Hot Cocoa Jar used in a lens test..........

[Kelley (Texas)]

I had some free time yesterday afternoon and decided to take a few pictures using my vintage Sigma 35-70mm F2.8 lens and Minolta MD 50mm F1.4 lens. I was curious how they would compare in regards to image quality, a zoom lens compared to a prime lens.

The first picture, the picture with the black border, was taken using the Minolta MD 50mm F1.4 lens mounted on my Sony NEX-6 camera with the following settings: F16, 1/25, ISO 200, “Daylight” white balance, manual focus, Manual Mode, sunny sky. Camera was mounted on a tripod.

The second picture, the picture with the red border, was taken using the Sigma 35-70mm F2.8 lens mounted on my Sony NEX-6 camera. I set the zoom at 50mm and used the following settings: F16, 1/25, ISO 200, “Daylight” white balance, manual focus, Manual Mode, sunny sky. Camera was mounted on a tripod.

Please note that this was a crude test, conducted for my personal curiosity. I wanted to see if the Sigma lens would produce as sharp and colorful image as my Minolta MD lens which I have always favored. I did no photo editing other than minor crop and resizing, and added a border to the pictures. I set the Sigma zoom lens at 50mm so that both pictures would be taken at the same focal length.

Conclusion: I think the Minolta MD 50mm F1.4 lens produced the better image, but I was surprised that the Sigma 35-70mm F2.8 was what I consider to be a close second. Again, this was only a crude test for solving my own curiosity. Kelley (Texas)

 

[DavefromCt]

They're so close it's hard to tell but I do notice that the sigma seems to have a better depth of field....the towel is sharper than the minolta, but that could be due to a slight change in focus. They're both really similar in my opinion. -Dave

 

[Nauti]

When I view them at full size I prefer the second one.....it seems cleaner to me.....perhaps my eyes are playing tricks on me,in theory a prime will nearly always be better quality than a zoom......but not in this case it seems.

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

n/t

 

[Nancy-IL]

The one on the left is the clearer on to me. Very sharp.

 

[Mason Jarr]

It's hard to reproduce the exact same standards between a prime and a zoom lens, but you did a pretty good job with it. As for sharpness, they basically are identical to me....at least to a degree that the common eye won't notice a difference, except in a side-by-side test like this. I do think the prime lens has better overall light gathering ability though. You can see that the highlights around the nose and belly, and even the shadows in the lower right section, are a little better balanced than the image on the right. I'd use either one of these lenses. Primes are known for overall better quality, but there is always an advantage of having more flexibility with a zoom. I doubt that it would matter enough for this particular test, but when you start getting towards the smaller f-stops there will be some diffraction issues (the light tries to cram into the smaller aperture and the wavelengths bend and bump into each other causing a minor loss of sharpness). If you have the time I'd love to see these same two photos compared against two more with an f stop of around 8 or so.

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

it may be a few days until the weather will permit me to do it. I took these pictures on my patio deck and we are getting some mist type rain today as a cold front is moving into the area. In a few days it should warm back up into the 60's or 70's which will enable me to do the new test.

I usually do landscape type photography of historical sites or other old interesting sites while traveling the back roads of South Texas. Unfortunately, I had an accident last Spring and broke my neck. I have not fully recovered from the operation, and have not regained the ability to properly walk again. As such, I have shifted my attention to taking pictures around the house or the occasional local road trip where I can manage taking some pictures with the aid of a cane. That being said, I am using some of my down time testing a few of the old vintage lenses that I have acquired, and it has been both interesting and fun. Life is great. Kelley (Texas)