Very interesting discussion of contrast vs resolution, or the compromise. Not sure I have my mind wrapped around it all yet.

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Steve

I wonder if that's part of what makes people feel a lens has "clinical" rendering. High sharpness without as much contrast would make an image look very clear, but also somewhat flat and untextured.

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500px | flickr

“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” -- Dorothea Lange

You may see the difference between legacy and native lenses of the same focal length. The native lenses resolve more, but they also don't have the contrast of the legacy lens--if it is a good legacy lens the image overall will have a bit more punch to it. The smaller the sensor, the greater need to emphasize resolution.

You can think of contrast as the amplitude of a signal and the resolution as the frequency. As the frequency increases, the amplitude decreases. Would you rather preserve the high amplitude at the expense of the frequency or go to a high frequency with a loss of amplitude. This gets into point spread functions and a lot of higher math that is beyond my pay grade. I am naturally painting with a broad brush as there is a lot that goes into the image formation and then the processing of that image. USM can be thought of a spacial frequency filter that can bring back some of the loss of contrast, for example.

I'm going to ignore what you just wrote, and go with your earlier post The first post I could understand

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EM5; 9-18, PL25, 100-300 and some others.
(also, 6D + RX100)

I have posted this link before, but i like it!:)
I was just as a lot of people having a hard time deciding
Between these two. But this site helped me alot:

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1057283

It does not explain all about the "magical rendering" but a bit of it maybe.

I just picked up a 25mm too.

But I did it because I needed and wanted something 50mm equiv. and this was the only choice at the moment. I could wait for the rumoured Olympus 25mm, but even if it materializes it would mean that I miss out on all the photos I could have taken between today and TBD.

All taken with 25mm 1.4

MTF (modulation transfer function) plots are very revealing in comparing contrast versus resolutuion. Sadly, many lens manufacturers do not readily provide them or they do but in formats not particularly helpful in this respect (like center versus edge).

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E-P1 now displaced by E-M5. GAS has passed. Critique is welcome but better make it harsh or I won't take you seriously.
My Minus Pages My lame website ...some photos
www.sporktography.com

Donsantos: #3 is an exceptionally good example for what I like about this lens (no idea if that's the "Leica look")

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EM5; 9-18, PL25, 100-300 and some others.
(also, 6D + RX100)

Classic Leica rendering.


nikki_Summar_f2 by anachronist1, on Flickr

Highly color corrected, low-contrast. 1934 Summar wide-open.

A 1954 9cm F4 Elmar collapsible on the Leica M8, wide-open.


Leica M8, Collapsible Elmar 9cm F4 collapsible, wide-open by anachronist1, on Flickr

And a Summarit 5cm f1.5, wide-open on the M9, optimized for wide-open use across the focus range. I changed the focal length of this lens.


Flower and Visitor by anachronist1, on Flickr

Lower contrast tends to prevent blown highlights and maintains shadows. Especially nice for digital.