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What is the sharpest lens for Nikon

Arne Hvaring

Well-known member
Hi Willem
Since I own some of the mentioned lenses (and a D3x), here's a brief rundown:
Nikkor G 1,4/35: very sharp in the center, but has considerable curvature of field and some CA, particullarly near the edges.
Nikkor G 1,8/28: Pretty much same comments as above, but possibly too much COF for your usage.
Nikkor Ais 2,8/28: Showing its age, will not do justice to the D3x.
Zeiss ZF II 2/35: Sharp and contrasty in the center, but too much CA near edges.
Zeiss ZF II 1,4/35: Best of the lot. Modest COF, practically no CA, sharp to the edges stopped down a bit. Big, heavy, expensive and MF, but superlative IQ.
These are of course results from my samples of the lenses, YMMV.

Cheers
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
I am totally lost in this thread . Can t see how resolution could be the issue . IMHO we are solving the wrong problem . Rugs have texture,color and most important pattern. The last thing I would want to do is be correcting for lens distortion . (please let me know if you figured out to correct for wave distortion on the zeiss 21....serious question).

This is copy work just larger in scale ..the goal should be flat field ,minimum distortion and edge sharpness ..exactly like the 60/2.8 macro only with a larger fOV to minimize camera to subject distance .

Let me guess these images are used primarily for printed brochures . My wife s a designer ..I ve seen hundreds of these for all types of rugs . When you look at the images you need to be able to judge the quality of the rug ...as much is possible without having a sample .

The question should be which lens has the characteristics of a macro lens only a wider FOV.

Want better IQ than the D3X go to MF ...the other opportunity is color separation in the mid tones . Go out Architectural Digest and take a look ....lots of stuff is still large format film .

This is an example where top quality photography can directly impact the attractiveness and sales of the product .
 

pgmj

Member
The Leica Vario-Elmar-R 35-70/4 ROM is sharper than the Ultron 40. It has some distortion at the wide end though.
 

Arne Hvaring

Well-known member
I am totally lost in this thread . Can t see how resolution could be the issue .
Not sure how familiar you are with rugs, but if we are dealing with Persian ( or similar quality) carpets, (which I assume Willem is concerned about,(if not, any P&S will show the general pattern and colour)) the number of knots per square meter is an important measure of quality. To make this reasonably visible, the resolution of the image is certainly a major consideration.
 

pgmj

Member
Contax/Zeiss 35/2.8 and 28/2.8 (the latter preferably MM version), and Leica R 35/2.8 and 28/2.8 are also excellent. You need to switch mounts on the lens though, see Leica & Pentax & Nikon | Leitax

The old PC-Nikkor 35mm is supposedly very good also. Have never tried one though.
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
Not sure how familiar you are with rugs, but if we are dealing with Persian ( or similar quality) carpets, (which I assume Willem is concerned about,(if not, any P&S will show the general pattern and colour)) the number of knots per square meter is an important measure of quality. To make this reasonably visible, the resolution of the image is certainly a major consideration.
Arne

I understand exactly what he is doing . I have looked at hundreds of rug catalogs and displays .

My point is that the DIFFERENCES in resolution between most of the available Nikon mount wide angles isn t a factor shooting at 30ft set to F8 . The differences in distortion and flatness of field however are still important . Further he needs to be able to show the subtle tone separation that is present in any quality rug,fabric etc. which can be best obtained with a larger sensor and good lighting technique.

We aren t talking about comparing a p&s we are debating the performance of lenses like the Nikkor 24/1.4,24PC,21ZF ,28/1.8,35/1.4 ...at F8 they are all produce great rendering of fine detail. Now lets bring up the sample variation (which can be greater than the differences between lenses). It was my POV that this isn t the most relevant aspect of his shooting situation .
 

phero66

New member
I do copywork for mostly flat artwork and if the pieces are over a certain length it gets harder and harder to effectively light, not only that but you run out of room real quick in artist studios. My solution for pieces of this size is to use a longer focal length and shoot the larger object in sections, moving the artwork not the camera. If you are 30ft up, I imagine you are shooting in a environment that could be rigged with a rolling platform for the rugs. Simply light the shortest dimension and shoot in sections.

Working this way you get better lighting, little to no distortion, and a lot more resolution for fine detail.

Just curious why you must use a wide-angle, for far less money you could build a moving platform for the work and 100mm macro and be set. For stitching use PTgui and use these settings:

"5.6. How can I stitch mosaics, like partial scans from a flatbad scanner of a large image?
PTGui was designed for stitching panoramas, from photographs taken from a single camera viewpoint. When stitching a panorama, images are warped to correct for perspective distortion so that a seamless overlap is achieved. For mosaic-style stitching on the other hand the images should only be shifted and rotated; any perspective warping is undesirable. PTGui can be tricked to do no warping by setting the field of view of the source images to a very small value, which corresponds to a tele lens with a long focal length.

To stitch mosaics, proceed as follows: •Start a new project and load your source images
•Switch PTGui to Advanced mode using the Advanced... button on the Project Assistant
•Go to the Lens Settings tab and set the Lens type to Rectilinear. Set the Horizontal Field of View to 1 degree.
•In the Control Points menu choose 'Generate Control Points'
•Go to the Optimizer tab. Deselect the 'Optimize lens Field of View' checkbox. At 'Minimize lens distortion', choose 'Heavy'.
•Press the Run Optimizer button (at the bottom)
•Now go to the Panorama Editor window by pressing Ctrl+E (Windows) or Command+E (Mac). First press the Center Panorama button, then press the Fit Panorama button.
Your mosaic is now ready to be stitched at the Create Panorama tab."

