Nikon 120mm macro, wide open

[Rider]

I don't imagine a 120mm macro lens was meant to be used this way, but I wanted to see the limit of what this lens can do. Even though it's not supposed to, it seems to very nearly cover the 4x5 frame, and at f5.6! The film is Polaroid 55 (positive) scanned on a Canoscan 8400F. The surface anomalies are from the Polaroid print coating that I applied to protect the surface of the print.

[Ron Marshall]

It covers; pretty soft, but not unpleasant.

[Rider]

Is the softness from the fact that it's not covering the full frame, or because it's shot at f5.6 (and the edges of the frame are out of focus)?

[Jack Flesher]

The issue is one of coverage versus illumination. Manufacturers routinely spec IC to some resolution cut-off point, yet many lenses will illuminate significantly larger IC's than the manufacturers spec. If the resolution fall-off is smooth, it is often pleasant enough to allow the image to work, like for a portrait.

Cheers,

[Rider]

The issue is one of coverage versus illumination. Manufacturers routinely spec IC to some resolution cut-off point, yet many lenses will illuminate significantly larger IC's than the manufacturers spec. If the resolution fall-off is smooth, it is often pleasant enough to allow the image to work, like for a portrait.

Cheers,


Thank you for the explanation.