Testing - camera - film - lens

<p>When you take a photo to test a camera, lens, or film what do you take a picture of?<br>

I take pics of my old moggy, cat, to check sharpness - whiskers and eyes<br>

I do a gray card and a shot of a color wheel for color/gray scale.<br>

And a few bracket shots to test calibration of shutter speed and f stop.<br>

What is your test process?<br>

Joe</p>

<p>an unfolded and flattened newspaper -- great for viewing sharpness, contrast, vignetting, and chromatic aberration</p>

<p>Sarah, do you use a copy stand for the test?</p>

<p>I usually just go out, and shoot what I normally shoot. I kind of treat it as I would any other day of shooting. Luckily for me, I've ended up with a good number of "keepers" when I do this. I never shoot more than one roll of film, since I never know the outcome.</p><div></div>

<p>I do what Ed does. I know how my "normal" subjects look with other camera (lenses), and by using the camera the way I always do, means I learn also how well that camera fits into my ergonomic needs.</p>

<p>To test shutter speeds I shoot a blank wall, starting at one end of the range and moving to the other, changing aperture by one stop at each step. Test for close focus test for the near range is a graduated scale as target, camera on tripod looking downwards around 30 degrees. This test applies to lenses also, using a camera with a known good range-finder, but I check lenses for flare also.</p>

<p>Im with Ed and Mark - I shoot same subjects I normally would like an old barn, and a old one room school house.</p>

<p>As Mark said, I know how my normal subjects looks with the other cameras/lenses/film/developer so using the same subject such as the school house (it has a sign above the door which I also use to test the sharpness) I get a good feel for what is working and what isnt.</p>

<p>Derek, a sign above the door probably just occupies a small part of the frame. It's good to look at sharpness and CA throughout the entire image.</p>

<p>Joe, I find a tripod works pretty well. I tape the paper to a piece of foam core.</p>

<p>I just take pictures like I would normally and then look at the results.</p>

<p>Similar to Sarah but I use the self timer and take photos of myself and check for Chronic Aberrations.</p>

<p>I have a water tower with lots of detail in black and white, and a couple of convenience store fronts with lots of posters, mdse., etc. very colorful that are my standards</p>

<p>What you all say makes since. Right now I came into a bunch of photo equipment and need to do a lot of testing to find the keepers.</p>

<p>Thanks Joe</p>