Originally Posted by bob williams
Ok, resurrected thread, I know, but it's an interesting (and unanswered) question. My guess would be no, camera bodies do not have the same copy-dependent output. Both cameras and lenses come off assembly lines, so yes, there will be variances and tolerances. The difference is that for a camera, the copy-to-copy differences are unlikely to have an optical effect, since just about everything in the camera that affects the quality of image capture is electronic (where tolerances are much tighter than for mechanical components or their assembly). The primary 'mechanical' effect, I think, would be positioning of the sensor relative to the lens mount (determining where the focal plane is relative to where it should be, by design) - and any variance there can be 'corrected' with AF Microadjustment on recent bodies. All of the metering systems, etc., are basically self-correcting (due to TTL measurements) with the camera's electronics. Lenses, on the other hand, have many more components that directly affect image formation. Optical elements may have small imperfections, be mis-angled or misaligned with one another, etc.
Just my 2¢.
--John
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