In article <4c3r4j$7jr@rebecca.albany.edu>, dr8192@CNSVAX.ALBANY.EDU says...
>In article <4c2a7a$3hh@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz>, carr@elec.canterbury.ac.nz (Jonathan Carr) writes:
>>tempting). However, the lens seems
>>very soft at the corners (wide-open) when looking through my EOS 1
>>viewfinder. At >F8 it looks better. I have found one lens report in
>>the EOS Faq which suggests that the lens is quite good. Does anyone >>have comments on this lens?
> I work for a large gov't entity that is cutting
> back, deeply. Since my job is at risk, I would
> appreciate if any and all of you out there who
> judge lenses to be inferior by your viewfinder
> image would please sell me these doggy lenses
> so I can start my own photo store and make a
> fine living, pay my mortgage, and buy dog food.
> Thanks for your business. Email immediately !
> Operators are standing by at: dr8192@cnsvax.albAny.edu

:-),:-)! But your point is well taken! There is VERY little about a
lens that can be determined using the viewfinder alone. Modern VF's
(and older ones, too) have too many deficiencies: inaccurate framing
(off-center, not full area of film, occasional frame rotation), soft
edges and corners with short focal-length lenses (and sometimes soft
centers, in the poorer designs), linear distortion (usually
pincushion type), occasional disagreement between film and VF focus
(more obvious with short lenses - plus the lens mount to film distance
may be in error, making it appear that the lens does not focus
properly to infinity [again, more obvious with short lenses]), illumination problems with short lenses (that could be attributed
to the lens rather than the VF), and probably others. (I do find that
the Nikon F3 finder is good enough [in a checked body] to evaluate
infinity focus, lens distortion, edge-to-edge (and corner-to-corner,
on a good day) lens alignment, field curvature, and stopped-down lens/filter/shade vignette. Totally meaningless is an attempt to
evaluate sharpness (unless it is grossly bad), contrast etc., even
with this excellent finder (many a lens looks great in the finder,
but bad in testing - or the other way around).
Hope this helps.