Yesterday, we discovered that DxOMark rated Canon glass according to their own test results to be a bit mediocre. After looking through the results a bit closer, we have to say that we were both right and wrong. If you click on their Optical Metric score system, which simulates a more industry standard test (such as IMATest–a format that I still don’t always believe is ultimately accurate) you’ll see that Canon takes the cake a couple of times.
While Nikon, Samyang, and Sigma still hold their own, Zeiss and Sony start to fall back a bit more on the list. What’s even more amazing is that zoom lenses are more prominent on this list as well with Canon’s 70-200mm f2.8 L USM IS II and Nikon’s 70-200mm f4 G ED VR. At the top of the list is Canon’s 300mm f2.8 L IS USM II–which is a lens that most of us can’t afford. But then Nikon’s new 85mm f1.8 G (which we reviewed quite positively) also stays on top while their new 28mm f1.8 also starts to creep in. Plus the Samyang 14mm f2.8 comes in (we’ve reviewed the Rokinon version) and so does Sigma’s very excellent 85mm f1.4.
These results are a bit more interesting and can provide much more weight to Canon’s still conservative way of thinking. Overall though, in personal conversations, we as a staff still believe that the company needs to innovate more. In personal real world tests, I actually believe that Nikon’s 70-200mm f2.8 G ED VR II was much sharper than Canon’s option. But this lab test says otherwise.
