Joe, I have been using Canon for 30 years. And even they have made some pigs. Nikon, Pentax, Olympus all have their share. So has Hassy, Mamiya etc. I have used all of it and then some. I have ran rental departments, sold and resold gear and seem some real doozies from the makers of camera gear. It has nothing to do with price. But all that being said the first area to look at is always behind the camera. What sharpeness setting do you have the camera set to? Also if you are getting softness around the edges in digital at the widest apertures have you tested other lenses so see if it the body? May I suggest a standard 50 mm 1.5 lens set to f/8 or f/11 and what ever shutter speed is correct for the scene. That will either rule out the camera body or not. Most zooms have some softness around the edges with film. But you camera (EOS 1D Mk2 N ?) should not see much if any of that becuase it is not full frame. There are so darn many variables that without actually seeing your test images it is going to be tough to assist you. What ever you do, don't depend on a print for sharpness testing. Also you need to know that Nikon and Canon have very different coatings so color and contrast are remarkably different. This will show up better if you shot both side by side with slide film. So if you are expecting your digtal images from Canon to look like your trannies from Nikon you are in for a suprise. Also Nikon and Canon digital images do not look alike. The contrast range is different. Nikon uses completely different algorithms to determine color and contrast range. This can equate to the differance in papers used in printing. When printing the old Cibachrome very high gloss papers your images looked "sharper" even though in actuality they were not. Each of the two camps use different sharpening techniques to bring the image apperant sharpness. Many folks who start shooting Canon digital complain that the image is not sharp from the camera. That is the way it is supposed to look. Canon wants you to be able to sharpen the image and control contrast as you see fit. Please do not get caught up in small stuff to start. You will find frustrataion around every bend if you do. I did not like the way my 10d rendered images. Plane and simple. I think it sucked. I really did like my D30 better. But like you, I just bought a 1Dmk2n and I am extremely happy for that. But it also caused me to go and buy a new computer and monitor to handle the images. The default sharpness setting for our cameras is 3. How is yours set. Film had no setting. In testing those lenses, once you have ruled out the body, you need to test it with at least one other digital body and one film body. This can be done in your camera store. You may have to return those lenses and get two others that are more to your liking. I have a friend that shoots Nikon and he went over 3 500 mm lenses before he was satisified. The all fall within a quality range, some are at the top of the range some may have had to go back and be reworked before they passed QA & shipped out. I would be glad to help you off line if needed I am up in San Jose. But Canon has its repair facility right there in LA. Les
