Ah, so it was a 'known thing' - the whole idea of doing that
deliberately appealed to me as clever market engineering.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 14/11/2008, at 4:58 PM, Moose wrote:
> Andrew Fildes wrote:
>> A nice Oly senior sales/tech. exec. told me something interesting
>> about the 18mm which might improve its cult status.
>> Apparently they deliberately made it slightly soft in the centre
>> to make the edges seem sharper.
>> The idea was to create an illusion of edge-to-edge sharpness in a
>> lens that had no right to be that.
>> I can no longer check that but it might be worth investigating.
>>
> Some truth to it. And it's not new information. The 18/3.5 is indeed
> sharper further out than in the middle.
>
> Gary had already noted in his test "lens design emphasizes outer zones
> at expense of center image zone (which gives a sharper overall
> impression of an image)"
>
> In Mike Hatam's comparison test, the 18/3.5 was not far off the famous
> Zeiss 18/4 in the center, pretty much a tie in the mid zone and
> whupped
> the Zeiss in the corner. It handily beat the Canon 16-35/2.8L
> everywhere. <http://www.16-9.net/lens_tests/18mm_testb.html>
>
> A new Leica 19mm and the new 16-35 II beat the Oly, but are, of
> course,
> decades later designs. I don't know what Zuiko example was in that
> more
> recent test, but it's middle range doesn't seem right, or up to the
> one
> Mike tested.
>
> Looking at it vs. a more contemporary design in the Zeiss, I'd say
> only
> a tiny bit softer in the center in order to get outstanding outer
> zones.
>
> Moose
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