[Klaus]

The other day there was a question why we don't publish any Sony Alpha lens tests anymore. Same goes for Pentax, Canon EOS M and high priced item.

 

Our answer was that the reviews do not recover the costs - also because we have to purchase the majority of the tested lenses.

 

Now there is obviously solution to all this - community sponsoring. 

 

The idea would be to propose a number of lenses for testing - and the community (you) can then decide whether it is worth for being tested by investing a a dollar or two.

If the funding is not sufficient after a year, the money would go to charity - same goes for excess money after selling the lenses on eBay (minus our costs).

 

Thus please vote whether you would consider this to be viable.

[davidmanze]

  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 asking for it!

[soLong]

  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, 

 

….ahem, I tried that once….and the results were a tad, urm, embarrassing….but don't let that stop anyone ;-) I easily embarrass everyone….

….but I don't want anymore lenses, so can't help, sorry….(and as an aside that-certain-manufacturer in Oz say they can fix my 24-70, so they have it, so we'll see - I should more acurately say that they suggest they can compensate for the focus errors via a chip at various apertures and focal lengths, so we'll see)….

[Klaus]

  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.

[davidmanze]

  Hi,

      I understand what your saying and of course I expect you to be remunerated for your time and work like I 'was', I also understand that difficult times call for different measures.  Good luck!

[stevenb]

Short answer:

I am working with following lenses on my Nikon D7000: Nikkor AF-S 18-105mm + 40mm 2.8 /Walimex 85

1.4, 35 1.4, 14 2.8/Sigma 150mm F2.8 OS/Voigtländer Nokton 58mm 1.4 SLIIN + Color Skopar 2,8/28mm SLIIN

If there is any interest in testing one or more of my lenses please email me.

 

I am interested in following lenses being tested and i am willing to support those tests for Nikon: The new Samyang 16mm DX, Voigtlaender Skopar 20mm 3.5, Sigma 18-35mm 1.8.

[felix]

In principle, I like the idea and would be willing to pay for certain tests. But then again, I am mainly interested in Nikon/Fuji/MFT (maybe Canon) lenses which are not part of the group of manufacturers this program is aimed at. 

Also, if I understand the mechanism you proposed correctly, I think there is a pretty high chance that I spend some money, but the overall funding will not be sufficient and there will be no test. 

 

I don't vote with "no" at this point, because I think it might be worth trying, but I am quite sceptic.. 

[dave9t5]

The other day there was a question why we don't publish any Sony Alpha lens tests anymore. Same goes for Pentax, Canon EOS M and high priced item.

 

Going on a tangent here, but it seems that often that question pops up from oddly self-righteous newbs who are less familar with what helps make the PZ hamsters keep running on the PZ lens testing wheels ( ).

 

Above our profile pics is the PZ Title of either Newbie, Member or Advanced Member (maybe some others).  Other sites have another category called Site Supporter...members whose donations are up-to-date.  Maybe you could enable this option and then allow only Site Supporters to pose these kinds of questions at a rate of once a year in their very own forum sub-category, ha ha.  Newbs and freeloaders would not be able to even Post this kind of question, some kind of keyword filter...ha ha.

[Klaus]

Well, obviously the poll shows no interest. Case closed then.