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Sensor Size and Optical Performance

On a full-frame sensor (36mm X 24mm), sharpness and contrast usually drop off towards the corners. The very best lenses minimize this drop-off, and a few outstanding ones avoid it almost entirely, while some even improve performance in the corners—optical design comes into play.

That’s not to say that a lens whose sharpness drops off in the corners is a bad lens; it all depends on design goals, which can include maximizing sharpness in the central area, maximum aperture, bokeh, distortion, etc. Everything is a tradeoff, and optical design is extremely complex when taking all these factors into account, involving as much artistry as it does science.

The diagram below depicts a full frame sensor, with inscribed rectangles depicting 1.1X, 1.3X and 1.5X sensors. The red areas show where diminished performance occurs with most of the Zeiss ZF lenses (and other brands). Keep this in mind:

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Full-frame, 1.1X, 1.3X, 1.5X sensor sizes

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