So long as you don't try to use a shorter focal length this technique works really well.
 

Arne Hvaring

Well-known member
Arne

My point is that the DIFFERENCES in resolution between most of the available Nikon mount wide angles isn t a factor shooting at 30ft set to F8 .
Agreed, not quite clear (to me) in your previous post.

I also agree that sample variations can play a significant role. For instance I am on my second copy of the ZF II 1,4/35, the first beeing soft on the right hand side at all distances. Rare for a Zeiss lens.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Jack

Can the raw convertor really correct for curvature of field as it affects resolution?
Hi Roger,

I am pretty sure I said barrel distortion which is not curvature of field. I know of no software correcting for curvature other than excessive sharpening applied via a feathered mask which is not a correction per se. My 35 does not exhibit significant curvature once stopped down to f8. My 24 PC retains a little, but again f8 diminishes it pretty significantly, probably good enough for the type of work Rethmeier is doing -- he's not operating in the macro range ;)

Rethmeier, if your current 24 PC-E is not cutting it, you might want to try another copy.

Then:
The question should be which lens has the characteristics of a macro lens only a wider FOV.
Here I agree with the 45 pancake assessment as near ideal -- a tessar design which by default will be very flat field, low distortion and generally high contrast because of having relatively few elements. Its only downside in modern terms is they are generally slower optically than more elaborate designs.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
If you need wider than the 60 macro than I would go for the 35 1.4G which is damn sharp has some distortion that is of simple correction but about the only one or two lenses that perform very very well at even 5.6 to the corners. No matter how you slice the cheese any lens wider than 50mm your going to get some distortion, so pick one that is easy to correct out of the gate. In this situation outside the 60 macro or the 45mm PC lens which would be the better choices but being stuck with a wide than i would grab my 35 1.4 or stitch the 45 PC lens. Which i am about 10 seconds away from ordering myself. LOL
 

engel001

Member
- If you are considering a manual focus 35mm lens (that is if you use live view), the Samyang/Rokinon f1.4 lens has almost identical 1.65% barrel distortion as the Nikon, but better resolution and chromatic aberration control - at least according to Photozone. Vignetting wider open is also better with the Samyang. You can get three of this lens for the price of one Nikon. It is chipped and focusses to 0.3m.

- Does anybody here have practical experience with the Samyang/Rokinon 35mm?

- I have had both Voigtlanders, the 20mm and the 40mm, and neither convinced in the periphery. A new Voigtlander 28mm Aspherical is coming, perhaps that will be better.

- Regarding your existing 24-70mm, there may be a focal length between 24mm and 40mm with zero distortion. It is 3% barrel at 24mm and 1% pincushion at 40mm.
 

drb

New member
You might try to get a copy of the newest Hartblei Super Rotator, it's a Zeiss lens and exceptional. It does shift and tilt too. The copy I got to demo was excellent corner to corner at f5.6 zeroed. Resolution falls off rapidly after about 5 or 6mm of shift however, but by all appearances an excellent lens.

The other lens I really like is my 35/1.4 AFS G. It is excellent after f4, and probably about equal to the 85 PC-E, little bit of barrel that is easily corrected.

I have an excellent copy of the 24 PC-E, but they do show sample variation, so you have to shop carefully.
Which Hartblei were you trying (40mm, 80mm, or 120mm)? Did resolution on shifting past 6mm hold up better when it was stopped down past 5.6?
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
drb:

I demoed all three. The 40 and the 80 both fell off after 6mm of shift, but the 40 fell off to pretty mushy, beyond what I would say is usable. The 80 fell off notably, but possibly still usable for some. Neither cleaned up by stopping down -- I would say for all intents and purposes they were limited to 6mm shift. The 120 was pretty impressive corner to corner and remained very good fully shifted.
 

Fredrick

Active member
drb:

I demoed all three. The 40 and the 80 both fell off after 6mm of shift, but the 40 fell off to pretty mushy, beyond what I would say is usable. The 80 fell off notably, but possibly still usable for some. Neither cleaned up by stopping down -- I would say for all intents and purposes they were limited to 6mm shift. The 120 was pretty impressive corner to corner and remained very good fully shifted.
Where could I aquire any of these lenses?
 

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
Rethmeier, if your current 24 PC-E is not cutting it, you might want to try another copy.
What were the problems you had with the less than good copies? I'm wondering if it's something demonstrable (like one side softer than the other) that Nikon will fix under warranty.
 

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
Point to remember here, is that I am shooting from 15ft above,hence a wide-angle needed.
This means a 50mm lens will cover a rug that's 15ft in diagonal, a 35mm lens will cover one that's 15ft long, and a 24mm lens will cover one that's 15ft wide. Even 15ft long is pretty sizeable, and 15ft wide is huge.

What's the size of your subject? In general, a lens closer to 50 will perform best in terms of flatness of field, absence of complex distortion, and lack of coma in the corners.
 
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