The PN and MS are at the top as far as all the lenses I've ever used. No exceptions at least from the lenses I've used.16-9 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 10, 2022 2:44 pmIs it a general rule that to excel at one application, you have to forgo everything else? Most of the lenses I consider exceptional at their job are surprisingly poor as general-purpose tools. The PNs and MS180 seem close to the top of their game, but at longer distances they behave more like a decent slide projector lens.
Actually there are some are all-around excellent performing lenses out there. The Schneider Makro-Symmar 120 is excellent at the rated magnification as well as focused at infinity (and slightly beyond infinity). The MS beats almost all lenses I've tested. The MS 120 is something else. But there is a secret to this I believe, that is, Schneider used some kind of magical glass, and also a more likely one, is using the MS stopped down.
Correspondingly, in Delta-world, Focotars and the late, fast Meogons exist on a razor's edge: superb within a narrow range, and – so I gather from Ray's short distance tests, and our tests at longer distances – disappointing outside it.
Most enlarging lenses I've tested behave the same way. Before I started my site in 2017 I spent lots of time and money, way, way too much to be honest, buying up 28mm enlarging lenses that I read were excellent at 2-3x only to find that my Canon MacroPhoto MP35 2.8/35 macro bellows lens smashed them all into little bits of dust when I compared them, it wasn't even close. Fast forward years later and I learned that the Componon 28mm and 35mm really are excellent, some of the best I've tested, but I was just using them incorrectly.
After years of being professional wildlife photographer (almost 18 years now) I've found that this characteristic of excelling at one job and only one job, also applies to very well to people and their aptitude. I've met and shot on trips with people that were so talented in specialized tasks, eye surgeons, fully tenured 32 year old MIT professors, space shuttle head engineer, even had a client that was an engineer that wrote most of Photoshops most famous tools (content aware, healing brush, and photomerge) only to find that they tried and they tried but they couldn't make a single artistic or interesting wildlife photo if their life depended on it. The Photoshop engineer could tell you exactly how the camera's sensor reacts to photons using physics.....but then try having a normal conversation with the guy or try to help him make a nice photo. Maybe we are all like lenses in a way?
Best,
Robert