Paul Diamond Loc: Atlanta, GA, USA

I just looked at dysum.com for the first time. It's a "peer" review for peers. Cut the Cr##. Do your own pictures at the focal length that you prefer (or, even better, do all focal lengths and apertures) and compare all lenses to help form YOUR opinion - based upon your sampling of "1" each of the lenses mentioned. (There IS a manufacturing accepted variation from lens-to-lens for each company. And make your decisions, based upon YOUR standards of subject/aperture/ISO/camera model, etc. All these variables affect/effect the results that you will judge for YOUR own decision. You are NOT a "pro" at doing this. You are NOT doing this within discernable STANDARDS to apply them to the next FL/aperture and next lens you test. AND, you are willing to judge every lens of that model/focal length/Zoom, based upon YOUR testing (which may and probably IS flawed).

DO IT. And, don't bring the pre-test evaluation as any RESULT that you present to everyone else as ANY evidence of the TRUTH. Because it IS NOT.

If you don't know how to do it, you deserve the results you reap from your 'non-tests' that have no meaning!!! And, if you go to a website that posts other user's information as factual information, God help you.

Harsh???? Real, factual testing is the only "harsh" test. You are NOT doing this by any real standards. It's more like choosing a 'cheerleader' by a voice vote. If you think this is good, valid or valuable? Do it and, please do, and go away. The faster, the better. - Your "information and test results" are worth less than your effort to produce them.

Only 100mm??? Why??? - Why test a 5X or greater zoom at only 100mm??? Why is 100mm only and exclusively important to you??? And why do you think it should be important to anyone else who might read this???

Any valid testing site deals in FACTS. It appears that you do not and you don't want to.

Yes, I used to do this for a living. Tell people, at the beginning of your post, what you shoot, why 100mm is important, why you would carry a long zoom range lens and only judge it at 100mm (what focus distance??? And what subject is being photographed???). Etc.

This is not meant as much as a rebuke as it is an invitation to learn, to grow and to get responses that are helpful because you thought about the question your were asking and the answers that might be helpful. It appears you did not.

User ID

Your honesty and clarity stand in brazen defiance of sacred UHH traditions.

yorkiebyte Loc: Scottsdale, AZ/Bandon by the Sea, OR

Truly, WTF?
Life's too short.

Paul Diamond Loc: Atlanta, GA, USA

More like FYI for the response I shared. I did do this for a living. I do have a BFA in Photo illustration and Graphic Arts from RIT. I held posts from Product Manager to COO of an international manufacturing division of a public stock company (age 26). My employers and companies I worked with to develop products and distribute them throughout the USA include Beseler, Omega Div. of Berkey Marketing, Rollei USA, Soligor, Osawa, Mamiya, Topcon, Bronica, Philips and a few more in 14 years within the Photo industry.

So, I do write from knowledge and experience. And I use photography until this day in the studio for work and out in the world for my own personal and artistic pleasure. I am of retirement age. But I have online businesses that keep me working all the time.

Honesty and clarity should = the Truth and Facts, more than personal biases or uneducated decisions. The intent of my initial commentary was to help people who might want to make a decision about the best product for the money you want to spend. And to avoid information that is not backed by factual expertise and tests instead of individual bias.

azted Loc: Las Vegas, NV.

Seriously, you need to chill out. No comment made was stating that this was to industry standard or scientific. You are in no position to question my testing methods when my purpose is to please me. This is a subjective medium, and yes there are objective results that can be detailed in a controlled study, but there was not even a hint that that was the purpose. I am non-plussed at your remarks, as you have no idea of whom you are remarking about. Everyone on here has the possibility of commenting, that is why we freely post our comments, but you certainly are abusing your opportunity!

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

I stand with azted on this. There is nothing wrong with him doing this to prove to himself which lens he prefers to use. And some (maybe many) of us enjoy seeing the effort and results. I happen to like older lenses and it is nice to see the results. And for many older lenses, tests like he is doing are the only things we have to go on. Certainly, older, legacy lenses aren't at the front of the priority list of the real resting outfits.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Important to some.
Just like everything else.
Might be,
might not be.
Depends on the individual.
Everyone has different zeal for different things.
That's what makes us different,
yet some people don't want us to be that way.

