Originally posted by kbrede To put it In other words, lenses that *you* wouldn't hesitate to shoot wide open if you wanted a sharp shot. I'm actually looking for subjective.
I never worry about shooting my 300 wide open, the rest of my lenses I do.
If the choice is between getting a fast enough shutter speed or accepting motion blur, I'd shoot anything wide open - it's bound to be sharper than if I stopped down. That include the kit zooms, although of course I'd prefer to shoot something faster to increase shutter speed further.
Bottom line being, whatever you lose in sharpness by shooting wide open on even the worst lenses I've used is more than offset by the increase in shutter speed, at least in the cases where that's the limiting factor. And besides, my choice in lens is primarily determined by focal length, so I don't care how sharp my DA15 is wide open if it's not the right lens for the job.
So I still don't really get the question.