Great body/lens pairs

Timothy Hood wrote:

I can't agree with your claims about dxomark, but we can leave it at that, because the point of my original post is that there are lenses that exceed the limitations imposed by the APS-C sensor, and to a lesser extent, the version in the T4i. It's like putting 175SR15 tires on a Ferrari. I think there are some good lenses that will match well with the capabilities of the Canon APS-C cameras as well as meet that 80/20 performance/cost trade-off. I'm looking forward to hearing people chime in with their personal experiences.

I think you are approaching this from the wrong angle.

You have to first ask yourselves:

What focal length and aperture do I want/need?

You have already the 50mm f1.8. So, what can you not do with it? And could you achieve that with another lens?

Then you look for suitable lenses. You will get a list, and then choose based on price and performance. It's not an issue of "great body/lens pairs". A better lens will give better results on recent bodies, no matter what.

Ok, so, coming back to the DxoMark scores, I also chime in there that one has to take these single scores with a huge grain of salt. Look at the original data, yes, perhaps, and also look at other test web sites (photozone, the digital picture, and others).

As to the T4i, the critical thing for image quality is the sensor, and variants of it's 18Mp sensor has been used in many bodies from the 7D, T2i until quite recently. And now we are at 24 Mp on APS-C, not that much more. The 5Ds is a very special case of a high resolution sensor, where the older lenses are clearly more limiting.

But the ART does give you better images even on a T4i. Look at the protozoon reviews and comparison with the Canon 1.4. It's not just about a single score. It's better corners, better contrast, etc. etc. Is it worth to you? You have to decide.

And a few notes to dxomark: Look at some of their data: with a Sigma art on the 7D (18Mp sensor) and 7Dii (20Mp sensor) sharpness is both 13Mp, while on an old t2i (18Mp) sharpness is 14Mp, and on a 700D (18Mp) sharpess is 15Mp. Does it make sense - no. So, these single dxomark scores, forget about them. A lens is never a single score, it's contrast, resolution, aberrations, aperture, focusing speed, accuracy of focusing etc. etc.