On 9 Mar 2004 at 16:29, J. C. O'Connell wrote:
I agree with John on this. It is very obvious that unless you have lenses with infinite resolution (and you dont), that capturing ALL of the image from a 50mm lens is going to be sharper than capturing a center crop from a 33mm lens. ( 1.5 crop factor sensor) This is assuming both the 50mm and the 33mm have the same lpmm and it is not infinite.
I don't subscribe to this theory, I believe that your assumption regarding lens resolution limits is flawed.
The fact is that most lenses have an aerial resolution many times higher than the theoretical maximum resolution of the sensor therefore their part in the overall system resolution dwindles into virtual insignificance.
I agree with Rob provided we're talking about high-quality lenses (e.g., a 50mm prime on a full-frame camera and a 35mm prime on an APS-frame camera). If instead, you consider an older 28-200 super-zoom shot wide open, then you may see significant degradation due to the crop factor effect.
In practice, I would expect things like focus error and insufficient support to often be more significant than the raw lens resolution.
--Mark
