Which is the sharpest? Battle of six lenses @50mm f/5.6

Mirror mirror on the wall, which is the sharpest of them all?

Comparison of following six zoom lenses @50mm f/5.6:

• Tamron 28-200mm f/3.8-5.6 AF Aspherical LD (IF) 271D
• SMC Pentax DA 50-200mm f/4-5.6
• Sigma 50-500mm F4-6.3 APO DG (older version without OS and HSM)
• Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro
• Tamron AF 17-50mm f/2.8 LD Aspherical XR Di II SP A16
• SMC Pentax DA 17-70mm SDM f/4 AL (IF)

Same camera on tripod; no filter on any lenses; hood on all lenses; out-of-camera jpegs.

Note1: focus is on pink flowers!

Note 2: I tried to block the light coming from top left side with my hand (in addition to lens hood).

Comparison of most of these lenses @35mm can be seen here .

Tamron 28-200mm f/3.8-5.6 AF Aspherical LD (IF) 271D

Sigma 50-500mm F4-6.3 APO DG (older version without OS and HSM)

SMC Pentax DA 17-70mm SDM f/4 AL (IF)

SMC Pentax DA 50-200mm f/4-5.6

Tamron AF 17-50mm f/2.8 LD Aspherical XR Di II SP A16

Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro

This is my first take at it

1. Tamron 28-200 - oops, faulty?
2. Sigma 50-500 - OK
3. Pentax 17-70 - OK
4. Pentax 50-200 - soft, but nearly OK
5. Tamron 17-50 - very good
6. Sigma 17-70 - very good (maybe with an edge)

I cannot decide between 5 and 6. Number 6 has higher contrast which makes it look sharper. So ... I give it a better point.

BTW - are you sure that the focus not is on the wall for the pictures?

Roland Karlsson wrote:

This is my first take at it

1. Tamron 28-200 - oops, faulty?
2. Sigma 50-500 - OK
3. Pentax 17-70 - OK
4. Pentax 50-200 - soft, but nearly OK
5. Tamron 17-50 - very good
6. Sigma 17-70 - very good (maybe with an edge)

I cannot decide between 5 and 6. Number 6 has higher contrast which makes it look sharper. So ... I give it a better point.

BTW - are you sure that the focus not is on the wall for the pictures?

And this is my take at corner sharpness (lower left corner).

1. Very soft
2. OK
3. Slightly soft
4. Slightly more soft
5. OK
6. OK

Much harder to tell

But 5 and 6 are clear overall winners and 2 seems to come after that.

NOTE - in this test, of course. There might be sample variations and the images might not be optimally focused etc.

Roland Karlsson wrote:

Roland Karlsson wrote:

This is my first take at it

1. Tamron 28-200 - oops, faulty?
2. Sigma 50-500 - OK
3. Pentax 17-70 - OK
4. Pentax 50-200 - soft, but nearly OK
5. Tamron 17-50 - very good
6. Sigma 17-70 - very good (maybe with an edge)

I cannot decide between 5 and 6. Number 6 has higher contrast which makes it look sharper. So ... I give it a better point.

BTW - are you sure that the focus not is on the wall for the pictures?

As sure as I can be I selected the af point my self, and my tripod is professional line from manfrotto. Its possible the camera is playing tricks with AF

And this is my take at corner sharpness (lower left corner).

1. Very soft
2. OK
3. Slightly soft
4. Slightly more soft
5. OK
6. OK

Much harder to tell

But 5 and 6 are clear overall winners and 2 seems to come after that.

Thanks 😊

I give the number 1 position to Sigma 17-70mm lens for four reasons:

1. Slightly sharper
2. Higher contrast and clarity.
3. Best corner/edge sharpness.
4. Tamron should had performed better at f/5.6 since its a f/2.8 lens—two full stops is all a good lens should ever need.

No.2 position is of course Tamron 17-50mm.

Whats interesting is that Sigma 50-500mm performs quite well despite a 10x zoom; its probably at number three place in this test. However, it is a disappointing lens at longer focal lengths—where its needed the most ☹

NOTE - in this test, of course. There might be sample variations and the images might not be optimally focused etc.

Indeed, but the results generally correspond to other test reports of these lenses.

Massao wrote:

Roland Karlsson wrote:

BTW - are you sure that the focus not is on the wall for the pictures?

As sure as I can be I selected the af point my self, and my tripod is professional line from manfrotto. Its possible the camera is playing tricks with AF

This is an annoying thing with Bayer CFA cameras. In order to improve sharpness, the software uses tricks, like edge detection. But, soft flowers do not really have any nice edges.

This means that the wall, that has edges in the patterns, can actually be sharper, even if it is more out of focus.

I would really like a non Bayer CFA camera for that reason. Therefore I have been interested in the Sigma/Foveon cameras. And they can deliver a uniform sharpness. They have other problems though.

Roland Karlsson wrote:

Massao wrote:

Roland Karlsson wrote:

BTW - are you sure that the focus not is on the wall for the pictures?

As sure as I can be I selected the af point my self, and my tripod is professional line from manfrotto. Its possible the camera is playing tricks with AF

This is an annoying thing with Bayer CFA cameras. In order to improve sharpness, the software uses tricks, like edge detection. But, soft flowers do not really have any nice edges.

This means that the wall, that has edges in the patterns, can actually be sharper, even if it is more out of focus.

I would really like a non Bayer CFA camera for that reason. Therefore I have been interested in the Sigma/Foveon cameras. And they can deliver a uniform sharpness. They have other problems though.

I have thought about Sigma's system several times over the years, but its the lens and flash availability/selection that has killed that idea every time..lol