Hi,
I don't think Lensrentals is a test site. They do a lot of testing as a part of their business but they only publish some of their findings. The results they publish are normally measured at full aperture. Most lenses improve a lot when stopped down.
MTF testing is widely used in the photographic industry, but it is clearly a measure only related to sharpness.
Lensscore actually discloses very little about their methods and how they calculate the values they publish, it is hard to know if those figures are relevant for my shooting.
With DxO mark it is a bit different, I never look the figure of merit but I go into measurements which allows me to find out strengths and weaknesses of the lenses I consider buying. That site is quite useful. The problem that their measurements are sensor based, so it is not really possible to compare say Canon lens with a Sony lens.
So I would say that DxO-mark test reports are actually useful, Lensrentals testdata is interesting. Lensscore sort of shows that expensive lenses are great lenses but say little about lenses in actual shooting situations.
Below are some screen dumps from DxO-mark tests with the Otus 55, Sony 55 and Nikon 24-120 zoom. DxO-mark gives a lot more information than Lensscore. One thing I see is that the Nikon 24-120 zoom is quite OK at optimum aperture. The Otus is probably best at around f/4.
The last figure compares the Sony 90/2.8G macro with the Otus 85/1.4, those lenses are pretty close at f/8. Would I shoot at f/1.4 the Otus would of course be the obvious choice.
Now, Lensrentals has published some slanted edge based test data on the 90/2.8G, but that uses data from the sensor (as also DxO-mark tests do). The slanted edge data was great and the measured MTF not so great. Lensrentals also checks sample variation and that was not that great on the Sony 90/2.8G.
By the way, I own the 90/2.8G and would say it is very good. I cannot compare with the Otus or say the Canon 100/2.8LII macro, as I own neither lens.
Best regards
Erik
Lensrentals. In their article this week on FE mount lenses.
They wrote, "the Sony 55 does very well on the MTF charts. Its center resolution is superb and it maintains sharpness very well to the edges. The Nikkor 58mm and Zeiss Otus 55m lenses are being tested here at f/1.4, which gives the Sony lens a bit of an unfair advantage, but it's still excellent and holding it's own against the best lenses in this range at the very least."
That's strong praise. Of course lensrentals are pragmatists, not listmakers. Lenscore looks like just another DxOMark with their love of numbers and weightings and aggregation. If #39 on lenscore is that good compared to #4, then why have a list?
