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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 9th, 2023

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  • Optics haven’t had any development since a hundred years, with a few minor exceptions.

    This is patently false. Here are some modern advancements in lenses in the past few decades.

    1. Many more lens elements per lens, designed with advanced computer programs.
    2. Aspherical lens elements.
    3. Apochromatic lens elements.
    4. Multilayer anti-reflective coatings. Super advanced coatings! Some that even repel water and oil.
    5. Fancy new optical glass, including fluorite glass.
    6. Diffractive optics to make lightweight telephoto lenses.
    7. Lightweight plastics and composits in the lens bodies that make them lighter to carry around.

    The result is much sharper photos with less abberation and distortion. Especially with zoom lenses. That’s one of the real advantages. Carrying around an entire bag of prime lenses sucks. Having a compact zoom lens with excellent optics is such a blessing. Having to change lenses to get good framing results in missed shots.

    For me, personally, I think autofocus is the best thing since sliced bread. Today’s AF is lightning fast and silent due to ultrasonic motors. Nearly every camera body has an array of amazing phase detection AF points, and throwing them away to use some heavy, antique MF lens will result in missed photos. Some cameras won’t even meter properly through an MF lens!

    Take off the nostalgia glasses and give some honest advice. The only reason to buy old MF lenses is because they’re cheap.

    If you can get a cheap, wide aperture, MF prime lens, do it. But only because it’s cheap. Not because it’s “mankind’s greatest glass”. That’s utter nonsense. Good modern lenses blow away old ones. This is without even considering that some glass ages and yellows with time.