Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:38 am
I dare to contradict here, as much as I also like to judge lenses by their 'feeling' too.
A mirror helps normally, you just keep it flat on the chart and center the camera in the mirror image. A lens must be extremely de-centered if that doesn't fit. Trust me, I have checked such situations by measuring the distance to the corners for reproduction purposes. A chart will then actually show you if there is de-centering by showing differences of focus in the corners.
Sure, many lenses, wides in particular, are not flat-field. But you can still check them by adjusting the focus and you'll even see how strong the curvature is. BTW, there are lenses which can adjust the field curvature.
Finally, I print my test charts in different sizes, a large one for the wides and a smaller one for longer lenses.
Any lens with acceptable quality should be good enough when you can keep some distance.
Of course, quality at infinity is another subject.
And then, a camera with 12K photocells will challenge any lens. Heck, a Red One with 4.5K was clearly showing the difference between a Zeiss compact prime and a master prime – and they were considered soft by many because of their strong OLPF.
Now that the cat #19 is out of the bag, test it as much as you can and use the subforum.
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