Zeiss 120mm f/4 Makro-Planar for Hasselblad (talk about sharpness!! and a very useful focal length) and the 24-70mm f/2.8 for Canon (speed and versatility in one package, though it's a bit heavy, manual override in AF is a nice feature) are my regular favorites, along with the 50mm f/1.4 for Canon (allows me to shoot in almost any available lighting condition and may well be my sharpest 35 format lens, 2 "L" zooms included). The nicest lenses I ever used were the 40mm f/4 Distagon for the Hasselblad, the 50mm f/1.0 for Canon, and 120mm f/8 Schneider Super-Angulon for 4x5, but I do not own or regularly use either.
Really, though, this is polishing the soles of your shoes. The best lens is the one that resolves sharply enough with enough contrast to be acceptable for your purposes, and otherwise suits your purposes (angle of view/perspective, speed, weight are the primary factors in my opinion). Your images can only be as sharp as your lens resolves them, but the vast majority of images are well below that for a variety of other reasons having nothing to do with your lens. Most modern lenses can produce a very sharp picture under ideal conditions, and no lens in the world can produce a sharp image if conditions are far from ideal.
Besides, sharpness is not always a virtue. In the end, it's the photographer that makes the photograph, not the equipment.
|