[wahid_satu]

I thought I post this since no one has, already.

DxOMark - Pentax smc DA 50mm f/1.8 lens review: accessible price and excellent aberration control

According to DXO it's such a good lens in all objective measures bar sharpness where it falls flat compared to the competitions. Now, my question is how relevant is this sharpness test from DXO, since all image samples i see on the net of the DA 50 is more than sharp enough for me. Would be grateful if anyone can show me, or at least points me to the right direction.

[Eulogy]

Not sharp? I feel as though they must've had decentered elements or something.

[kenafein]

DxO hates Pentax, they call all their lenses soft. They call the DA70 soft, which I can't believe.

[JinDesu]

One thing about DXO's sharpness comparison for Pentax vs competition. You have to select the Nikon D7000 or Canon 16mp equivalent to get the comparable numbers. By default, CaNikon lenses are using their best FF cameras, and that gives a ~+10 boost to their sharpness scores. If you look at the comparison vs the other Pentax lenses in the conclusion screen, the DA 50 F1.8 is now second place, right behind the DA*55. And the DA*55 is one of the sharpest 50-55mms, behind just the Canon and the Sigma by a small margin.

http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Lenses/Compare-Camera-Lenses/Compare-lenses...camera3%29/680

See when compared vs Nikon 50 1.4G and Zeiss Planar T 50 F1.4 on Nikon D7000.

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Last edited by JinDesu; 07-05-2013 at 07:03 PM.

[kenafein]

One thing about DXO's sharpness comparison for Pentax vs competition. You have to select the Nikon D7000 or Canon 16mp equivalent to get the comparable numbers. By default, CaNikon lenses are using their best FF cameras, and that gives a ~+10 boost to their sharpness scores. If you look at the comparison vs the other Pentax lenses in the conclusion screen, the DA 50 F1.8 is now second place, right behind the DA*55. And the DA*55 is one of the sharpest 50-55mms, behind just the Canon and the Sigma by a small margin.

DxOMark - Compare lenses

See when compared vs Nikon 50 1.4G and Zeiss Planar T 50 F1.4 on Nikon D7000.

I am aware of the FF issue, but either canon and Nikon really are the best, or they always score on top. I am surprised to see that figure for the Zeiss though.

[Fogel70]

One interesting thing is that DA50/1.8 scores 9MP on K10D and 8MP on K5. I wonder how it would score on K5 IIs?

[aurele]

compare the Canon 50/1.8 II and the Nikon 50/1.8, put them on APS-C sensor (700D for Canon, and D7000 for Nikon) and : TADAAAA ! the same overall score of 19 (Pentax) 18 (Canon) 17 (Nikon) with bigger chromatic aberration for the two latter.

All this just show that without a FF, in the DxO world, every lenses are soft, weak, and so on.

Now, on the real life, most of the time, the difference is not very noticable in sharpness but much more on color rendition (i know, sensor plays a role too), or bokeh, etc ....

So, just stop looking at DxO and go shoot !

[JinDesu]

I am aware of the FF issue, but either canon and Nikon really are the best, or they always score on top. I am surprised to see that figure for the Zeiss though.

Not always - again, see the 50-55mm range. The DA*55 scores 20. This is in comparison to the Sigma 50 on D7000 (20), Nikon 50 1.4G on D7000 (20), Canon 50 EF 1.4 on 7D (19), Canon EF 50 1.8 II on 7D (19), Nikon 50 1.4D (20) on D7000, and Nikon 50 1.8D (17) on D7000. So if we're talking about scoring on the DXO site, when set to APS-C with 16 or 18MP sensors, Pentax can come out quite well. Another case in point is the DA*300 F4 (15) vs the Canon 300 F4L (11).

If we look at individual scores the DA*55 scores 8MP on sharpness, while the Nikon 50 F1.4G scores 10MP. However, the DA*55 is stated to perform better at F2 vs the 50 1.4 at F2.8. I'm not intelligent enough to understand why DXO scores the DA*55 at 20, but they do - and that puts the DA*55 equal or better than the other 50mm lenses.

If we're looking at all the lenses made, Pentax's highest scoring lens is the DA*55 at 20. Nikon has their 85 1.4G (25), 85 1.8G (25), and 35 1.8G (22) scoring higher than 20. Canon has their 35 F2 (22), and the 85 F1.2L (21) scoring higher than 20. If you actually try to go through the list of lenses, you'll see that Pentax doesn't actually go so bad. In fact, if Pentax made a DA*85 F1.4 or a DA*35 F2 of very good optical quality, we could have equal lenses to Nikon/Canon.

Also, it is humorous that on the D7000 and the 7D, the highest scoring lens right now is the Sigma 35 F1.4, beating the Nikon 85 1.8G by 1, and beating the Canon 35 F2 by 1.

[SyncGuy]

.....how relevant is this sharpness test from DXO, since all image samples i see on the net of the DA 50 is more than sharp enough for me....

There! I've pointed you to the correct direction..

[wahid_satu]

There! I've pointed you to the correct direction..

Thanks a lot.

Also thx for the info guys, esp. Jin, I should've look at DXO's database more closely. Now I can sleep better.

[RonHendriks1966]

Well when it is as good as the DA*55 then it's a good lens.

[Digitalis]

Every time I see DxO scores for lenses or cameras I get the strong feeling there is an agenda behind their scoring. I would love to know who their corporate sponsors are.