This "Maze" effect has got to be a result of some software algorithm in the camera or post-processor running amuck trying to do some sort of anti-aliasing?
This problem does not occur when using "film lenses" on a Leica M8 (or M9), which do not have AA filters. Nor did it occur on my old color Kodak DCS series cameras.
Whatever firmware that has gone wild, is there a way to disable it? I'd rather have the moire effect that creates a couple of speckles in the image than this crazy pattern!
Looking at some sample images: you would get artifacts that look like this with some sharpening algorithms. Would in-camera, or post-processing, sharpening settings affect this artifact? A long time ago, I just learned to turn sharpening off on my Digital cameras.