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Sharpness (90-300mm)

January 1st, 2009

I took some photos with my Canon 90-300 zoom lens today. This photo is a good example of what this lens can do. Sharpness is set at zero, aperture f9, ISO unknown probably 200. Click to view original size. As you can see, at 100% it’s pretty decent!

Resized to 50% and the photo is even sharper (obviously). There are still some jagged edges on the leaves which may be due to my resizing method, aside from that I’d rank this level of quality as acceptable!

Focus is on bark, so some areas of leaf and background is blurred, this is not a lens problem.

I’m posting this photo here just to show how awesome this simple lens is. Zoom is at 200mm. The lens is a Canon 90-300 mm - true it’s not perfect but the quality is startlingly good, especially when you consider that this is a cheap consumer lens (cost about $150 new).

The 90-300 is extinct, but it’s similar to the 75-300 which is (supposedly) based on this technology - note that both these lenses are obsolete. If you do want a cheap budget zoom you can pick up the nifty 250 aka Canon 55-250 IS (includes image stabilization) for around $225 (or around 29,000 at Metropolitan)

Last but not least, this lens blows away the 18-55 is lens. There simply is no comparison - which is amazing if you consider that the 18-55 is new (mine is from a 50d), whereas this lens is quite old.

In defense of the 18-55, being rather weak at 18mm is excuseable taking into account the almost impossible technical constraints one has to overcome to cover that zoom range (and sell for under $200)

The 90-300 is spectacular from 90-200, and OK from 200-300, the 18-55is is ok from 18-28 and reasonable fromm28-55mm. I do not know much about how good the 55-250 is, but I assume it’s OK as it’s a distant descendent of this lens (I assume) - also it has image stabilization, which is quite awesome.

Entry Filed under: Photography