Originally posted by normhead And honestly some people don't buy them for that reason. Maybe you haven't kept up, but a take many imaged with my 70 2.8 at all different DoFs and I find it's rare the wide open image is the best with ƒ5.6 snd ƒ8 the two most common apertures. You may like to shoot narrow DoF. I like to shoot narrow to wide DoFs and pick the best. Sometimes the results surprise me, and I'd hate to miss out on those surprises.
Listen dude, set up whatever test you want a run it. I do what I do as a public service to try and understand what I see looking in actual pictures. I don't care how it should be done etc. because, it's my time and this is the way I do it. If you want it done some other way, do it. There's nothing stopping you. Maybe I should do an Imaging Resources or Phtozone and start asking for donations to cover my time.
The way I do it, looking at lots of pictures taken with similar equipment at similar times, I evaluate all those things.
If that for the other thread you've posted I would have been thiniking you have the 70 macro for it's macro capabilities. Maybe wrong, after all I don't care much of macro capabilities of the DA35 f/2.8 I have... But I have no issue with you not carring of large apperture even through I know you are thinking of a DA*200 for this very reason !
I may care a bit of large apperture and performance at large apperture, sure and that why I got an FA77 instead of a DA70 and that even the 17-70, 50-135 and FA50 I got before weren't really satisfying. Either the performance was not that good at large apperture, or the apperture was too narrow. But I have also DA21 or DA15... Surelly that's not for apperture, otherwise I would have a 16-50 !
As you know and shown us, the sharpness closed down if often not so different because all (decent ?) lenses are sharp closed down anyway (your test show it on the other thread). At least on center. Also if we don't spend our time looking at picture with magnifying glass, that not key... Except to print huge or crop (last thing I'am fan of as you may know and that I'am sure you do too, as a birder shooter !).
That for other reasons than apperture and macro I have a DA15 or DA21. That's indeed for the size, flare resistance, color rendering, constrast/micro constrast. Many thing indeed that few reviews report (well they do a bit for flare and size is not difficult to obtain)... Many things that a MTF chart say nothing about. Where CA or coma tests say nothing.
Even worse characteristics that don't show in every photos !
But if what you did in the other post show something is that while they are all sharp, their color rendering can be dramatically different. The bokeh is different too. I would have been thinking such dramatic difference would have been the lighting that changed quite a bit, but you said it was not...