Lens Comparisons

I have quite a few lenses made by Tamron and three or four made by Canon. I thought I'd try comparing the results from the different lenses I have. The idea of comparing a 50mm lens with a zoom lens set to 50mm also intruiged me to the point of comparing certain prime focal lengths with what a zoom length could achieve and even comparing the same focal length on different zooms.

It's not going to be a "Lines Per Millimetre" comparison but more of a photographic one where a photo is taken and compared, scientific comparisons don't mean anything to the everyday photographer where all they want is a record of what was going on at the time they pressed the shutter button.

I have always found it interesting when using zoom lenses that the midpoint of the zoom range is always 50mm if that is within its zoom range, rotate your zoom from the smallest focal length to the largest and you may notice a point where the lens changes direction and with all the lenses I have it's always at 50mm.

The two primes from Canon and Tamron I am keen to compare are the Canon 135mm f3.5 and the Tamron 135mm f2.5. I will also use the Canon Extender 2x-B to see what effect it has on the resulting images. The 2x-B creates some stunning results when used with the Canon 135mm, but I haven't tried it with my other lenses.

Initially, from selling all my Canon-related gear, I thought I'd have a lot less to carry around, but with my liking of the Tamron Adaptall system, I seemed to have gathered more lenses than I thought. I've not had much chance to go out and about since my "Pleurodesis" or, in layman's terms, "Glueing my lung to my chest wall", where the follow-up examination appointment took 14 months and I was told I was completely fit but had COPD and Emphysema.

In all this time, I haven't been on my bike or had the urge to even pick up one of my cameras to go out and about doing what I like. It's amazing what a surgery that takes more than three hours to complete does to the body. It took me a long time to get back to normality, and after 14 months, I'm still not sure I'm 100% there.

So, after looking at my collection, I decided to just compare a few lenses:

Canon 135mm f3.5 v Tamron 135mm f2.5
Canon 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 v Tamron 35-70mm f3.5
Canon FL 50mm f1.8 v Canon FD 50mm f1.8

I will also use my Tokina SZ-X 60-300mm lens set to roughly the same focal length to see if there is a noticeable difference, and thinking about it I could use my Fotodiox Pro FD-M43 Excel +1 focal reducer with all the different lens combinations as well. All I need now is some decent weather where I can go to the front door and take some images, I took some photos of my manual lens collection as I needed to show my brother what I had in my camera rucksack.

I have also started a page comparing my lenses using the Fotodiox Focal reducer and using the Canon 2x Extender.

The Fotodiox focal reducer and the Canon 2x Tele extender are included in the photograph and when you think about it the combination of these two extra simple items can vastly change the way you use the lenses.

So, I think the first comparison is going to be my favourite 135mm lens, the Canon 135mm 3.5 and the Tamron 135mm f2.5. I've decided that I will use the same aperture of f6.3 or f5.6 if possible as I have over the years found that this aperture setting always gives me some great results regardless of which lens I am using.

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