Another Interesting (or just Meaningless?) Comparison

[JumboShrimp]

Being the proud new owner of the Canon 50/1.2L, and seeing all the hype regarding the new Zeiss Otus 55/1.4, I thought I would dig through my old issues of Popular Photography for a comparison of their respective "SQF" charts and other test data. Much to my pleasant surprise, it's seems to be a literal dead heat, at least from their efforts. (Both charts are attached below - Zeiss on the left, Canon on the right.) If nothing else, an interesting comparison from another source.

As an aside, I don't think I have ever run across a CR thread that mentions tests in Popular Photography magazine. Any reasons/opinions on this? Just curious ...

 

[Loswr]

"Subjective Quality Factor," it sounds arbitrary, made up, and, well....subjective.

I know it's not, it's been around for 40 years and was first published by Kodak. But still, I wish Ed Granger had come up with a different name.

For those who are curious, Bob Atkins discusses PopPhoto's use of SQF (although he misspells Granger's name).