what is your primary consideration when buying equipment

[jann1033]

the deciding factor, ie 2 of the same range what do you use to determine your choice? if it's a tie you can pick more than one if you really have to cost i am thinking a 50- 2 hundred or so, not thousands

 

[JR6ooo4]

WHen I get the itch I have to decide if I am replacing a lens or adding. Then cost and quality are next simultaneously.

MIkeeee

 

[PoohJen]

The quality is the key factor for me, with the caveat that it be in my price range! So, obviously an L lens will get better reviews, be superior to what I use now, but that's a whole different class. If I'm picking between two lenses that are, say $50 - $100 price difference, I'll see whether quality justifies the extra price.

 

[Corey10112]

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of money to spend on lenses, so if they are similar I have to weigh between cost and quality. Usually cost wins out.

 

[Master Mason]

you forgot the most important decideing factor. Which one the wife says I can get

 

[Anewman]

Value

 

[tinksdad]

Quality for me. I've found with many things that the best quality you can afford (maybe even a bit more) will pay dividends in the long run. That equals value!!

If nothing else, I save and scrounge to get what I really want.

 

[ukcatfan]

I voted, but my personal main choice was not on the list. I think the personal handling is the most important. I have never bought a camera that I did not hold first. This is not as easy for the other things, so I typically go to pro reviews from there.

 

[boBQuincy]

My first choice was not on the list either, MTF charts from the supplier.

I generally only buy Canon lenses so it's easy to compare the MTF charts to find any clunkers *assuming Canon is accurate about these*. With a 1.6x crop camera we can disregard anything past 22mm from center, making a lot of lenses look better than they would be on a full frame camera.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Assuming that I've started knowing the focal range that I want, I look at several things. I usually look at MTF charts first. I read professional reviews. I talked to people that I know and whose opinion I respect.

I check user reviews, but when I do so, I'm not very concerned with their assessment of image quality. I'm usually on the lookout for complaints. I usually skip over the positive user reviews.

My biggest selection criteria (after suitability) is usually quality rather than price. For my core lenses, I use them so much that the cost per use becomes almost trivial. On non-core lenses like fisheyes, macros, or other things that I won't use very often, I flip that and focus heavily on price rather than quality.

I would also be much more likely to focus on price rather than quality if I were buying a lens that intended to replace in the relatively near future. For example, if I were buying a mid-range zoom knowing that I wanted the 24-105 f/4.0 IS or the 24-70 f/2.8 bought couldn't afford them for a year or two, I'd be likely to buy something cheaper than usual to get by with. I suppose resale would come into play in that decision, but I rarely ever sell anything so I usually ignore resale value.

 

[deletedpenguin]

I'd say reviews and then real life examples.

 

[Groucho]

I second Anewman - "value" is really the key word IMHO... a lousy lens for cheap is not a great value and neither is a superb lens for a huge price tag. The trick is to find the very good lenses for affordable prices... they're out there!

I think that the difference between a very good lens and a superb lens is often not worth the difference in price, and I'd rather use the money I save on something else, like towards a vacation or towards another very good lens. Two very good lenses beat one superb IMHO.

Of course, that's why I've been on a prime lens kick lately - superb quality for great prices! They also generally are faster (very important IMHO) and they are also smaller and weigh less, which can be a great thing if you're carrying them around all day.