[Dorian Gray]

Originally Posted by Matsu There seems to be a relatively credible D700 rumor afoot aswell. 12MP FX sensor Nikon... You'll know for sure if Chasseur rumors it.

Voilà ! So you reckon it's a sure thing then?

Originally Posted by Chinney I find that impressive...if the Leica lens on the Lumix lives up to its name.

I wonder how much input Leica has in the Leica-branded Panasonic lenses. Certainly they don't make them. Do they even design them? I have my doubts. Perhaps they give some guidance to Panasonic's lens-design team (or whoever designs Panasonic's lenses). Anyway, the Leica-branded Panasonic lenses are pretty good, though not necessarily best in-class.

Originally Posted by Dorian Gray And recently every photo forum has been ablaze with discussion about the poor corner performance of the f/2.8 70-200 mm Nikkor AF-S.

The review of the Nikon AF-S 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR that set this off was done by DPReview. Reading some people's comments you'd think the lens was trash. Even the DPReview conclusion strongly criticises the lens for poor corner performance.

Well, I thought I'd take a look at the DPReview data itself, compare it to its archenemy, the Canon EF 70-200 mm f/2.8 L IS USM, and draw my own conclusions.

Below are screenshots of the DPReview data for the two lenses, at the wide-open aperture of f/2.8 and various focal lengths. Differences are smaller at smaller apertures. First, performance on a crop-sensor camera:

70 mm:


105/100 mm:


135 mm:


200 mm:


As you can see, the Nikkor is clearly sharper than the Canon L at all focal lengths.

But the full-frame performance of the Nikkor is what's being so heavily criticised around the web. Have a look:

70 mm:


105/100 mm:


135 mm:


200 mm:


Not having seen these results, I was surprised at how well the Nikon lens performed. It's better than the Canon across the great majority of the frame, at all focal lengths. Only the extreme corners are poorer than the Canon (by a lot, admittedly). But far too much emphasis is being given to those extreme corners. At f/2.8 and a longish focal length, the corners are nearly always entirely out of focus anyway. Much more important in real life is the performance across the rest of the frame, where the Nikkor shines.

Not shown above is geometric distortion, where the Canon has an insignificant edge (both are excellent), and light fall-off, where the Canon has a significant advantage on full-frame, though again, only in the very extreme corners (where it doesn't matter anyway).

I guess the moral of the story is to take internet grumbling with a pinch of salt.