New Lens Statistical Comparisons

2024.03.20

Today, the first completely new feature of 2024 was added to Neocamera! New lens specification pages extend the previous contents with visual representations of key specifications which are then graphed against the span of these same properties among compatible lenses. Take a look at the Panasonic Lumix S 28-200mm F/4-7.1 Macro OIS lens Specifications page:

This is a variable aperture zoom range and so it shows the most data in graphic form. At the top are the Focal-Range and Angle-Of-View graphs. Above each bar, aligned with a highlight range, the focal-range and angle-of-view of this specific lens is shown. For this Panasonic lens, those are 28-200mm and 12-75° respectively. The bar itself is labelled at both extremities with extreme specifications of other compatible lenses. This shows there are lenses with 14 to 600mm focal-range for the same mount and coverage.

Angle-Of-View and focal-length are related when considering a specific sensor-size. So, while the graphs are in fact redundant, they illustrate what the lens can see and that the angle-of-view changes much more at short focal lengths compared to the other end.

A similar graph shows the maximum, often referred to as brightest or widest, aperture of this lens, compared to the specifications of compatible lenses. The Panasonic 28-200mm F/4-7.1 has a moderate aperture at the wide-end and many brighter ones are available for the Leica mount. At its telephoto end, its aperture is the dimmest available for L-Mount.

Visual representations are show below. On the left side, we see the maximum viewing angle in orange and the minimum in yellow. This is for this lens when mounted on a camera with the largest sensor supported. Mounted on a smaller sensor, such as APS-C, the viewing angles will be lower. On the right side, a diagram shows the relative brightness of the aperture-range of this lens compared to compatible lenses. The areas are shown with actual relative proportions. For a variable-aperture zoom, there will be two yellow outlines of the iris. This shows the number of aperture blades for the lens two (unless the data is not available which would then default to 7). A teal outline shows the brightest available apertures for compatible lenses.

Finally, the last two ranges show how the current lens compared in terms of magnification and weight. Hopefully this data will enable readers to better understand every lens and make more informed decisions.