Nothing at all wrong with your concern, and you will learn some technique by doing the testing. Do the
http://www.gletscherbruch.de/foto/test/dezentrierung/dezentrierung.html test. If you don't read German, basically you photograph a distant object in the four corners and the center (5 shots) of the frame and then compare. Use a tripod if you can or a very high shutter speed on a bright day if you can't. (If you are on a tripod, also use timer release so that you don't move the camera a bit when you press the shutter release.) If you don't have a tripod, and maybe even if you do, do the test a couple of times and look for the trend of the results. (I would test the lens with the aperture wide open.) The results from the four corners and a comparison of the two sides and the top and bottom don't have to indicate a perfect match for the lens to be acceptable and the corners will almost always be significantly less sharp and less contrasty than the center. After doing the test, you can then take some normal images of the type you like to shoot and compare what you see on those to what you got from the test. Then decide if you want to exchange the lens for another. Also, read the Roger Cicala blog entry (linked below). You will find it interesting. And you can google Roger Cicala + lens variation--that should also give you some interesting reading.
But the test as outlined above should be informative and even fun.
I have to strongly disagree with this. Especially from a neophyte or beginners view. Heck, even from an intermediate photographers view. The worst thing we can recommend to someone attempting to learn photography is to suggest they learn how to
test their gear.
No, no, no, no, nooooooo. Time spent dorking around with testing or lens charts or comparing corners is TIME WASTED. Photographers need to learn to see the world in terms of light, develop their photographic vision and learn the rules of good composition (so they can learn to break them). They need to take their inner muse out to dinner, get her drunk and then listen attentively (with notepad in hand) as she mumbles on and on while divulging all kinds of artistic secrets. And who knows, you might also get lucky.
But you want to tick her off? Go shoot a bunch of test shots to play with you gear and watch her not return your text or calls.
Are you saying that a photographer who makes images like this:
Is unlikely to make images like this:
I make both kinds of images.
If anybody wants the proof of this pudding then just remember this. A new or unskilled photographer is going to take the exact same (probably bland and uninspired) photograph with either bad gear or really good gear. Doesnt matter if the lenses are 'in spec' or wildly out of spec. The results are going to be the same. But even at this skill level a REALLY BAD lens will show itself. It will be obvious. Thus my initial recommendation to not worry about until it matters, which is way down the road.
I certainly don't disagree that making art is more important that mastering the craft, but I don't see them as an either/or choice. In fact, done right, I think they complement each other.
But conversely a skilled photographer who is able to make compelling images on a regular basis will STILL be able to take good photographs with bad gear. He will have many tricks in his bag that allows him to identify a problem and then....here is the important part...shoot around it.
That's for sure. And today's gear is just so amazing that there's hardly ever a reason to blame the equipment. But you have to know what the gear can do, and that's where testing comes in.
A new photographer should never be told to test equipment. He should be taught how to take photographs.
Why not both? Back in the day, a photgrapher new to The Zone System made endless test images to get his technique, hhis equipment, and the materials all dialed in. The trap is loosing track of what's more important, art or craft:
http://blog.kasson.com/?p=9
Eventually they will reach a stage, on their own mind you, where they will figure out for themselves not only if they need to test a piece of gear or not, but more importantly why.
Yup.
Jim
