Note: 300D
(=27 mm)
(=80 mm)
(=136 mm)
(65 mm)
(65 mm)
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These test photographs are supposed to show the sharpness of the lenses.
The pictures were taken with 5D camera using parameters ISO 100 and 1/200s. A tripod and the "mirror lockup" function were used. The lenses were set to manual focus and no image stabilization, the hood was attached. There were two slave flashes, one on each side of the camera. There were slopes on each side of the target to assist manual focusing. The center and edge pictures were focused separately so a curved in-focus plane is not revealed. On the right is a picture of the setup.
The pictures were taken in RAW, they were read into Adobe Photoshop CS2 by Camera Raw in 16 bits and with the default sharpening of 25%. The exposure was not adjusted in Camera Raw. Then a 100% crop of size 250x250 pixels was extracted from the center or from the edge. The resulting picture is 5.7% of the width of the original photograph. The last step was to apply Photoshop "Auto Color" adjustment to standardize brightness and contrast. "Auto Color" adjustment also changed the appearance of the blurred and low-contrast pictures considerably. (Whether that was wise is a matter of taste; image badness is emphasized, but in a rather different way than it would show up in normal photographs).
The "Sweet spot aperture" value is not based on measurements but on information from the internet and on a common guess.
"At Edge" is by the vertical center of the right border of the image, i.e. it is not in the corner.
| Widest Aperture | "Sweet spot" Aperture | Distance | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aperture | At Center | At Edge | Aperture | At Center | At Edge | ||||
| f/4L set | 17-40mm | 17 mm | f/4 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
0.34 m |
| 28 mm | f/4 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
0.47 m | ||
| 40 mm | f/4 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
0.61 m | ||
| 24-105mm | 24 mm | f/4 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
0.42 m | |
| 50 mm | f/4 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
0.71 m | ||
| 105 mm | f/4 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
1.23 m | ||
| 70-200mm | 70 mm | f/4 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
1.20 m | |
| 135 mm | f/4 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
2.01 m | ||
| 200 mm | f/4 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
2.78 m | ||
| 70-200mm + 1.4x | 98 mm | f/5.6 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
1.56 m | |
| 189 mm | f/5.6 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
2.62 m | ||
| 280 mm | f/5.6 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
3.82 m | ||
| 70-200mm + 2x | 140 mm | f/8 | |
|
f/16 | |
|
2.08 m | |
| 270 mm | f/8 | |
|
f/16 | |
|
3.56 m | ||
| 400 mm | f/8 | |
|
f/16 | |
|
5.15 m | ||
| 300mm | 300 mm | f/4 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
3.90 m | |
| 300mm + 1.4x | 420 mm | f/5.6 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
5.45 m | |
| 300mm + 2x | 600 mm | f/8 | |
|
f/16 | |
|
6.45 m | |
| fast | 28mm/1.8 | 28 mm | f/1.8 | |
|
f/5.6 | |
|
0.45 m |
| 50mm/1.4 | 50 mm | f/1.4 | |
|
f/5.6 | |
|
0.72 m | |
| 135mm/2 | 135 mm | f/2 | |
|
f/5.6 | |
|
1.93 m | |
| 135mm/2 + 1.4x | 189 mm | f/2.8 | |
|
f/5.6 | |
|
2.50 m | |
| 135mm/2 + 2x | 270 mm | f/4 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
3.60 m | |
| travel | S17-85mm Note: 300D |
17 mm (=27 mm) |
f/4 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
0.34 m |
| 50 mm (=80 mm) |
f/5.6 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
0.69 m | ||
| 85 mm (=136 mm) |
f/5.6 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
0.91 m | ||
| 70-300DO | 70 mm | f/4.5 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
1.27 m | |
| 189 mm | f/5.6 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
2.50 m | ||
| 300 mm | f/5.6 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
3.58 m | ||
| macro | 100mm | 100 mm | f/2.8 | |
|
f/8 | |
|
1.44 m |
| MP-E | 1x (65 mm) |
(f/2.8) | |
|
(f/8) | |
|
0.24 m | |
| 5x (65 mm) |
(f/2.8) | |
|
(f/8) | |
|
0.31 m | ||
| fisheye | Fisheye | (15 mm f.) | f/2.8 | |
- | f/8 | |
- | 0.28 m |
For the sake of comparison, the following pictures are from an IXUS camera. Because it is not possible to set the shutter speed and aperture manually, the two aperture values were achieved by taking one picture without flash and another with flash. This is the reason for the hue differences, that are visible even after the Photoshop "Auto Color" adjustment. The flash reflection is visible in the pictures because the built-in flash is so near the lens.
| Widest Aperture | "Sweet spot" Aperture | Distance | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aperture | At Center | At Edge | Aperture | At Center | At Edge | |||
| IXUS | 7.4 mm (=36 mm) |
f/2.8 |  |
 |
f/7.1 |  |
 |
0.29 m |
| 13.4 mm (=65 mm) |
f/3.5 |  |
 |
f/9 |  |
 |
0.48 m | |
| 22.2 mm (=108 mm) |
f/4.9 |  |
 |
f/11 |  |
 |
0.77 m | |
© Erkki Vanninen 2008