Eric,Given that we burn the corners in, does it really matter that the lens isn't sharp in the corners. All this corner sharpness is great hype from the lens companies, but in the darkroom we show them who is boss and burn the corners. I couldn't care less about the corners. However, your point that wide open the lens isn't sharp strikes a nerve. What's happening where things are important seems more vital than all unneeded concern about the corners.
Doug On Dec 11, 2009, at 8:59 PM, Eric Goldstein wrote:
The uncoated Sonnar 50/1/5 is a great lens with great character, but it is far from sharp wide open and away from the center. Eric GoldsteinOn Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 8:49 PM, CarlosMFreaza <cmfreaza@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:2009/12/11 Stephen Attaway >To quote from Ivor Matanle: "The portrait of Mr Robert Cox was taken in 1974to mark his fifty years of service to his company ... with a 50mm f1.5 uncoated Zeiss Sonnar, and shows perfectly the curious characteristic ofdefined yet slightly unsharp detail that makes the optical quality of classic lenses so attractive."I tend to disagree with Ivor Matanle, the uncoated Zeiss Sonnar 1.5/50 was designed to be a very sharp lens, in general lens designers look for lenses to produce an image as close to the real image as possible, it means aberrations free, sharp and the best micro-contrast, except lenses for special purposes. It's true some old lenses produce pleasant images thanks to some no well corrected aberrations (I think about portraits specially), but they couldn't be the standard to obtain a good image. This is a sample about a snapshot "portrait" taken with the uncoated Contax II Sonnar 1.5/50 _wide open_ f1.5 and 1/1250 sec shutter speed , I think the in focus areas show very good detail for a 71 years old uncoated lens despite a scanner not so good for 35mm : http://www.flickr.com/photos/itarfoto/3199809044/ Carlos --- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org- Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list--- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
--- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list