Which zoom (55-200 or 50-230)

guitarjeff wrote:

jturn00 wrote:

I ended up buying the 55-200. It arrives Friday. I leave next week for a business trip to chile/Argentina. I might bring it along with the 18-55 and 27 f2.8. Let's see how much I have to carry.

Congrats on the new lens. What this thread really shows us is how lucky we Fuji users are. ave they turned out a great list of lenses for their customers or what? Remember when we started with just the 18, 35, and 60? They promised a nice set of glass that would cover the range and man they have delivered.

I agree with the other poster and I think it's obvious that Fuji has used the same glass in all their lenses. You can tell this by simply looking at many samples from all the lenses, they all look like they use the same quality of optics. Whatever process they are doing, the cutting, the buffing, shaping, all that stuff, all these lenses are getting the same glass.

Yeah, the elements and such make a difference too i'm sure, but when you go look at a hundred samples from the 55-200 and 18-55 (which I own) and compare to the XC lenses I see no appreciable difference in IQ. Is there some? probably, as has been said, more elements and work on the corners and such. But you can still tell the glass is the same in all of them.

I find this a very odd rationalization.  It's very easy to see differences in the corners & edges - and not just extreme edges - when you view the images at 100%.  Test sites show these differences in the form of bar graphs.  Fuji shows the differences via MTF graphs.  Additionally, there are easily quantifiable differences in terms of vignetting, distortion, and aberrations.

With all that data, the obvious answer is that there are differences between the lenses.  Are these differences attributable to the different optical design (i.e., elements & groups)?  The types of elements?  The precision of the grinding?  The surface coatings used?  The tolerances & rigidity of the mechanical assembly?  I really don't know, but the answer is probably "all of the above, to varying degrees."

Again, I don't know why it's so important to pretend there are no differences, when clearly differences exist.  Make your choice & be happy.  But this notion that "all lenses are created equal" seems a bit silly in the face of the accumulated data.