Originally posted by georgweb Looking back I could have made it much easier for myself had I thought about my personal needs for gear in the first place and then chosen the gear in the second step. I had thought there are kind of objective attributes in lenses which apply in any case but never thought many of them stand contradictory to each other.
Best, Georg (the former lensnerd :-)
I sooo hear you with this, and believe one of the greatest challenges in evaluating lenses is appreciating the numerous trade-offs that must be made. I enjoy reading through lens reviews on this site, because of the nuances many of the reviewers illuminate. I recently purchased a M50mm f4 macro, which makes a great example; I think it is an under-appreciated lens because it is slow-- but I want to maximize depth of field in my macro work anyway. This lens is very crisp and lacks field distortion. Some macro folks don't like the lens because it is 50mm, but that focal length is great for miniatures... and so on.
I wish there were a lens database that evaluated a broad range of characteristics for all the lenses: color temperature, bokeh at full and stopped-down aperture, area of primary focus, focus ring range and stiffness, consistency of manufacture, and so on.
Trouble is, since there are so many trade-offs, I want to have more than one lens for each task!