Quote: Hi,
I think sending out a request to ask members to send in a lens for testing would get you out of situation of asking for money, The real vote starts when actually ask for it!
This answer is somewhat shortsighted.
First of all - other than the lens costs we are investing time. Depending on the lens, I'd say 2-3 days (net). As much as I like photography as a hobby, taking pictures of charts and the data analysis is work. Do you work for free ? I assume not.
The other issue is sort of home brewed - Australia is a much smaller market than Europe. Thus asking readers has a far more limited effect. In the last 6 months I got 4 offers - none in the last 3 months and that's e.g. also for Canon EOS requests which were traditionally easy going back in Germany. It's much easier for Markus with Nikon & Samsung. So locally I simply have to buy lenses much more frequently. This is no problem if the costs are recoverable but, as mentioned, it doesn't always pay.