlightphoto at earthlink.net (wildlightphoto@earthlink.net)]

"A. Lal" <alal@duke.poly.edu> wrote:

>Our Javier has put up some photos of critters found in his park 
>neighborhood 
>park.
>
>http://63.164.201.182/javier/critters/critters.htm
>
>The sharpness of the 70-200 L lens is quite remarkable. Look at the 6 th 
>photo down from the top. One can clearly see what a tick on the squirrel's 
>nose.

I'm having a hard time finding a middle ground between sitting on my hands 
and coming across like Simon Cowell.  Perhaps the DMR and Leica lenses have 
spoiled me.

Not knowing what Javier intended for these photos or how they were 
processed, I'll say that these are not pictures I'd use to demonstrate how 
sharp a lens is.  If one or two of these are 100% crops then I'd consider 
the lens good, not remarkable but good, otherwise these photos are not ideal 
for showing lens sharpness.

In particular I see motion blur in the duck and first Robin, the grackle and 
second robin are somewhat soft, and on several the focus is off.

Here are a few photos that I consider sharp and do a good job of 
demonstrating a lens' capabilities (full image first, then a 100% crop).  
The crops are big files, your browser might want to scale them down to fit 
the window.  These also show why I prefer the DMR @ ISO 400 over Provia 400F:

560mm f/6.8 @f/6.8 (a 1970 design) on the R8/DMR:
http://wildlightphoto.com/birds/phasianidae/witu19.jpg
http://wildlightphoto.com/birds/phasianidae/witu19crop.jpg

http://wildlightphoto.com/mammals/artiodactyls/dash01.jpg
http://wildlightphoto.com/mammals/artiodactyls/dash01crop.jpg

80-200mm Vario-Elmar @ 180mm & full aperture on Provia 400F:
http://wildlightphoto.com/birds/strigidae/eeow02.jpg
http://wildlightphoto.com/birds/strigidae/eeow02crop.jpg

The 70-200L may be as remarkable a lens as some have said, but these photos 
don't show it.  Or I might be spoiled by the DMR and Leica lenses.



Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com