They are also barrel lenses so they will require extensive modification before they can be mounted on a camera. If you have large stack of cash laying about, I think that you might be able to find some, but it will take some patience. They were the sharpest Nikkors ever made and came with certification for the resolution of each lens made. I am surprized that nobody has mentioned the Ultra Micro Nikkor Barrel lenses. I got group 7, element 6 on a transilluminated Edmund NT38-257 (USAF 1951 on glass) target with the following, all wide open: 16/2.5 Luminar s/n 4189491 27:1 10x Beck flat mount microscope objective, NA 0.17, 25:1 19/2.8 MacroNikkor s/n 19061 15:1 and a 19.5/3.85 B&L microfilm reader lens 27:1. Pretty trivial means a couple of lp/mm one way or the other, a difference that makes no difference in practice.Ībout Vivek's comments, I'm not sure I agree. With the best technique, including using the lenses at their 'best' apertures, the differences in resolution on film between good lenses of the same focal length and maximum aperture is pretty trivial. As Chris Perez, who's tested a lot of medium and large format lenses, has commented, the sharpest lens is a tripod. Sharpness is nice, but in practice film is limiting, poor technique even more limiting. You are better off hanging a large format lens at a even lower aperture.Īs others have already said, the question that launched this thread is, um, ill-considered. When it comes to 'real life' photography, however, 55mm f/3.5 is not the best choice IF you are going to shoot with this lens at f/11 and the like. Much later, controlled tests with a proper resolution target confirmed all the suspicions. One or two years later, I got hold of the original Nikon data that reinforced what I found accidentally. When I picked out the sharpest photos from those, they all seemed to fit a pattern. I went through several rolls of film with it. He tested it for infinity and deemed it to be the worst lens he had.

Several years ago, this lens was dumped on me by my neighbour (not for free!). Based only on resolution, among the F-mount lenses, the micronikkor 55mm f/3.5 (for the given mag, aperture) is the sharpest. The sharpest Nikkors are the ones that I own!'Īrnab, That is very true! I do test the lenses 'I own' and I do not go with anyone else's preferences or list.

'Who ever did a side-by-side comparison of all Nikon lenses?

Sharpest nikon lenses ken rockwell