horrocks
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- Name
- Toby
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A question for other users of this lens, who may be able to help.
Some years ago I bought one of these pro-grade Nikon lenses through ebay, badly. A sojourn at Fixation cost the original purchase price again in repairing water and mechanical damage, cleaning and recalibration. It has been my preferred lens ever since, and I have used it to produce a number of prints that have been exhibited on several occasions this summer. However I have had to reluctantly admit to myself that it needs another calibration - the entire right-hand side of the frame is progressively soft towards the upper right quadrant. Prior to packing it off for the work to be done I recently accidentally (as you do) bought another one through a trader, in A1 visual condition. I fully expected the results to be noticably better than the original model, but the above problems notwithstanding, not so. I particularly picked up a noticeable softness at the frame edges with the lens at or towards its widest setting. I also have an old Nikon 18-70mm f (I think) 3.5 - 5.6 that was sold as the kit lens for the D70 years ago. In a spur-of-the-moment head to head, this lens is actually throwing out better results than the pro-lens at the edges, although inferior at the centre, when I would have expected it to be noticably inferior across the board. Fiddling around, and aware of back-focus issues with my camera, a D7000, I found that adjusting the back-focus for the 17-55 improved matters, but still not to the point when it was as good at the edges as the old kit lens.
I need to establish quickly whether I have bought another duffer, whether the issues with edge focus are normal, or whether I need to send both camera and lens into Fixation or Nikon to have the issues looked at. Could I therefore ask other users of the Nikon 17-55 f2.8 to have a quick glance at their images and let me know their own experience. I have posted below some sample images below, with magnifications to +200 to demonstrate - I am normally far from a 'pixel-peeper', but this seems to best demonstrate the issues.
Centre
Above Nikon 17-55 pro
Below Nikon 18-70 kit
Edge
Above Nikon 17-55 pro
Below Nikon 18-70 kit
Edge
Above Nikon 17-55 pro
Below Nikon 18-70 kit
All images were taken at f9, the reported 'hotspot' for both lenses, at 200 ISO and with adequate shutter speed at 1/250th second.
Some years ago I bought one of these pro-grade Nikon lenses through ebay, badly. A sojourn at Fixation cost the original purchase price again in repairing water and mechanical damage, cleaning and recalibration. It has been my preferred lens ever since, and I have used it to produce a number of prints that have been exhibited on several occasions this summer. However I have had to reluctantly admit to myself that it needs another calibration - the entire right-hand side of the frame is progressively soft towards the upper right quadrant. Prior to packing it off for the work to be done I recently accidentally (as you do) bought another one through a trader, in A1 visual condition. I fully expected the results to be noticably better than the original model, but the above problems notwithstanding, not so. I particularly picked up a noticeable softness at the frame edges with the lens at or towards its widest setting. I also have an old Nikon 18-70mm f (I think) 3.5 - 5.6 that was sold as the kit lens for the D70 years ago. In a spur-of-the-moment head to head, this lens is actually throwing out better results than the pro-lens at the edges, although inferior at the centre, when I would have expected it to be noticably inferior across the board. Fiddling around, and aware of back-focus issues with my camera, a D7000, I found that adjusting the back-focus for the 17-55 improved matters, but still not to the point when it was as good at the edges as the old kit lens.
I need to establish quickly whether I have bought another duffer, whether the issues with edge focus are normal, or whether I need to send both camera and lens into Fixation or Nikon to have the issues looked at. Could I therefore ask other users of the Nikon 17-55 f2.8 to have a quick glance at their images and let me know their own experience. I have posted below some sample images below, with magnifications to +200 to demonstrate - I am normally far from a 'pixel-peeper', but this seems to best demonstrate the issues.
Centre
Above Nikon 17-55 pro
Below Nikon 18-70 kit
Edge
Above Nikon 17-55 pro
Below Nikon 18-70 kit
Edge
Above Nikon 17-55 pro
Below Nikon 18-70 kit
All images were taken at f9, the reported 'hotspot' for both lenses, at 200 ISO and with adequate shutter speed at 1/250th second.
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