A history of Sony Alpha - Minolta AF 50 mm f/1.7 versus Sony DT 50 mm f/1.8 SAM
4. Image resolution
Really, even taking into account measurement errors it is difficult to find a noticeable difference between these two instruments. The Sony seems to be a tad sharper at the maximum aperture, the Minolta – in f/2.0-4.0 apertures range. Apart from that, both lenses perform neck and neck. The differences are really slight and very difficult to notice in real pictures.
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The situation at the frame edge of the A100 sensor is shown in the picture below.
Here we are a bit surprised. It seemed that the Minolta, designed to work on full frame, would fare better than the Sony but it is clearly not the case. Both lenses perform again very similarly but near the maximum relative aperture and by f/5.6 the Sony clearly wins. As you see, the Sony’s significant dimensions and its huge rear element, definitely not smaller than that of Minolta, make the lens equal of the full frame Minolta, even a bit better.
Charts are one thing but it’s always good to check how the situation looks in real pictures crops. A quite vivid comparison (based on JPEG files) is presented below. In principle, it completely confirms everything written above.
Frame center – f/1.7 – f/1.8 | |||
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Frame center – f/5.6 | |||
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Frame edge – f/1.7 – f/1.8 | |||
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Frame edge – f/5.6 | |||
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