-- I'm using a D700, a recent and first Nikon for me. (Although quite
familiar with most systems as I for a ten year period worked in the
photo business, selling both professional and amateur photographic
equipment.)
Below I write an opinion, well known in the business here. Although
some might have other opinons, but it was wide discussions about this
theme for some time...
When Nikon D1 entered the market, most photographers discovered that
a lot of Nikon lenses did not fare well with the new "Digital format"
(including Pro zooms). Mostly chromatic aberrations and diffraction
was the problem. Software to correct this easily was not present, and
most photographers weren't familiar enough with digital photography.
Canon also encountered these problems - more lightly, but here we
enters the core: Canon, and let me also include Minolta, had changed
the lens mount earlier to allow for "development" Read: AF and
electronic contacts. Due to the larger diameter of the lens mount,
(Canon has the widest) lens design was made easier. This shows
easiest in zooms, where edge sharpness, low vignetting and CA was
easier to achieve for Minolta and Canon. Nikon on the other hand,
where a little stuck with their commitment to the "F" lens mount.
Even Nikon told us (as a professional dealer) that they never would
produce a "full frame digital camera". Boy, was I surprised when the
D3 came! (I had then left the photo business) Nowadays, many D3/D700
owners enjoy these old "useless" lenses again
To cut a little short, due to the lens mount, Nikon has to put a lot
more effort to provide "sharp all over the frame optics" - mostly
wide zooms. I actually think that Nikon has to put a lot more
specialized and expensive glass into their optics, than exc. Minolta
and Canon have to to achieve the same performance.
Even the highly acclaimed AF-S 24-70 2,8 suffers from softer edges
and corners wide open, but otherwise top class optics stopped down.
And this is what get to me and many others about classification of
optics, it's all about post perception of a product. When we shot on
film, no one threw them selves over the light box to check the lens'
weakness at the far edges or corners with a 10-15X loupe on slide
film! There we have today's challenge... we should be more busy
checking composition, exposure and overall subjective image quality -
not the technical quality alone. Most really good professional (read
also successful) photographers don't really care about their
equipment - apart from reliability and handling. (and you should see
the abuse some of them put their gear through - "Camerabag? - I have
the equipment all over in the booth of my car) I'm sure some of them
are here on this forum too, and would probably support that.
