Lens rentals OPTICAL TESTS summary (average on 10x lenses tested) :
AT 70MM
At 70mm there is no question the new lens is significantly better than the old version. At 10 and 20 line pairs it clearly has higher MTF, even in the center of the image. Off center, it's dramatically better at all frequencies.
AT 50MM
At 50mm (hold on to your hats, fanboys), it become pretty clear Nikon has made a design choice with the new lens, and the design choice wasn't 'let's make it look great for the bench testers'.
They've given up the absolute best center resolution in exchange for good resolution across the entire image field. So in the center 1/3 of the image, the old lens had better MTF results, but
across the remainder of the field the newer lens is far superior. Not just that the resolution is better, but there is very little astigmatism, which the old lens had in spades.
AT 24MM
At 24mm what we see is similar to 50mm, although not quite as dramatic. Center resolution is slightly decreased compared to the old version, lateral resolution is improved, and astigmatism is reduced. Actually, the area of greatest astigmatism is also shifted out towards the edge of the image, wherein the old lens it was about 2/3 of the way from center.
The new lens is dramatically better at the very edges of the image.
SUMMARY :
......this lens
has been designed to be about things other than absolute resolution.
It's about having a flat field with very equal sharpness from side-to-side, and fairly equal sharpness throughout the zoom range......
......The MTF charts suggest that it should have nice bokeh, a very smooth image with good sharpness from side-to-side, and may actually give you images that look a little different than those made with the other 24-70 f/2.8 zooms......
Read more here :
http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/201...-8-ed-af-s-vr-sharpness-optical-bench-testing
