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Aperture Series: Dolls
Sony A7R II, firwmare version 3.1.
This finely detailed scene was shot about a dozen times to check and cross-check, optimizing the zone of focus to intersect the key areas as optimally as possible. A number of behaviors became clear:
- Something around 1mm of focus difference at this ~1 meter shooting range makes a significant difference in sharpness at any given area.
- Focusing at 12.5X suggests that “through MTF” differs for fine detail versus coarse details. That is to say: peak MTF for coarse and medium structures has a slightly different best focus position than peak MTF for fine structures. This could be observed firsthand when experimentally focusing on the resolution bars.
- The Sony 85/1.4 is sharp into the corners wide open. But the chances of getting the zone of focus within 1mm at center, mid zones and corners is just about nil, even by arranging objects to “fit” (as here). Add in focus shift and it’s a crap shoot.
- In outer areas of the frame, there is a pronounced focus shift. This explains my consternation in trying to compare with the Batis 85/1.8.
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