Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/10/19

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Subject: Re: Nov 96 POP PHOTO Review of 50mm's
From: imxputs@knoware.nl (Erwin Puts/imX)
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 17:06:39 +0200

>Pop Photo tests are worthless. They consistently get it wrong. They don't'
>design lenses, and they have advertisers to make happy. BAS tests are much
>more reliable and consistent with what I hear people saying from using
>lenses in the real world.

The BAS testing institute (actually only one person) uses a method of lens
evaluation that is seriously flawed. The results are not considered to be
of any value by lens designers themselves. The use of nice graphics and the
idea of continuity (the graphics have not changed since the beginning, but
the test methodology is twice revised!) are certainly  pleasing for the
eye. The factual content however is very low.
The POP Photo methodology is optically sound. They analyse a lens on five
or six parameters they deem important and then use a weighted average to
arrive at the SQF values. It is the selection of parameters and this
weighting that undervalues the Leica lenses in most cases. What they
measure and the way they measure it are in itself correct.
My vote for the best lenstests? The British Journal of Photography (only if
Geoffrey Crawley does the tests). My second best vote? The German magazine
'ColorFoto', if they give you the background details. They use MTF
analysis, howver, which some of the LUG members do not favour.
Their latest test analyses macro-lenses. In the 100mm category the order is:
Leica Apo-Macro-Elmarit-R 2,8/100
Contax Zeiss Makro-Planar 2.8/100
Nikon Micro-Nikkor 2,8/105
Canon EF 2,8/100 Macro.
The 50mm lenses are not so good. They are designed 20 to 30 years ago and
do not take into account recent advances in optical theory. The best here
is less that the last of the 100mm's.
The order:
Contax Zeiss Makro-Planar 2.8/60
Leica Macro-Elmarit-R 2,8/60
Minolta MD-Macro 3,5/50
Nikon Micro-Nikkor 2,8/55
Erwin Puts