My old Pentax ME is dying, but still holding on, so I've been considering the
purchase of either a
Pentax ZX-5n or a
Nikon N90s,
for about a year now, so I have been plowing through the WWW lens test archives,
and I've found of some things of note. In the following tables,
x.x,y.y,z.z listings are the barrel/pincushion distortions,
a/b/c are the numbers of C's, D's and F's in the Popular Photography
test results,
e.e|f.f are the FotoMagazin test numbers,
the final numbers in the rows are the ColorFoto results, the total out of 100
first, then (Resolution;Contrast;Centering;Distortion;Vignetting).
I've sorted the results best to worst, though there are some close calls.
However, I went out and bought a
Leica Z2X
instead of the above-mentioned items.
I think I just wanted a P&S like thePentax IQZoom 140 (now sold as the
slightly different
140M)
that I just bought my mom for her birthday. I had to wait a month for the
Leica to arrive--they had to ship it from overseas and all, but I must say I
love it. It has a 35-70mm zoom, flash, and +2 EV override--the only two
complaints I have about this camera are: I can't do any other value other
than +2 EV, and the lens doesn't have threads for screw-on filters. Then
again, the lens retracts and is covered when the power is turned off, so
there's a trade-off there. I also ordered the leather carrying case. My
first roll through the camera was
Kodak
E100S professional slide film, and I've put over a dozen rolls of E100S and
E100SW through since then. I take this camera with me whenever I go on business
trips--it's small enough to conviently carry, and with the carrying case
that I bought with it, it's protected from me as well! I'm really happy that
I bought this camera. I'm still considering purchasing a 35mm SLR, but
I'm also seriously thinking about a medium format camera--I have three 35mm
cameras now, and the format is starting to annoy me.
However, I went out and bought a
Leica Z2X
instead of the above-mentioned items.
I think I just wanted a P&S like thePentax IQZoom 140 (now sold as the
slightly different
140M)
that I just bought my mom for her birthday. I had to wait a month for the
Leica to arrive--they had to ship it from overseas and all, but I must say I
love it. It has a 35-70mm zoom, flash, and +2 EV override--the only two
complaints I have about this camera are: I can't do any other value other
than +2 EV, and the lens doesn't have threads for screw-on filters. Then
again, the lens retracts and is covered when the power is turned off, so
there's a trade-off there. I also ordered the leather carrying case. My
first roll through the camera was
Kodak
E100S professional slide film, and I've put over a dozen rolls of E100S and
E100SW through since then. I take this camera with me whenever I go on business
trips--it's small enough to conviently carry, and with the carrying case
that I bought with it, it's protected from me as well! I'm really happy that
I bought this camera. I'm still considering purchasing a 35mm SLR, but
I'm also seriously thinking about a medium format camera--I have three 35mm
cameras now, and the format is starting to annoy me.
home Thu Dec 13 13:02:11 EST 2001
