18mm ZM v 18mm Leica v 17mm TSE V WATE?

[GicleeM]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

On the Leica M240 at f8 which of these 4 options is the sharpest in the mid to far frame regions WITH CA correction in LR 5.X active?

 

Please disregard other issues such as distortion and the fact you need another Canon body if the f number needs changing.

 

Also disregard the Samyang 14mm and both Zeiss 15mm optics, the CV's and the 21 SEM.

 

Is it true that the 18mm options from both Leica and Zeiss never sharpen fully in the corners like the 21 and 24 SEM do.

[jaapv]

Sharpness is not a quantifiable lens charactristic. Do you mean resolution, microcontrast, macro contrast or something else? You could try checking MTF curves, but then again those cannot really be compared between brands....

[GicleeM]

Lets not over complicate this, I think the average photographer knows what I mean.

 

MFT is a meaningless indicator of performance between brands and it has even less meaning after more recent versions of LR and PS that do CA correction. It is even further diminished using such things as DXO Optics whereby sharpness is not uniformly applied over the width.

 

Todays clean senors survive much more USM and corners that were fuzzy now often yeild good results. An example in question is Nikons 16-35 F4, after DXO a good copy looks far better over the entire frame than two Zeiss 21mm copies in my possession on a D800E or Sony A7R

 

The only true indicator is what we see after the RAW conversion. So then at F8 what do you see?

[jaapv]

At f8? No difference at all....

I think I rate the average photographer a bit higher than you do...

[gpwhite]

On the Leica M240 at f8 which of these 4 options is the sharpest in the mid to far frame regions WITH CA correction in LR 5.X active?

......

Is it true that the 18mm options from both Leica and Zeiss never sharpen fully in the corners like the 21 and 24 SEM do.

 

I have only shot the Leica M lenses on your list. If this helps you, f/8 is not the "sharpest" or best aperture for the SEM 18mm. You may pick up some DOF, depending upon your composition, but the lens is most brilliant at f/5.6.

 

As good as the SEM 18 is, the Elmar 24 is a bit brighter and certainly has better definition, color alignment (focus) and precision at the corners.

 

It has not been my experience, nor others who have posted, that ACR or its ilk can remedy all of the color aberrations in corners of very WA M lenses. The photographer must be careful with lighting of the corners in order to avoid the demons that lurk in these shadowy areas.