Hi!
It would appear from the most recent talk that Sharpness is more or less __the__ most important characteristic of the lens. However, from previous talks it has become my understanding that Pentax do not optimize their lenses specially for sharpness (except may be macro lenses and such). Pentax, AFAIU, optimize their lenses for plasticity, or overall smoothness of the picture.
OTOH, Nikon are known for having their lenses tack sharp all over the frame. At least this is what I have accumulated in my small knowledge bag so far.
Please unconfuse me - why all this talk about sharpness? I do realize that for digital lenses should be very sharp. Or at least, it would be a reasonable thing - to want one's lenses to be sharp. But sharpness is not all, right?
Most recently I've sold my Soligor C/D 70-222/3.5 lens in favor of my Pentax SMC F 70-210/4.0-5.6. It could very well be that Soligor is sharper on some apertures. It is faster too. However it has rather ugly bokeh - at least to my taste, and general zoomish taste on the pictures I've been able to take with it. Pentax lens however is very smooth, very 3D, very pleasant. It is also lighter, has AF and is of course fully compatible with my MZ-6's electronics. It also allows for use of built-in flash at least for some of the focal distances. But this is already tech-talk.
Still, why to be so aware of sharpness? I mean, if one wants sharpness, perhaps one should look for 3rd party lenses specially optimized for sharpness.
Please unconfuse me.
Thanks.
Boris
