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[OM] Re: Questions, Re: When is enough enough? ...

Subject: [OM] Re: Questions, Re: When is enough enough? ...
From: "John A. Lind" <jlind@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 12:43:09 -0500
In all the years I've been on the list I've not found definitive lab 
testing of the Zuiko lenses; OM or PEN.  The closest to results from an 
optical bench in a lab is Gary Reese's lens tests:
   http://members.aol.com/olympusom/lenstests/default.htm

I find his method interesting as it combines some formal testing elements 
with more practical aspects that reveal what one might expect in use under 
optimal conditions.  Pure lab testing is just that and it only gives what 
it theoretically possible, not what is practically achieveable in a system 
of lens, body and film.

IMVHO you won't find much formal MTF data on any manufacturer's lenses with 
a couple notable exceptions for a variety of reasons, not the least of 
which is the Marketing Department's Marketroids who don't want factual data 
to interfere with or confuse the masses about the credibility of the 
Marketing Hype.

It's what the purchaser *believes* that sells, not what is necessarily 
Truth or Reality!  Don't you know by now?  If **only** one has the right 
lenses, bodies and film, one's photographs will **all** be perfect; 
deserving of Pulitzer Prizes and World Acclaim.  It matters not who is 
actually holding the camera.

-- John Lind

At 10:03 AM 10/18/04, Roland wrote:
>Hi AG,
>
>interesting.
>
>Do you know where I could get a copy of the chart that you are using ? I 
>wanted to do some resolution testing myself. Maybe a scanned tiff file 
>that I can print out ? How does the experiment look, i.e. distance from 
>the lens, etc. ?
>
>I have always wondered how the typical lines/mm numbers translate into 
>MPixels. A good lens has a resolution of anywhere between 30 and 100 
>lines/mm. If you translate this to Mpixels, on 35mm Film this gives 
>roughly anywhere between 800 kPixels and 8 MPixels.When people compare 
>film to digital they mostly compare film grain to chip resolution.I never 
>understood this as the above numbers show that the lens should be the 
>limiting factor on a digital camera with more than 5 MPixels (> 100 lns/mm 
>is rare, and easily impacted by attached filters, dust on the lens, etc). 
>I always thought I missed something as I have seen good larger prints of 
>photos taken with lenses with a resolution of less than 50 lines/mm. 
>Forgive me if I just misunderstand the experiment setup used to collect 
>the above resolution information.
>
>I have found charts for various lenses (Russian and Leitz lenses, for 
>instance) including lines/mm. I was always looking for such charts for 
>Zuiko lenses (including PEN lenses). Does anybody on the list know if such 
>information is available ?
>
>Thanks
>
>Roland.


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