Canon digital bodies and Nikon lenses

Dear group members:

I wanted to post some questions and first reviews on my new equipment to
obtain some feedback from you as well as have you share your own
experiences.

This past weekend I took my new Canon 1Ds Mark II out for the first real
serious shooting session and did some tests with two lenses I purchased
along with the camera. The lenses are the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM zoom and the
EF 24mm f/1.4L USM.

I am surprised with the low quality of the images I got from both lenses. I
am coming from film cameras and used two very similar lenses with my Nikon
Pro film body. My expectations for both Canon lenses were that they would
meet Nikon's quality since they are both "L" lenses and the price is about
the same but they don't even come close. My Nikon lenses are the 17-35mm
f/2.8D ED-IF AF-S Zoom-Nikkor and the 28mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor. The performance
on these lenses is just outstanding. The zoom is an all-around great lens
that I like to take with me to places where I may want to capture a large
area and may not have the room to stand back and embrace my landscape. The
28mm is a great lens for low light situations where I don't like to use
tripod and/or flash. They are both very sharp and even with the zoom opened
to 17mm coverage, there is the natural distortion found at this type of
focal length but the image is extremely sharp.

I thought it might be just my impression and decided to check a few sites. I
couldn't really find one that had objective tests with a specific technical
protocol for testing lenses, but found several sites with reviews from other
users and photographers such as Fred Miranda's site. It seems all reviews
corroborate my initial impressions about flaws with Canon lenses. The
16-35mm is claimed to be a disappointment but many who reviewed it and the
24 f/1.4 also has its flaws including lack of sharpness.

What is the deal with Canon lenses ? I can't believe I've just purchased a $
10,000 + digital set up with what should be the best high end digital SLR
system in the market and this is the type of photos I'm getting from these
lenses. My opinion about the camera couldn't be any better. It is indeed
very well built and a work of art in terms of engineering. The lenses, on
the other hand, don't seem to even come from the same manufacturer or to
have been designed with serious photographers in mind.

One of Fred Miranda's review compares the sharp quality of Nikkor's 28mm
lens to a Leica Vario-Elmar 21-35mm zoom lens. This is how good Nikon lenses
are.

The other option of lens I had in mind for my camera was the new EF 24-105mm
f/4L IS USM lens because of its versatility and the ability to use it as the
preferred lens for those photo shooting situations where you can only take
one lens with you. After searching for this lens I found out that it has
been pulled from the market because of some serious design flaws that caused
flaring and other problems.

Canon could follow Sony's approach. Since they realize they don't have the
expertise required to design and build truly professional grade lenses, they
went to Carl Zeiss. Now that Kyocera decided to discontinue its Contax line
of cameras and is only keeping the Yashica line, Canon could very easily
approach Carl Zeiss to produce its lenses as Kyocera did in the past.

It is hard to accept that after a $ 10,000+ purchase the results I'm
obtaining are not matching those I was able to obtain from my Nikon $ 2,000
film setup. Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I was under the wrong
impression when I presumed that Canon's lenses were of similar quality to
those made by Nikon.

The bottom line is that one company gives you great lenses but still can't
seem to develop a decent body with full frame sensor that doesn't change the
characteristics of all the lenses you invested your money on. The other
produces great bodies with outstanding resolution, full frame sensor and
great overall performance but the lenses are of average rather than
professional grade image quality.

It seems that digital photography is not ready for prime time yet. Close -
but no cigar !

I am sorry for the long post - just needed to share my frustrations.

Best regards,

Joseph

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Dr. Joseph Chamberlain
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery