older Prime vs newer Zoom

Well I can see your point here John, but TBH it didn't make a lot of sense carrying a large heavy prime with a 67mm filter size to get the benefit of the f/2 aperture when it's primary use on film (for me anyway) was landscape, where I'd prefer sharp to the edge performance. The small light and affordable Sigma had it completely beat IMHO.

John

Ok enough, best delete this thread or I'll never get a chance at a 24mm Miniwide.

There is a 24mm shootout site and the Oly 24mm beat the Sigma.... easy conversion to Pentax

http://www.16-9.net/lens_tests/

John

What a weird lens test.

The Miniwide is the 28mm lens, I think. The manual focus Sigma 24mm f2.8 Superwide II that I have is a fine lens.

Yes, you can demonstrate that it's sharper in the centre than in the corners by taking photos of test charts like this (f5.6) ...




and then peering at eye-wateringly small crops (left is centre of frame, right is corner)...




but the results bear little relationship to what real world photos look like.

I'm sure there are lots of photos taken by the Sigma on Flickr and elsewhere that put any of mine to shame, but even on this photo - do the corners really look that much softer than the centre??




I paid way over the top for the Sigma I have - but I'm still happy with it. Mind you, I don't have the Tamron zoom that you have.

I do, though, have and still use the kit lens ....




Can you tell the difference between the Sigma and the Pentax 18-55mm ALII kit lens? No, me neither

Errrr ....... whilst I'm here, same chart, same crop - but a (cheapie, around £15 on Fleabay) Chinon 28mm f2.8 ....




I *think* I can tell the difference now.

Andrew

Good test Andrew. The shot of the seat looks OK as well.

The shot mountain underneath the church interior on the page I gave before looks really weird the way it's sharp in the centre and soft at the edge.

http://forum.manualfocus.org/viewtopic.php?id=14397

If we're having a love-fest for this lens (the Superwide II) let's not forget it does close-ups rather well too:

There's no indication of aperture used, and the shot's on film... looks to me like the aperture was f2.8 and the focus was on the lamp post.... http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn172/chakrata/ce6e5af1.jpg

Lovely images Will, yeah 1:4 at it's closest focus distance.

John

It was a very overcast, dark day - so the light is very flat and the contrast low. The bench is at a crossroads called "Rest and be Thankful". I think I understand why.

Andrew

Rest and be thankful you didn't have to schlep a big heavy zoom up here, perhaps?

Nope, only 20m from the tarmac road.

If you want to know the history of the name, see here: link

Andrew

That explains why I haven't found one on ebay!!

And I have even less hope now.

You have mail.

John