18-55 vs 16-45?

[Brian Dunn]

My particular 16-45 is quite a bit sharper than the 18-55 at 28mm, and they 
are comparable in sharpness at 50mm.  The 16-45 has noticably better contrast 
at either focal length.

The 16-45 also has comparable sharpness and better contrast than an M 28 f2.8 
prime which I have here.

The 16-45 seems to have comparable contrast and not as much resolution as my A 
50 f1.7 prime.

I tested these by making paper print outs with a row of digits in 72 point 
font, followed by another row in 48 point, 36 ... and all the way down to 6 
point.  These are placed across the room and photographed with the camera at 
180th and aperture 5.6, on a tripod with self timer mirror release, plus 
flash.  Several shots are taken with manual focus to be sure that the focus 
is correct.  I also made it a point to zoom in, focus, then zoom out to the 
final focal length before tripping the shutter.  You can look at each line of 
numbers and see where they get unreadable.


Brian


-- 

Brian Dunn Photographic
http://www.bdphotographic.com