Agreed Jan. Some of the lens profiles do a good job with this type of distortion, some do not. The one Nikon lens that was easy to handle, very compact and had reasonable sharpness, especially in the center of the frame was the Nikon AF 18mm f2.8. Mustache distortion was horrible though and the profiles I tried some time ago were medicore at best. The one for the Zeiss 21mm f2.8 is better.Yes, that's why the supplied profiles make it the preferred distortion, because it takes the attempt out of it.
As for the other ongoing discussion regarding defraction limits and what impact they have on large format prints...from my lengthy experience printing "big" from an enormous diversity of files, I've always taken a lens performance on a given camera body on a case by case basis. Sometimes shooting well beyond where defraction sets in is preferable due to increase in depth of field and what is possible lost in absolutely image quality (as seen at 100% on a monitor), maybe be obsecured by other stronger image elements when viewed in a large print.. Then there are other times, where critical shapness at the focus plane must be achieved for a given subject and shooting at f5.6-f8 in order to minimize diffraction is advantagous.. It all depends on what the objectives are for a particular image and how it's going to be used in terms of output.
I've found there is no one fast rule for what works best and what "should" or "must" be used.
Dave (D&A)
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