Originally posted by Lowell Goudge It would be an interesting comparison to take your canon 300/4 and the AF TC and compare similar shots to my K300/4 and AF TC. I am always interested in comparing older glass and since we have the same cameras, and comparable lenses it would be a good way to compare.
Hi Lowell,
I'd tend to say that the Canon FD 300/4 L is a bit better optically, especially in the area of CA/PF control. I base this on a few assumptions though. I've owned the A* 300/4, and the first assumption is that the A* was a tad better than the K. I know that it's smaller, so they don't share the same optical formula. I've compared the A* 300 f4 to the FA* 300 f4.5 side by side, and found the FA* to be slightly sharper, and controls CA/PF considerably better, presumably mainly because of the inclusion of ED glass . The Canon "L" version uses "ultra low dispersion" glass elements, and IMO performs very very close to the level of the FA* in all respects that are most important to me -- center sharpness, contrast, and CA/PF control. The Canon's MFD is longer, at just under 10 ft (3m), which splits the difference between the FA* (2m), and the K, M*, and A* Pentax versions at 4m.
I'd be happy to participate in comparison, but don't know what would be involved. I suppose shooting a commonly available subject (I'd suggest similarly dimensioned UPC codes), tripod mounted, sunlit outdoors or popup flash indoors from the same distance (in this case 4m since it's the lowest common denominator in distance) at different apertures and posting 100% crops would work, and wouldn't be too difficult or cumbersome. I would imagine using default setting "Natural" jpgs straight out of the camera would be a good way to provide a standard image.I'd also suggest a centered subject only because getting representative edge samples would be much more difficult to set up without alignment errors -- I hate trying to set up precision tests
. Let me know what you think. I could also repeat the process with my FA* for another comparison.
If we could successfully do this, it occurs to me that establishing standard setups to use with specific FL lenses might be a useful tool for forum members. If enough members participated with different cameras and lenses, we could build a real life user based database of lens, and/or lens/body combination comparison shots. Of course, user error would be present, but if enough members participated, then we could come to some conclusions by comparing best to best.
Scott