Sharpest lenses for textures?

Per Inge Oestmoen said:

p5freak said:

Canon 50/1.8 is very sharp, dont be fooled by the low price, it has
excellent optics.

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As a matter of fact, even though we all would like the 50mm 1.8 to
be as good as the 50mm 1.4 USM, unortunately it is not:

http://cybaea.com/photo/lens-quality-50.html

Per Inge Oestmoen, Norway

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Thomas Gardner said:

GoranS said:

I'm having hard time to choose, I need super sharp Canon lenses, in
range of 20mm - 50mm primes, what is the best option, money is no
object.

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These shots were just taken a few moments ago to help you with your
quest.

This first shot is the back of a salad plate, depression era glass.
The back of the plate has the texture imprinted in the glass as
opposed to etched in the glass.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=1514741

The shot was handheld using available light coming from the sliding
glass door to my right. It's a sunny day with clouds. Exit Info,
1/15th, f/4.0, ISO 100 on a D30.

This second shot was just outside the front door, with the Sun
above and too the left in the Southern sky, Northern Hemisphere
Blue skies, fluffy white clouds.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=1514748

The wood is well aged, with peeling stain for excellent texturing.
Exit info; 1/250th @ f/8.0.

Hopefully these two images will help you. Image quality wise, I'd
go with the 35mm, f/2.0 as opposed to the 20mm, f/2.8. I needed a
wider lens and overall, the 20mm f/2.8 filled the bill nicely.

Canon MTF charts, listed below.

http://www.usa.canon.com/eflenses/lenses/ef_20_28/ef_20_28mtf.html

http://www.usa.canon.com/eflenses/lenses/ef_35_2/ef_35_2mtf.html

Hope this is all useful in answering your question.

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Peter Foiles said:

From your specs I would recommend any of the three 50s particularly
the 2.5 macro for your application. Next would be either the 1.4 or
2.0 35mm. I have been very happy with the sharpness of the 35/2. As
you go wider than this in my experience you loose sharpness. I
believe it is largely due to limitations of the SLR design which
forces lenses to be relatively far from the film plane to
accomadate the mirror movement. This distance forces less than
optimal optical designs for WA lenses, a big reason Leica lenses
perform so well, it is more than just the glass.

==PeterF==

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GoranS said:

I'm having hard time to choose, I need super sharp Canon lenses, in
range of 20mm - 50mm primes, what is the best option, money is no
object. I do some research by myself, but this is based only on
Canon specifications and MTF charts. Of course, I need opinion from
experienced photographer.
Lenses would be attached on 10D body and I'm going to picture some
high detailed textures of wall, ground, grass and so on... No need
for speed lenses, just sharpness.
--
Best Regards,
Goran S.

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Dan Ferrin said:

Just a guess here that you are using the textures for something
like 3d modeling and rendering, where you will be tiling the
textures. If that is the case, I would definitely recommend
shooting with one of the macro lenses. I may be not remembering
the term correctly, but I think its flat field, which is one of the
features of the macro lenses. The advantage of this is elimination
of barrel distortion and pincushioning. A tiled texture from a
lens with either kind of distortion, regardless of its sharpness,
would exhibit undesireable patterns. (I occasionally shoot
textures for my wife's 3d work)

Dan

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