User ID

So I spoze you studied with Happy Jack MacMillan, Judy Steinhouser, Owen Butler, Tom Moran, The Flying Nun, and maybe Pellegrino Nazarro at the brickyard ?!?!? Ben Dare Don Dat ;-)

Ooooopz .... are you P.C. Diamond ? Did you study Package Design ? Maybe we are 20 years apart. You said “retirement age” ? Did you actually mean kinda early retirement ? I was in the first batch of freshmen to hit the Brickyard. The dorms weren’t even completed. We were packed four in a room :-(

Paul Diamond Loc: Atlanta, GA, USA

Please do whatever you want. Then take pictures with whatever you choose. And whether jpg or raw, be happy with what you have gotten from your camera and vintage lenses. And, if you like the results from where you go on your trip and what you use, wonderful.

I'm not trying to stifle 'free speech'. But, I do believe it is important to share facts.

Paul Diamond Loc: Atlanta, GA, USA

My first year was at the old downtown campus. The second year, dorms were only offered to incoming freshmen. I kept living off campus. I did do some package design study which helped in packaging products we made at Beseler, Omega, etc. I also wrote the instruction books, product literature, advertising, sales force and dealer information, point-of-purchase displays, etc.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

This is why tests, done by the user or by professional labs, have limited usefulness. I am a Canon user largely because they seem to ignore testing results from other labs and just try to create lens/camera combos that deliver user desired results in the field.

azted Loc: Las Vegas, NV.

Well thank you for your permission. How do you fit your head through a doorway? You are so immersed in your own importance that you are actually a blowhard. You want to share facts? Here are some facts:

1. You are irrelevant, as are most of us on this blog. If you are no longer involved in the struggle to survive, and are living off of your past exploits, you are irrelevant.
2. Your education does not provide you the scientific education to address experimentation. Without honking my horn, I will simply say my advanced degrees allow me to say within several standard deviations, that if I wanted a true scientific design, it would be far above yours.
3. Many of the companies you worked for are out of business. Why? Were you not an effective employee? Try to develop some humility, sir. You were a cog in a machine, and the machines went bad.
4. Phillips who you claim to have worked at, paid my partners and I millions of dollars to buy a product we invested in. That product is still raking in lots of money. I take zero credit, just money!
5. Some of the companies I worked for are also gone. So are the companies I created, and sold. But most of the products are still alive, and better off for having new blood market them.
6. The last fact is you need help. Someone so bent on feeling superior to the others on this blog has a real personality and mental health problem. I wish you well in getting over your feelings of uselessness, and inadequacy.

Paul Diamond Loc: Atlanta, GA, USA

You chose a "high rating on dyxum.com" as the justification for your purchases. This site is a beauty contest, not experts providing information to help others make purchase/use decisions.

Your question above on #3 is answered by you about yourself on #5. Both irrelevant. Time moves on.

Standard deviations? - I had statistics and probability for a year in high school.

FYI - I never claimed to be an employee of Philips. I imported and distributed Philips photographic products throughout the USA.

In the late 1970's, I saw the eventual death of silver halide imaging. I made a career path decision to leave the photo industry before it collapsed upon itself. Where I went and what I did is not important. And, about 18 years ago I used photography to help me start up several small internet businesses that are still running today. I earn money from the pictures I take in the studio. And I photograph outside the studio for my personal growth.

Photography has been an important part of my life since the age of 8.


FYI - jpg vs raw, one of your original questions. You might try looking at UHH archives. This has been discussed many, many times already. I'm sure you will find the kind of information you want to learn in the archives.

But, you never answered, that I saw, why 100 mm only. And what kind of travel photos you would be shooting with a 100 mm focal length prime or zoom. Or did I miss it?

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

This thread has gone stupid.
Bye.