Trust Your Eyes
www.trust-your-eyes.com offers everybody the chance to make up their own opinion about the results and image quality one can expect from lenses, camera bodies and digital compact cameras. Not via abstract numbers but with meaningful and comparable full resolution raw images with the TYE test target.
In contrast to most conventional tests www.trust-your-eyes.com employs a completely different approach. The site name is mission description and credo. For the first time photographers are enabled to compare image results with full resolution raw files, allowing to examine even the finest differences on absolutely unprocessed images.
The project was masterminded by Robin Ochs of Picture Instruments, a Leverkusen based German company that is already known for image processing software. The tests are conducted on a custom designed test target in a standardized environment. The target design makes cryptic test results and ratings obsolete and replaces them with the real thing – real world picture results. The TYE-target, as it is called by it’s inventor offers many challenges and traps for modern camera bodies and lenses. All tests take place in cooperation with Michael Quack in his Visual Pursuit studios in Düsseldorf, Germany.
The name is the mission
This exactly is the reason why Trust Your Eyes leaves it to the photographer to decide – based on his findings about the test files – wether a lens or body meets his/her expectations or not. Assessment is up to viewers discretion, and TYE does not suggest products to buy. MTF curves and numbers about lines per inch are rendered obsolete, because no MTF curve can help if e.g. the fine red mesh in the lower bottom left of the TYE-target is not resolved by lens and camera. Most photographers have no imagination about what the difference between a 94% and a 97% rating means – but they can see it in the raw files.
TYE’s CEO Robin Ochs says that this opens a whole new view on lens and camera qualities. Trust Your Eyes offers prospective buyers a vast collection of raw files, shot at the most neutral settings the respective cameras allow. In order to stay independent, the company refinances itself exclusively by selling test images and does not offer any advertising on the website. The objective is to provide absolutely comparable test imagery from as many cameras and lenses as possible. Investing in a TYE lens test for 5,49 EUR can pay off immediately if it spares you from buying the wrong lens, no matter if you plan to buy a lens for 99EUR or one for 990EUR. There are lenses worth their weight in gold, and sometimes there are cheaper and /or better alternatives. Looking closer before buying might save a lot of disappointment and money.
What is included in a test?
Each download from Trust Your Eyes contains raw files and camera jpegs as written by the respective camera itself, with the most neutral settings available.
Lens tests contain images with all full f-stops a lens can offer plus max aperture if that is not a full f-stop value. Body tests contain images shot with a reference quality lens at all full ISO values. Digital compact camera tests include all full f-stops and ISO steps. A comprehensive explanation of the traps and challenges that the TYE-target presents to cameras and lenses can be found in the „about us“ section of the Trust Your Eyes website as downloadable PDF file.
Free Tests:
For a good impression what a full test looks like, one can download free tests from www.trust-your-eyes.com/tests.php . Currently a bundle with the f=1.4/55mm Zeiss Otus and the f=1.4/50mm DG HSM Sigma ART is free to download (current as of 9/1/2014). Aside of the insight into the composition of a full test, these two lenses are certainly very interesting to compare with others.
Comparing preview images
The preview images on the website are certainly hinting towards where a deeper look into a lens or body might be especially revealing. A comfortable favorites management (star icon next to the product) collects previews of choice on a light table page for easy comparison. These collections can be mailed to external recipients.
For people considering the purchase of a certain lens/camera we recommend to compare the RAW files from the candidates over the full range of f-stops or ISO settings at various points of the TYE-target. While the test cameras are set to the most neutral settings available, „neutral“ in many cases means that the camera already has done a serious amount of processing. Also, the old rule of thumb that a lens performs best at two stops past wide open does not apply to all lenses. Some are wide open the sharpest, some need you to stop down to f=11. The difference in sharpness between corners and image center can be dramatic, and zooms are not equally good at all focal lengths. The testers came across a zoom where the maximum focal length suffered so badly from image degradation that the option to buy a cheaper (shorter) lens and to zoom digitally by cropping seemed like a better idea.
Trust Your Eyes tests contain a full set of images at the shortest and longest focal length, plus a popular focal length in the middle. After looking into so many tests one can say that neither price, nor brand or focal length setting and f-stop are guarantees for the best quality. Every now and then products held a very positive surprise, while others could not live up to the expectations one could have after looking at tests on other platforms.
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Kontakt
Picture Instruments – PI UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Herr Robin Ochs
Wiesenstr. 51
51371 Leverkusen
0172-2545584
press@picture-instruments.com
http://picture-instruments.com