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Parameters of Lens Specification and the Properties of Lenses— Part One —I'm going to indulge myself a bit here and assume you may not be a grizzled old veteran enthusiast with stacks ofCamera 35andModern Photographyin your closet or basement, and therefore might like a bit of an explanation of some of the properties of lenses. For those to whom these notions are old hat, my apologies in advance.

I've been known to have a pretty jaded and cynical and sometimes even (heavens!) sarcastic view of "lens tests." I feel for the most part that they're relatively useless. It's not just that lens tests are sops to insecurity, although they are that. It's not that most of them are silly, or misleading, or wrong, either, although they are often that, too. It's that, often, they're just not helpful at all.

One of the things that troubles my hearers when I go off on one of these rants is my scorn for single-number ratings. You know, this lens is a 3.8, this lens is a 4...

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