Is There Too Much Emphasis on Lens Sharpness?

Aging Wine in Oak Barrels, Sonoma County, CA

Wow!  That lens is really sharp! That lens is tack sharp! That lens is sharp wide open! That lens is sharp in the middle and sharp on the edges!  That lens is sharpest at two stops down from wide open! Is there too much emphasis on sharpness?

I admit, I'm guilty of this way of thinking also, but at least I'm thinking about it and trying to understand why.

It seems that everywhere I read on the Internet about camera lenses, especially newly introduced ones, the emphasis is on how sharp an image the lens produces.  I don't seem to find many comments on the overall quality of image that can be created with a lens.  It is almost like a sharp lens is the end all to be all and will create a better photograph. We know it won't.  There might by a technical image quality difference, but the content of the photograph, to me, is much more important than just how sharp a lens is.

Have you looked at some of the most meaningful images by Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, W. Eugene Smith and others from the past?  Many of the most important photographs ever made are not "tack" sharp.  The lenses used by the best photographers of the past would get miserable ratings by today's standards.  But their images are more important than the sharpness of the lens they used.  I'm not sure why we grasp onto sharpness like it is going to make a difference in the photographs we make.

Also, are there no other aspects of lens design that produces a pleasing image other than sharpness?  What about smooth transitions of out-of-focus (OOF) areas?  What about distortion? What about aberrations? What about color transmission?  What about resistance to flare? What about micro contrast?  On and on...

In my view, almost without exception, every lens produced today will produce technically wonderful images. Maybe, we as a photographic community, should put more emphasis on what we do with the lenses rather than the technical quality of the lens itself.  Maybe that will further photography in a meaningful way in that we produce more meaningful images.

If you buy a lens today, it will produce a technically better image than most photographers are capable.  Buy your lens and go out and make images with the most meaningful content you can.

Thanks for looking.  Enjoy!

Dennis Mook

Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com.  Please pay it a visit.  Thank you.


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