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Coming soon: Lens Reviews to return to dpreview.com

Oct 2, 2012 at 16:00:00 GMT

SITE NEWS DPREVIEW LENS

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We're incredibly pleased to announce the imminent return of lens reviews to dpreview.com thanks to a joint venture with DXO Labs, involving the establishment of a dedicated DxO lens and camera testing facility in Seattle, and the incorporation of DxO test data into dpreview.com’s class-leading lens reviews. We're currently ironing out the last few bugs in the system, and hope to publish the first review later this week.

We launched lens reviews back in 2008 and they were an immediate hit, gaining praise for the unique user-friendly presentation of complex data via a patented test data widget, supported by numerous real-world sample images and expert commentary. Logistical issues put the lens reviews on an extended hiatus in late 2010, and the new venture with DxO Labs not only ensures the return of lens reviews to dpreview.com, but allows more of them to be produced, more quickly.

We're currently putting the finishing touches to a completely re-written version of our lens widget, which will use DXO data and present it in a familiar format.

The new lab is now fully operational, and we expect to publish the first review within the next week or so. The popular lens review data widget has been entirely re-written to allow dpreview.com’s visitors to visualize the test results from the new lab and compare lenses just as they could before. Dpreview.com’s highly respected lens expert, Andy Westlake, will once again produce the lens reviews.

As part of the joint venture agreement the test results obtained will also be made available on DxO Mark website (www.dxomark.com). DxO Labs and dpreview.com will also be collaborating on the testing of digital cameras with a view to adding even more valuable image quality information to dpreview.com’s legendary in-depth reviews.

'We are very happy to provide dpreview with our measurement technology for testing cameras and lenses' said DxO Labs CEO Jerome Meniere. 'Dpreview’s articulate and creative writing style makes difficult photography concepts accessible to even the most novices of photographers – they are a perfect complement to DxOMark’s scientific measures.'

Simon: Producing the data for lens reviews in an incredibly long-winded process requiring a large, dedicated studio and hundreds, sometimes thousands of high precision exposures and measurements. The establishment of a dedicated DxO Labs lens and camera testing facility on our doorstep allows us to entrust the measurement and studio testing of lenses to an established world leader in image quality analysis, and to work with its team to offer our readers the perfect combination of accurate, consistent measurements with real-world shooting experience and expert analysis.

Comments

Total comments: 275

Seeing as your last lens review appeared almost 2 full years ago, I don't think you can refer to your reviews as "class-leading" anymore. But I'm very happy to see the return of your lens reviews...

4 upvotes

The Camera reviews are class leading AND recent.
And has there been a better review of that lens in the 2 years since it was published ?

1 upvote

Well, the test refers to "...the incorporation of DxO test data into dpreview.com’s class-leading lens reviews." And while I liked DPR's lens reviews, yes, I think there are better reviewers out there. The DPR reviews tend to be heavy on the technical details, but light on an evaluation of the artistry of a lens.

Comment edited 21 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

Wonderful news.Glass is probably more important than the latest and greatest body available. Please include for lay people ,who are senior citizens like myself, the weight of the item and some information on the comparative advantage of a prime vs. a zoom re: the optics under review.Thank you Best AlanK New Mexico USA.

1 upvote

Glad to see that handy "lens widget" tool will still be used.

Some people brought up a good point. The number of lens samples needed. Perhaps DXO already does this, I don't know. It sure would be helpful to know the deviation.

1 upvote

Will any Oly lens that gets a decent score be delayed for 6 months extra testing?
La la la la la la la.... I can't hear you..... la la la la la la la la al la
j/k

1 upvote

Yay!
Seriously.
+1. Like.

0 upvotes

DPR has already outsourced some reviewing to Jeff Keller and now the lens reviews are going to be done by DXO labs.

What next for outsourcing?

3 upvotes

The lens reviews will be written by Andy Westlake, same as always. We're just using DXO data.

5 upvotes

actually we're not outsourcing the lens reviews, we're outsourcing some of the lab testing. We're just trying to provide our visitors with a better service - is that really so bad?

8 upvotes

You guys will always have the nay sayers no matter what the issue.

For myself I'm quite happy to have DPR have the capability to review lenses . . . will DPR be able to do some catch up on un reviewed lenses for previously reviewed for bodies?

0 upvotes

I was being a bit facetious but I am slightly disappointed you are having to use other peoples data for your reviews. It means there is less variety on the web as does the fact when Jeff Keller does a review for you we get one instead of two reviews of a camera.

In both cases I'd rather see DPR do the reviews itself supplying all its own content.

I hope you have no plans to rope in Imaging Resource or any other sites to beef up DPR content in your quest for world domination!

