60 to 300mm lens comparison ~ 2 Nikkors with Zhongyi Lens Turbo II, 1 Sigma, 1 Sony, 1 Tamron

I'm still in a creative funk.  I'm not inspired by much.  Maybe it's the fact I'm embroiled in trying to gain a new drivers license and it's eating all my time and all my mental space.  So, I hauled out another pair of magazine pages, taped them to a wall and compared another bunch of lenses.

Here is the (by now standard) comparison setup -

• Sony A6000, 100 ISO, AWR converted in Sony's software
• Big Beefy Manfrotto tripod
• Sigma 60mm f/2.8 EX DN E as the control optic - it's sharp sharp sharp
• Old Nikon manual focus lenses with Zhongyi Lens Turbo II
• 135mm f/2.8 pre-Ai
• 300mm f/4.5 pre-Ai
• Sony 55-210mm f/4.5-6.3 OSS E-mount
• Tamron 150-600mm f/4.5-6.3 at 257mm (according to the EXIF data)

Here are the lenses mounted on a Sony A6000:

The goal was to see under normal contrast conditions how the new and old lenses compared.  Here is the scene:

 Here are the comparison results (look at this image at full resolution to inspect the various subtle differences):
 The Sony 55-210mm lens did not focus correctly.  I used the camera's AF and something is not correct.  Look at the edges of the frame.  They're sharper than the center.  That is very typical of a lens that's mis-focused.
I did a little digging on the 'net and see other people can experience similar issues with this lens/camera combination.  I'm not sure what's going on here as the phase detection system of the A6000 supposedly operates straight off the sensor.  Furthermore, in my case at least, this condition is not persistent.  Many times when I turn on the camera the AF system works correctly with this combination (see earlier comparisons that I've performed).
All things being equal, the lenses compared here show subtle differences.  The Nikkors shot wide open aren't quite as "tack sharp" as the modern Sigma and Tamron.  In the case of the 135mm f/2.8 Nikkor, the edges of the scene are down-right fuzzy.  However, by f/5.6 it's really very difficult to tell any difference between any of them.