Most lens reviews talk about technical details, show charts and some image samples. It seems to be common knowledge that a Branded prime lens is superior to a third-party zoom lens. But can you tell the difference in a resulting image? Yeah? Prove it.
Here I will show you three sets of images. For each one I took the same photo with both lenses. One is shot with the Nikon 50mm 1.8D
Some hints
- Each pair was taken with identical settings, with the Tamron set to 50mm
- All photos were taken on a tripod for consistency, using available light
- They’re not in the same order (as in it’s not photos A,C and E one lens and B,D and F the other).
- I’ve removed the metadata from them so don’t bother trying to figure it out that way.
- There’s a link at the end of the article to download full resolution images
First pair
The first set were taken indoors at 1/50s, f/2.8 ISO 200. Image A is above, image B is below:
- Exhibit B: 50mm 1/50s f/2.8 ISO 200
Second Pair:
The second set were taken outdoors at 1/640s, f/5.6 ISO 200.
Third Pair:
The third set were taken outdoors at 1/125s, f/22 ISO 200.
Full resolution download:
Gear used for this test:
- Nikon D300
- Nikon 50mm 1.8D
- Tamron 28-75mm 2.8 XR Di LD
- Gitzo carbon fiber tripod legs
- Gitzo Ball head
So there you have it – take a look, make your guesses in the comments below, and come to your own conclusions about what this means.
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