But then I see in the post below you say you are going to work with DXO on beefing up your camera reviews as well.

Sorry but I think you are outsourcing here if this comes ot pass.

Comment edited 3 minutes after posting

1 upvote

And what about lab measurement section by DxO in the camera reviews? This will be really cancelling any bias and will be even more welcome by even more readers!

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 4 minutes after posting

1 upvote

we'll be working with DXO on enhancing camera reviewing in the near future - watch this space.

11 upvotes

Exciting!

1 upvote

Will you be reviewing Fujifilm X lenses too, even if DXO labs can't test the sensors, or are the lens tests independant of sensor performance?

0 upvotes

bearing in mind DXO rate the mk1 better than the mk2 EF 70-200 f2.8 IS lens....................................

0 upvotes

Hooray!

Will you be testing more than one copy of each lens and publishing the average/median of the results?

Roger Cicala's work on sample variation has shown that this is what really needs to be done to test optical performance. For example, this recent article:

http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/09/why-arent-the-damn-numbers-the-same

4 upvotes

Excellent~!!
Long for that......

0 upvotes

Will you be testing just one copy of each design, or a representative sample?

One of the biggest problems for a buyer is to know which lenses are consistently good and which vary from excellent to bad.

10 upvotes

Yes, a very relevant question! I too would love to see an estimate of sample variation. Maybe in collaboration with lensrentals?

2 upvotes

Great news. The best-established photography website joins hands with the most comprehensive photography lab in order to provide its readers with much-needed lens reviews. Best of both worlds. Yet I hope there'll be enough room left for subjectivity: numbers aren't everything, they just tell half of the story.
Congrats.

3 upvotes

Fantastic news.
(please review exclusively Nikon and Nikon-fit lenses, don't waste valuable time on any other stuff ;) )

0 upvotes

Woooot!

0 upvotes

YUHUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FINALLY!!! I always though they were some of the very best ever available in the internet!!! XD

0 upvotes

That's a marriage made in heaven!

0 upvotes

Awesome news guys, congrats!

1 upvote

This is amazing news! My two best sources for lens quality coming together!

0 upvotes

@DPREVIEW
That is good news !!

I guess a lot of people who are considering BUYING a new lens would like to compare it to their existing lenses with this tool.
So that means you'll have to do lots of reviews of NEW lenses AND also reviews of current existing and perhaps even some older lenses.

2 upvotes

Good news! Thank you! Please consider the review of the Nikkors 16-85 VR and the 70-300 VR :)

Comment edited 31 seconds after posting

3 upvotes

And maybe a side-by-side test comparison with the Canon eqivalent lenses.

0 upvotes

Why in hell always Canin or Nicon?
Do people realise there is also Tokina; Tamrom and Sigma etc etc???
Not to mention Sony, Pentax and obviously ZEISS! But the ones before being the ONLY ONES UNIVERSAL are actually the ones that will inform more people INDEPENDENTLY of which brand is their camera!!!

Comment edited 2 minutes after posting

2 upvotes

Hoping to see more Canon lens reviews and possibly side-by-side comparisons with equivalent Nikon products.

Comment edited 3 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

great news!

0 upvotes

As a relative newbie to photography, I am particularly glad to hear this news!

Any chance your team could do reviews of older lenses as I have yet to find a site with a comprehensive lens review database.

Would be an awesome knowledge base for us all

2 upvotes

Now this sounds too cool! Great news! Congrats!

0 upvotes

Awesome!! Looking forward to this resource. :)

1 upvote

Does this mean that Andy is moving/has moved to Seattle? If so, welcome Andy!

(I've followed your work for some time...)

Jim

0 upvotes

actually no, andy will remain in london.

3 upvotes

Great!

0 upvotes

there's a group of people who claims that dxo labs as bias. I'm not sure what this partnership will bring.

1 upvote

there's an even larget group who claim DPReview has bias. Maybe we'll cancel each other out

30 upvotes

Nice one.

0 upvotes

Bias? Of course: when a Canon lens gets good scores, Nikon fanboys claim "'bias'; when a Nikon lens gets good marks, it's Canon fanboys' turn to protest 'bias'.
So 'bias' is what happens when our favourite brand doesn't get good results. It never ends. Oh well...

4 upvotes

Amusing. Seriously, there's something for everyone. If you want to read favorable reviews, there's Popular Photography and Photoshop User magazine. If you want to read critical reviews, there's Photozone.de and LensRentals.com. It's great to have a choice!

3 upvotes

This is fantastic news. Lens reviews weer really missed for the past period. Glass is what its all about!!

Good luck with this new facility.

0 upvotes

DPR has seen the light! Yipee!
Ray :-)

0 upvotes

Nice!

0 upvotes

Total comments: 275


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