OK, OK, so this isn’t explicitly a camera topic; however, it is what I edit my photos on (an Apple). The old Macbook Pro was doing well and good, but my dad decided he wanted a laptop and it was a good excuse to get a little bump in speed and an updated machine (other machine is in the mail to him now). Surprisingly little has changed on the insides in the past 2.5 years that I had the old machine — now: a little more speed, a little more storage, and a little sleeker look. Sounds good.

So to photos, and where things stand. Sadly I didn’t do the side-by-side precision testing before boxing up the last-gen laptop. But here are a few numbers in photo terms on the new one: from a cold boot Photoshop CS4 loads in 5 seconds (if you quit it and re-open drop that to 2 sec). Lightroom 2 in the same manner loads in 6 seconds (and 3 secs with the quit/re-open maneuver). Speedy. Processing is definitely sped up as well; although, as with any computer (even a Mac Pro w/ 8Gbs of RAM) I can bring it to a crawl if I really want to. That said, a nice tidy boost is appreciated when editing 16.7 MP images. If you do the math and visualize the 30+ hrs of rendering time the 4122 photos from my last wedding took to process from RAW to JPEG w/ settings and compare that to some increased speed, well that is quite a bit of saved time.

OK, closing remarks. I am extremely impressed to date with the new unibody. It is solid, rigid, and performs. The new LED LCD made my old CCFL look like it was off. It is very bright. Glare is definitely there with the switch from mat to glass, and I will have to accustom to seeing my ugly mug all the time. You tune it out after a bit. The microphone is much more sensitive (the better to record my thoughts, classes, and chat with), and the speakers are equally louder. The smarter touchpad is great!, and means real four-finger fun, zoom, and multi-directional pan. Awesome. If I had a “highly recommended” sticker, it would be placed on this mini-review. Love. It.

Unibody Macbook Pro Specs:
15.4″ Glossy LED LCD, 1440×900
2.8 Ghz Core 2 Duo (T9600, 6M Cache)
4 GB DDR3 1066 Mhz SDRAM
320 GB HD (SSD, someday)
512 MB GDDR3 NVIDIA 9600M GT (+ onboard 256 MB NVIDIA 9400M)

In April 2007 Canon announced an update to one of my favorite lenses, it is the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM super wide-angle lens. Yeah I am a little behind the times, but I tend to be cautious and patient about most of my camera purchases and don’t make them until I do the heavy research and read all of the reviews.

Well, this lens has been out more than a year and a half and I still haven’t found a satisfactory answer to my simple question — is it really improved? I have found a lot of very good reviews, including those from Digital Picture and multiple users on Fred Miranda, but I have yet to see an in depth side-by-side comparison of the two (they may be out there, but I haven’t found one yet). The general consensus appears to be it is, but it is marginal. I haven’t found that result very helpful in deciding if I should upgrade my v1 of the lens.

Canon claims this lens has been entirely redesigned, with 16 elements in 12 groups (here is a link to the block diagram). In their words: “It has been specifically designed for improved edge-to-edge image quality that will meet the strict requirements of professional and high-end amateur photographers.”

So, I finally decided to put my wallet into the equation and see for myself. I ordered one over the holidays and it arrived right before my NY trip for New Years. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate and my camera didn’t get much use (a few pictures here). It is time for a little more of a close look and a controlled comparison between these two. Just to set the background, I am comparing a USxxxx (2004) manufactured lens that I purchased in late 2004 before my Antarctica trip to a UWxxxx (2008) lens.

For the comparison I locked my 1Ds Mark II to a tripod, with MLU (mirror lockup), and used a remote trigger. All shots were at ISO 100. The camera was set to aperture priority, and each lens was sequentially mounted to the camera for the test scene below (note: I shot multiple test scenes, but this one is quite representative of my findings). As a landscape photographer I care most about edge performance, and not just sharpness, but overall clarity, color, and control of aberration. Here’s a 700px version of the scene and representative 100% crops.

Scene:
16-35 @ f/8
700px Version

100% Comparisons: center, edges

Conclusions:
Unfortunately the new lens back-focuses significantly — to the point where determining any differences in image quality (IQ) becomes a mute point. The options now are either to send the lens into Canon for repair, or simply to return the lens. I will do the latter, as if the problems are more than focus there is no reason to keep the lens and I will be outside of the window to return. I’m sad and a bit disappointed. =[ Look for another review when I receive the new copy.

UPDATE 11-Jan-09: This past Friday I received a new copy of the Canon EF 16-35 II, and it correctly focuses via AF. Yeah! I repeated the test and here are my updated conclusions.

Revised Conclusions:
My latest copy of the 16-35 II performs better at 16mm than my original 16-35 (which I think was a pretty darn good copy!) in terms of sharpness (center & edge), color rendition, and especially in CA. Yippie! They are quite close in center sharpness at f/8 and smaller apertures, although I give a slight edge to the new version. At 35mm, the two versions are almost indistinguishable — this is at both the center and edges. It looks like I have updated my arsenal and have a v1 for sale.

Here are the test results and images for comparison. In this revised test, I shot two scenes. While auto-focus (AF) was performing correctly on both lenses I instead shot the comparison with manual focus (MF) to avoid any discrepancies in focus and solely examine image quality. To note: the difference in apparently field of view is due to the 16-35 II being 8.6 mm longer in length than the 16-35 (which changes your view, even though you have locked the camera to a tripod)!!

Comparison @ 16mm

Backyard -
Full scene @ f/8 (1500px version): 16-35, 16-35 II.
100% Crops: center, edges

Brick Wall -
Full scene @ f/8 (1500px version): 16-35, 16-35 II
100% Crops: center, edges

Comparison @ 35mm

Backyard –
Full scene @ f/8 (1500px version): 16-35, 16-35 II
100% Crops: center, edges