Source of good lens tests

I'm in the market for a new lens for my D100. Lenses in the focal

length and speed range I want range in price from $320 to $1450, and

vary over a 2:1 weight ratio. I just read a very strong review of

the cheapest and lightest of them by our own Bob Atkins.

(<B>N.B.</B> I already have another thread on that topic so

<B>THIS</B> is a different question . . . )<P>

 

Bob only appears to only review Canon, and Canon-mount lenses. And

PhotoDo is no longer publishing new work. My question is: is there

<B>ANYPLACE</B> that does good, objective lens testing of a variety of

lenses, so when you're in the market for a lens and you want to know

if a lens that costs 4X as much and weighs 2X as much as another lens

is worth it, you can find out?

NIkon's Japan site has MTF Charts of some of the lens.. But Photo.net is a good place to search for lens performance.. and other reviews.

 

Aravind

Try this link, seems fairly comprehensive to me.

 

 

 

http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~winstel/walter/nikon.html

 

Cheers.

Ken Rockwell's sites have lots of info on Nikon lenses for what it's worth.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/nikkor.htm

Two sites that are fairly good are:

 

http://www.photozone.de/active/news/index.jsp

 

and

 

http://www.photographyreview.com/reviewscrx.aspx

 

Hope they're useful for you.

this is a good site http://www.photodo.com/. not sure about ken rockwell.

Lots of good reviews on http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/. Canon, Nikon, Sigma, Tamron and Tokina.

http://www.naturfotograf.com

I would also second Bjorn Rorslett's site.

<a href="http://http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_surv.html/">Lens Survey and Subjective Evaluation</a>

I have found his review in most cases spot on and very informative compared to Ken Rockwell.

My apologies, I don't have any idea why it points to Microsoft's website. The current link is

<a href="http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_surv.html">Bjorn Rorslett</a>

A third thumbs up for Bjorn's site. There's also a couple of reviews at Thom Hogan's site -

http://bythom.com/

Nothing comes close to Bj�rn's site. Thom's reviews are great, but there are only few of them. Ken Rockwell's reviews could be more informative and less bombastic IMVHO.

If you want something within your price range, I would suggest you to buy an used 50-135 f/3.5 and a 75-150mm f/3.5 zoom, get them fitted with matrix chips to meter with your D100. They will do far better than any of the current plastic zoom you can buy new.

 

Lens test/evaluation sites are everywhere. I do not think any of these will satisfy you.

 

If you persuade any of the lens manufacturers into lending their gear to Bob Atkins, I am think he will test them and post them in his website or here.

Ignore Ken Rockwell, he's an idiot. His site is full of 1- or 2-paragraph reviews of lenses he's never even used, based on what he reads off the spec sheets. Bjorn and Thom, now, those are real gurus.