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Tested: 18-50 vs 17-40 vs 17-85 vs 12-24

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Jason Hutchinson said:
I tested the Sigma 18-50 vs the Canon 17-40 vs the Sigma 12-24 vs
the Canon 17-85 the the other day.

I tested them both on a 1.6 crop, and also on a 1.26x crop for
those camera which could fill that sensor.

Here's the 1.6x crop test on a 20D:

http://www.projectrun.com/examplepics/wide_zooms_on_20D/

Here's the 1.26x crop test on a 1DII

http://www.projectrun.com/examplepics/wide_zooms_on_1D2/

Be sure to read the test notes on the 20D shots, which are linked
at the top in red.

Jason
Click to expand...
 
More recent lenses with newer generation IS can be used on tripod with the IS on. Gone are the days of the 28-135 IS which has to be turned off on tripod.

Olga
 
Excerpt from a 2nd gen. IS lens found in here:
http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/lens/f_lens.html

"The camera shake correction has an effect of approx. two stops* in terms of shutter speed. This lens has "camera shake correction mode 2" which corrects shaking of the viewfinder image when, for example, shooting a moving object, and a tripod can be used with the camera shake correction function ON."

--
I don't tolerate morons.
 
Ove Sentlig wrote:

I always disable IS on tests like this. I may also choose to shoot additional shots with IS on, but I'd never just shoot IS shots for such a test. Can I ask why you even thought IS was on? I have posted extensively on why IS should be disabled for a test like this.

Jason
 
Max Savin said:
do you feel that there is or could
be a bias in favor of the 12-24 since it is tested in it's mid
range and the others at or near thier widest focal length?
Click to expand...
I wouldn't say a bias, but it clearly is incomplete if your goal is to compare the lenses across their full range. There simply wasn't anything else available to me to compare to the wide end of the 12-24. So, these results may flip flop around a bit at 24, or even 40mm.

Jason
 
Jason Hutchinson said:
Ove Sentlig wrote:

I always disable IS on tests like this. I may also choose to shoot
additional shots with IS on, but I'd never just shoot IS shots for
such a test. Can I ask why you even thought IS was on? I have
posted extensively on why IS should be disabled for a test like
this.
Click to expand...
between those with and without IS shots when we did the 400 vs 500 test?

--
I don't tolerate morons.
 
drip said:
between those with and without IS shots when we did the 400 vs 500
test?
Click to expand...
Yes, I definitely saw a difference there. We used very poor technique for those shots but I was sure to fix all that for this test (e.g. remote release, and being sheltered from the wind). Of course things you can get away with in a wide angle lens test you just can't at 1000+ mm!

Jason
 
I have the 17-85, am thinking about getting the Sigma 18-50. I like the idea of a faster lens. I will do my own comparison and keep the better lens.

Geoff
 
just curious, the 17-40mm L start to have difraction from f-11??

i usually use f-16 for landscape work and i dont see the image getting soft. i start to see difraction at F-19.

could you explain difraction a bit more?
thanks,
 
timotale said:
just curious, the 17-40mm L start to have difraction from f-11??
Click to expand...
The best lenses start to have diffraction after f/5.6. There may be a rare exception like perhaps a macro lens somewhere, but even those in my experience exhibit the same issue. A super duper sharp lens like the 200f/1.8 has been shown to start showing diffraction after f/4, but I think such a lens is the exception.
timotale said:
i usually use f-16 for landscape work and i dont see the image
getting soft. i start to see difraction at F-19.
Click to expand...
F/16 on a 17-40 is even softer than wide open, and I strongly wouldn't suggest it for landscapes. People underestimate the DOF of wide angle lenses constantly. Perhaps you have a rock 1 foot away from the lens and want that in focus with infinity, but otherwise there are much better apertures to use.

You may not see it in prints depending on your print size, but at f/16 its clearly less sharp at 100% viewing.

One problem people have is focus. To get diffraction to occur at the largest aperture possible you have to nail the focus very well. In fact Popphoto rated the 17-40 sharpest wide open. I make a lot of effort to get the focus as close as possible (angle finder C and manual focus and many attempts) but I usually see a slight improvement at f/5.6 which may be unit variation or I can't get that slight bit of focus right.

Focusing for optimal sharpness when shooting wide open is the hardest thing there is to do. Tiny movements of the focus ring of a fraction of a mm are usually detectable. At f/8, things are a breeze. You can't even see any AF error usually at f/8 (2 stops down).

Jason
 
Thanks for the comparison! One question: the Sigma 18-50 photos seem warmer. What do you mean by "fixed white balance"? Does this mean that you used one manual white balance setting for all photos, did you set the white balance manually for each lens, etc.?
 
gglockner said:
Thanks for the comparison! One question: the Sigma 18-50 photos
seem warmer. What do you mean by "fixed white balance"? Does this
mean that you used one manual white balance setting for all photos,
did you set the white balance manually for each lens, etc.?
Click to expand...
I set one white balance for all photos. When I say fixed white balance, I generally mean anything other than Auto. With auto white balance, the color can shift from one shot to the next, so comparison between lenses is impossible. I believe these were done in cloudy white balance, but I don't have them handy to say for sure.

Jason
 
Thanks.
 
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