davidfromoz
TPF Noob!
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2007
- Messages
- 40
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi Everybody,
How do you test out the performance of your lens and camera? What kind of shots do you take? What kind of tests do you perform? Which tests can be done indoor with an on board flash, high iso or tripod and slow shutter speeds? I'm guessing there are some fairly standard ways to test/compare the performance of your gear.
My first idea was to just post here and ask about the sharpness of my lens. Then I realized that some replies would be uninformed and some would be informed because they did they did the test themselves. And that the only way for me to join the informed group would be for me to do the test.
So I took my Nikon 16-85 lens out and in fairly poor conditions I took some photos of some power lines. I figured that they would be nice and thin and I'd be able to see sharpness. The light was terrible, but I was doing a technical test, so it shouldn't matter...... right?
I expected to see the lines the most clearly at aperture 8 or 11. I couldn't see any difference at all!!!! Is this because my lens is amazing? Or is my test poorly implemented? (pics at the bottom of the post).
My next test was going to be to look at the ISO performance of the D300 and see if 200 is really the best setting (as the manual claims, but I'm suspicious). Then I was going to test performance at different focal length to look for distortion and softness at the edges of the pic). But now I'm wondering about whether I need to first develop a test procedure.
cheers,
David
first one is at F/3.5 second is at F/11 (I think they might have been scaled in posting, 100% crops at http://davidfromoz.smugmug.com/gallery/4038677_uBusw
never mind, I dont think they were scaled after all (just preview messing with me).
How do you test out the performance of your lens and camera? What kind of shots do you take? What kind of tests do you perform? Which tests can be done indoor with an on board flash, high iso or tripod and slow shutter speeds? I'm guessing there are some fairly standard ways to test/compare the performance of your gear.
My first idea was to just post here and ask about the sharpness of my lens. Then I realized that some replies would be uninformed and some would be informed because they did they did the test themselves. And that the only way for me to join the informed group would be for me to do the test.
So I took my Nikon 16-85 lens out and in fairly poor conditions I took some photos of some power lines. I figured that they would be nice and thin and I'd be able to see sharpness. The light was terrible, but I was doing a technical test, so it shouldn't matter...... right?
I expected to see the lines the most clearly at aperture 8 or 11. I couldn't see any difference at all!!!! Is this because my lens is amazing? Or is my test poorly implemented? (pics at the bottom of the post).
My next test was going to be to look at the ISO performance of the D300 and see if 200 is really the best setting (as the manual claims, but I'm suspicious). Then I was going to test performance at different focal length to look for distortion and softness at the edges of the pic). But now I'm wondering about whether I need to first develop a test procedure.
cheers,
David
first one is at F/3.5 second is at F/11 (I think they might have been scaled in posting, 100% crops at http://davidfromoz.smugmug.com/gallery/4038677_uBusw
never mind, I dont think they were scaled after all (just preview messing with me).
