How do I know if I've been sold a pup?

[SwissJon]

On my Sony A55 I had a Zeiss 16-80 lens. The distortion was noticeable, but the picture was really quite sharp after I cleared up the CA. However I recently bought a Nikon D7000 with a 16-85mm lens. Since the focal lengths of these two lenses are basically the same, and I rarely shoot at the wide end of the apertures, and since the sensors on the two cameras are probably the same sensor, I was expecting the two lenses to produce near identical pictures.

However I've noticed, even at f/11, the Nikkor gives noticeably poorer IQ, the pictures are softer and appear to be ever so slightly out of focus. This is especially noticeable at the longer end of the focal length, and at distances of 1km or more, and at slower speeds. Initially I thought this might be either the VR, or the capture speed. But I was out yesterday in bright conditions, and I had my tripod with me, so I turned the VR off, and still got the same result. The fact is that at 1/250 I couldn't tell which was the VR on photo, and which was VR off. So I put my 6 stop filter on, went to F22 and slowed things down a little, with the same result.. On a tripod, at around 1", I still couldn't see a difference, and both were ever so slightly blurry.

Now I'm a landscape photographer most of the time, and I generally take photos at 1/20 or slower, on a sturdy tripod. It's very important to me that the lens I use allows me to "blow the picture up" and still remain clear.

So I've a couple of questions:

How do I tell if the lens I have falls below Nikkor's standards?
If it does, how do I send it back? (I bought it from an on-line Swiss Nikkor dealer as part of the camera kit)

And one last question if you don't mind.. I'm a bit of a Tokina fan, having owned their 116 lens for Sony. So does anyone know if the 165 is any good (Is it worth investing in?)

[OsmosisStudios]

Post some samples: 100% crops of the centre or wherever you focused.

The A55 and D7000 sensors are NOT the same, and the lenses arent either. COuld be any number of things.

[jdepould]

Does the D7000 have AF micro adjust? It could be a slight focus problem. Have you tried moderate smallish aperture (f/8-11) at infinity?

[SwissJon]

I did the micro adjust, it ended up at -15

following these instructions and putting the camera at 4.25m, focal length 85, f/5.6, 1.100th Sec, ISO 100 VR off. I used Centre weighted focusing with the spot at the centre of the centre line. I made no adjustments PP:

AF Micro adjustment Tutorial

and using the focus test chart from Tim Jackson:

http://www.focustestchart.com/focus10.pdf

I shot the images below, they are bot 100% crops from the centre of the picture, the top one (Picture 1) with microadjust at -10, the second (Picture 2) at -15

For comparisons sake, the 3rd photo (Picture 3) was taken on the Sony A55 at the same settings at 80mm F4.5. I'm not sure if it's my imagination, but despite being slightly smaller (Which is to be expected, since I cropped at the same spot, and the first two were 85mm and the las was 80mm) the Sony appears clearer. There's no micro-adjust on the Sony, but from the looks of things, it doesn't need it.

Picture 1



Picture 2



Picture 3

[OsmosisStudios]

Looks out of focus. Sure there was no movement, either of the subject or camera?

[sk66]

-15 is pretty large and looks to be too much.
Much of what I see is underexposure and a lack of contrast.
It is not unusual for a different camera/lens combo to require a different exp. comp....and most of the kit lenses will be lacking in contrast compared to better.

I would suggest going back to "zero". take your 3 pics (0/+/-) but set the comp to get better exposure...
then adjust contrast in post before deciding which is best...

[jdepould]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

Looks out of focus. Sure there was no movement, either of the subject or camera?

I swear it looks like camera shake, but he's at 1/100s, which shouldn't produce THAT much motion blur.

[scootermcq]

Originally Posted by jdepould

I swear it looks like camera shake, but he's at 1/100s, which shouldn't produce THAT much motion blur.

+2 any chance of VR being on and creating camera shake while mounted on the tripod?

[jdepould]

Also, do you have access to another Nikon body? Try swapping out and see if that changes anything? Vice versa, any other lenses?

[SwissJon]

The "looks out of focus" is the thing that's bothering me. This is pretty typical of the pictures I've been producing. I thought it might have been me, but when I compare the shots I have from my Sony, I just don't get the same definition.

The camera is in mirror up mode, VR off, I used a wireless shutter release and waited to count to ten after lifting the mirror. the tripod is a Manfrotto Xprob With a 322RC2 ball head, they're rock steady, especially since I hadn't extended the legs, the picture was taken on the ground floor, inside. I deliberately set the exposure speed to be faster than the focal length of 85mm. If the camera can't produce a picture without camera shake under those circumstances, I really think Nikon need to rethink their game.

I know it's under exposed, I lit it as best I could, but wanted to get the speed of the shutter faster than the focal length without using flash. I'll take another picture outside in the sun this evening if I get home in time, but the quality of is picture is typical of the quality this lens produces, even under the best lighting. I have a 70-300mm lens I'll set to 85mm for a comparison shot, but I don't have another Nikon body I can compare with. I'm aware that different lenses produce different results, but this is the kind of IQ I'd expect from a kit lens. Or worse, a P&S. I guess it could be the camera body rather than the lens. I set the camera up to clean the sensor at start up and shut down last night, and was expecting a small buzz as the sensor got shaken, but that didn't happen, so I've no idea if that's working.

I have to admit that having spent a lot of money on what I thought was a much better camera system than my Sony, I'm very disappointed that the IQ has got worse. If this isn't typical of this lens, then I really want to know what I can do, whether I can send it back for exchange, and if so, how? I can just imagine how many "told you so"s I'm going to get from my wife over this.