Lens Sharpness

[Michael Reichmann]

Wondering what is the sharpest lens around?

Should you switch camera brands to get sharper lenses?

How about prime lenses instead of zooms. Are they sharper?

Have a look at http://www.luminous-landscape.com/sharp.htm for the answers.

Michael

The Luminous Landscape

[Roland]

Your color photos are extremely good. I didn't even bother to read what you
wrote, though. Surely you know that the required enlargement size is all
important. A little photo made up of color pixels on some small part of a
monitor screen could have been taken using the bottom of a broken coke
bottle as the lens and still give a satisfactory image.

"Michael Reichmann" <mreic...@rogers.com> wrote in message
news:7d39d86d.02022...@posting.google.com...

[Webmarketing]

It's hard to understand what you mean by lens sharpness since it is a pretty
broad term. Most of us would rate it as "corner sharpness" which compares
the corners of the frame to the center of the frame (which is always sharp.)

As you stop down any lens, the corner sharpness improves (the differences
between the corners and the center get smaller.) If you accept this
definition then yes, prime lenses are sharper than zooms all other things
being equal (things like focal length, aperture, basic design quality.)
Usually zooms have to be stopped down to a smaller aperture than a fixed
lens of the same focal length in order to get similar "corner sharpness."

So the sharpest lens around would likely be the slowest because it has a
smaller front element and less front element curvature. I'm not sure which
lens that might be. Normally, though, you can get similar "sharpness" by
stopping down a faster lens so it may be an academic issue rather than a
practical one.

Should you switch camera brands to get a "sharper" lens. No, but you may
want to switch lenses within that brand.

Fred
Photo Forums
http://www.photoforums.net

"Michael Reichmann" <mreic...@rogers.com> wrote in message
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