Can you match the photo with the lens?

[kalendae]

My friend and I are not convinced that lenses make much of a difference, or at least not enough for their price differences so we decided to pool together our lenses to do a quick test, the least expensive lens used was $2 off of ebay and the most expensive is probably the 50mm 1.4 canon lens. yeah so we don't exactly have expensive lenses yet.

So here are the lenses used:

1) Olympus Zuiko 50mm/F1.8 ($2)
3) Olympus Zuiko 50mm/F1.4 ($32)
2) Canon EF 28-80 F3.5-5.6 II ($80)
4) Canon EF 28-200 F3.5-5.6 USM ($300)
5) Canon EF 50mm/F1.4 USM ($330)

here are the pictures (all sizes are avail publicly):

E) e on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
F) f on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
G) g on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
H) h on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
I) i on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

See if you can match the letters to the numbers correctly. Our hypothesis is that it can't be done.

[OsmosisStudios]

Im guessing they're in the proper order, actually.

[lee1026]

No, that is not correct.

[candleman]

Originally Posted by kalendae

1) Olympus Zuiko 50mm/F1.8 ($2)
3) Olympus Zuiko 50mm/F1.4 ($32)
2) Canon EF 28-80 F3.5-5.6 II ($80)
.

i presume this was a copy/paste error

so #2, as displayed is actually #2 and not #3...

[inkista]

Originally Posted by kalendae

... Our hypothesis is that it can't be done.

Probably not, but here's my wild guess:

E = [4] 28-200
F = [2] 28-80
G = [3] Zuiko 50/1.4
H = [5] Canon 50/1.4
I = [1] Zuiko 50/1.8

Originally Posted by kalendae

My friend and I are not convinced that lenses make much of a difference, or at least not enough for their price differences so we decided to pool together our lenses to do a quick test, the least expensive lens used was $2 off of ebay and the most expensive is probably the 50mm 1.4 canon lens. yeah so we don't exactly have expensive lenses yet. .

The problem with your test is that you don't have a top quality lens to compare. You have a milieu of mediocre lenses.

~Eric

[waffles]

It might not be a valid test across the entire spectrum of available lenses, but it is (or at least can be) valid for the price range they're testing with.

My problem is that they're basing prices off of what they paid to get them. That might be a $2 lens as far as what you paid for it, but if you bought it new (in theory I know because it's an old lens that won't go on a digital without a convertor based on my 5 seconds of research) it would be more expensive. Plus there's the whole "Who would buy this lens now?" argument going.

Originally Posted by waffles

It might not be a valid test across the entire spectrum of available lenses, but it is (or at least can be) valid for the price range they're testing with.

My problem is that they're basing prices off of what they paid to get them. That might be a $2 lens as far as what you paid for it, but if you bought it new (in theory I know because it's an old lens that won't go on a digital without a convertor based on my 5 seconds of research) it would be more expensive. Plus there's the whole "Who would buy this lens now?" argument going.

Well, not only that but their test doesn't include very important things such as drastic light changes. the 70-300 is a horrid lens in low light. but the 70-200 2.8 IS is great in low light... therefore this test is invalid.

[vandergus]

Yeah, the test really only looks at one aspect of lens performance, shaprness at the center of the frame, which even dirt cheap lenses can accomplish, especially at middle apertures. There are many, many other aspects of lens performance which may effect the final image. Secondly, just because we can't match the lens to the image doesn't mean all those images are equal, it just means we're not very familiar with the lenses (and as Waffles said already, used lens prices are a terrible indicator of performance). For example, E is horribly soft, I has some weird ring-like bokeh going on, and G and H are both very sharp (although G is slightly back focused). But just for shits and giggles.

E -> Canon EF 28-80 F3.5-5.6 II
F -> Olympus Zuiko 50mm/F1.8
G -> Olympus Zuiko 50mm/F1.4
H -> Canon EF 50mm/F1.4 USM
I -> Canon EF 28-200 F3.5-5.6 USM

[PrimeTime]

e...........28-200
f............zuiko 1.4
g...........zuiko 1.8
h...........canon 1.4
i............28-80

Throw in a canon L series and you will instantly see a difference in the color and contrast.