I was wondering if there is a resource that lists each of the popular focal lengths of prime lens and has the consensus "best" lens for each.
Eg. 15mm - Leica F2.8
21mm - Zeiss Distagon F2.8
etc.
Has someone put together a list such as this. I realize it's highly subjective, but there must be something like this out there.
This sort of list would sure be nice to have (although I am afraid most of the lenses would be very expensive).
Defining "best" would be difficult though as some of the better lenses that deliver better image quality in the lower focal lengths are manual focus. Some people are ok with that and others aren't depending on thier application.
I think you could get a strong consensous on the Canon Primes at 135mm and above. From 50mm to 100mm I think there would be more debates, and even more debates as you get to the under 50mm range.
Guy Mancuso has tested what seems to be a hundred lenses and I think he posted a pretty comprehensive list at one point. If you could find that, it would be a terrific start.
If you do find such a list, please let us know as I am sure others would find it interesting.
"best" is a very relative term as what works for one person doenst work for another. Any halfway decent photographer with any experience at all can tell you that real world results are a far different than than pixel peeping on photo forums many times.
Most people seem to think of "the best" as meaning only optical performance. If its sharp thats all that matters right ? Wrong, when its too big to travel with, too slow to AF, out of your price range, not versatile enough, MF only etc, it may or may not be "the best" anymore.
Take the age old argument of the 85 1.2 vs the 85 1.8. which is "the best" ?
Well that changes every day I use them. I have both of them and when im doing low light work, the 85 1.2 is just awesome. But if Im shooting a volleyball game in a dim gym, the 85 1.2 is a horrible lens and hunts all day, the quick USM 1.8 is the much better lens.
The best lens for a tripod mounted shot I have time to compose may not give me the best results when Im covering a PJ story and have 5 second to get a shot before EMS personal tell us we need to get off the scene.
I knew you had the info. Thanks for posting it here. I am sure it will interest many folks.
Personally, I prefer the autofocus for everything except for landscape and macro just because of speed (and because until recently I had cameras with small viewfinders). So, I'm glad to see you listed some autofocus lenses in addition to the manual focus ones at many of the focal lengths.
Thanks for your efforts, I was hoping you'd see this and chime in. I'm gonna save this and use it as my shopping list when I win the lottery!
I also appreciate the other comments explaining that one lens may be great for one purpose but may be lackluster for another job.
Am I correct is assuming that most on this list were designed and built several years ago? You'd think with the computational resources available today, Canon and others could produce something to challenge the classics from Zeiss and Leica.
Guy,
Thank you very much for your effort. I have copied your post for future reference. Yes, it is subjective what is the 'best', but at least the definiteion of the 'best' from Guy is with his real hands on experience. I can really appreciate how much time and resources are required to do a proper test.
