Originally Posted by
Ed Erkes
I have to respectfully and strongly disagree with Chas on this statement. In fact it really doesn't make any sense to me at all. There are a lot of factors that affect the apparent and real sharpness of an image. Lens quality, ISO used, soft or hard light, direction of lighting, use of flash, etc. A close-up image taken with a macro lens will be sharper than one taken with a zoom and 2-element close-up diopter--but both images are acceptably sharp and can make very nice large prints. Two photographers could take a photo of the same subject with same lens, same aperture, in low light at ISO 800, and, depending upon the camera used (say a Nikon D300 and a Nikon D3)--one might obtain a significantly sharper image than the other--but both images again could be acceptably sharp. Chas, are you saying all your keepers are equally sharp? If they aren't equally sharp, then you are definitely dealing with gray areas.