Who are the lens reviewers you like to read? I recently stumbled across Phillip Reeve and I appreciate how he takes the time to go across the technical aspects such as LoCA, coma, and “onion rings” in bokeh. While these aberrations have their place in some vintage lenses, a modern lens that costs a grand or more should be subject to these tests in my opinion.
I don’t do large prints so MTF isn’t really an issue for me, I’m more concerned about aberrations making the image look less smooth and more “busy”.
Me, I’m not one for reviewers, the cynic in me questions their (not all of them) motives.
When I went to Fuji a few years back I looked in at Fuji x forum and DP reviews but soon realised I was getting a dose of GAS
That’s true, which is why I talked about how he reviews the technical aspects of a lens that can be seen. His portfolio of reviews doesn’t cover everything and not all lenses are subject to the same level of scrutiny, so I would like to find reviewers with the same philosophy. Or else I would be stuck googling for “X lens photo of fountain” etc. Some reviewers (I will not name them, there are many) simply gush about the lens and provide like 3 photos in unchallenging lighting at such a low resolution that we are unable to see things like onion ringing. Others are obviously only showcasing the good side of a lens (especially vintage lens, if you see a post written by a russian person about a russian vintage lens…)
I have never put any stock in any of the subjective comparisons that lens reviewers write up, I prefer to look at the examples and draw my conclusions from there.
I’m not concerned with lens reviews except from a curiosity perspective (I have all the lenses I want, and only one of them is modern), so I enjoy the technical deep dives from LensRentals the most.
