Sharp on Paper, Disappointing in Practice
The Garden Magazine Guy β 2 out of 5 stars
I bought this lens for its compact size, encouraged by reviews praising its sharpness. However, after testing it myself, I found that its image rendering was more like that of a cheap kit lens. Although it resolves plenty of fine detail and produces technically sharp images, the photographs look flat and lifeless, with poor microcontrast and unattractive, harshly rendered out-of-focus backgrounds. After looking into its optical construction, I suspect the lack of microcontrast may be related to its use of several PMo (plastic-moulded) lens elements rather than conventional glass elements. Then again, I wouldn't expect a lens relying so heavily on plastic optical elements to deliver particularly good image quality. Overall, a very disappointing lens, especially considering the positive reviews of its optical performance.