StefanSC
Well-known member
There have been a few threads recently here discussing lens image quality. Participating in those threads got me thinking:
What resources (other than lens reviewers) do you use to evaluate the quality of a telephoto lens you want to purchase ?
I use flickr and a few other web sites that offer access to higher res images but the problem with these is that almost always are processed jpegs often with little information regarding the processing or the crop and so on.
Do you know any good sites where one can get RAW or at least neutral full size Jpegs ?
Would you contribute in a community sourced site that would provide users such a service?
Say you upload RAWs of properly focused, properly exposed images that would make the garbage bin usually.
(for example:
)
Contributors to the service can vote whether an image is relevant or not for the image quality of a lens (maybe it's slightly out of focus, or it's shot at ISO512000).
Every user would have access to JPEGs outputted from the RAW using the manufacturer's editor at default settings.
Serious contributors would also have access to the RAWs themselves (license free).
Now, since storing RAWs can get expensive, there would need to be some limits on how many can be stored.
Also, the service most likely would need to be advertisement supported and would provide normal users access to RAWs for a nominal fee (say 2$ per 10 RAWs? ).
If it gets to a point where it is self-sustaining, any spillover income would form a prize pool for photography contests for the serious contributors.
Or maybe should I stop with the rum?
What resources (other than lens reviewers) do you use to evaluate the quality of a telephoto lens you want to purchase ?
I use flickr and a few other web sites that offer access to higher res images but the problem with these is that almost always are processed jpegs often with little information regarding the processing or the crop and so on.
Do you know any good sites where one can get RAW or at least neutral full size Jpegs ?
Would you contribute in a community sourced site that would provide users such a service?
Say you upload RAWs of properly focused, properly exposed images that would make the garbage bin usually.
(for example:
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
)
Contributors to the service can vote whether an image is relevant or not for the image quality of a lens (maybe it's slightly out of focus, or it's shot at ISO512000).
Every user would have access to JPEGs outputted from the RAW using the manufacturer's editor at default settings.
Serious contributors would also have access to the RAWs themselves (license free).
Now, since storing RAWs can get expensive, there would need to be some limits on how many can be stored.
Also, the service most likely would need to be advertisement supported and would provide normal users access to RAWs for a nominal fee (say 2$ per 10 RAWs? ).
If it gets to a point where it is self-sustaining, any spillover income would form a prize pool for photography contests for the serious contributors.
Or maybe should I stop with the rum?