DA 55-300 on a Q: surprisingly respectable sharpness

...though it'll probably be impossible to get results anything like this in the field.

Anyway, here we have a 100% crop from a DA 55-300 on a tripod with a Q on the back, diaphragm closed down one stop, incandescent light, manually focused, triggered by infrared, at ISO 400... Andrew Jackson's right eye on a twenty dollar bill at about eight feet:

As you can see, this lowly consumer zoom, when subjected to the ruthless scrutiny of the Q's tiny sensor, is quite capable of maintaining its self-respect. The blur radius is larger than one pixel, but not a huge amount larger, and it's nearly as good wide open as it is now at f8.

High-contrast bits show a halo or fringe or coma effect, but finer detail shows through it pretty easily. And it might do better in sunlight than I could manage with a desk lamp. I conclude that this lens is, in terms of sharpness, not at all unusable.

The focal length of 300mm, though, might be quite unusable. It's incredibly unwieldy to aim at anything, even a still target, and focus. Even on a tripod the image shakes with every footstep, on a ​concrete slab floor​. I might want to limit my ambitions to the 135 to 200 range.

Also, I need a loupe.  I can't seem to track down a good recommendation for which to use.

--
Q with 02 zoom and cheap K adapter
K10D, Sig 17-70, DA 55-300, FA 50/1.4 "Billy Bass"
discards: DA 50-200 "zipper", F 100-300, Sigma 135-400 "piglet", M 400/5.6 "the Great Truncheon"