The Nikon's MTF charts and also the LensTip MTF50 (perceived sharpness test) on 24MP FF seem ok, but...
I assume that the f5.6 aperture will be a limit for maximal resolution here, a f2.8 or f4 will always be able to deliver more resolution. And in this case the lens rather then camera, might be the limit when reaching 45MP (or 20MP on DX).
I just wonder if there will be much point using D850 or D500 on this lens considering image sharpness and resolution. My feeling is that using a D750 in 1.5x crop mode (10MP) might look as sharp as D500's 20MP scaled down to 10MP.
Lens resolution capability is of course the $64,000 question :brains:
We already have ~50MP full frame cameras - Canon 5DS R, Nikon D850, and now Z7, along with the Sony a7R III ...... and we know higher resolution (~70-80MP, and maybe up to 100MP or so soon after) cameras are on the way (probably for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics) from Nikon, Sony, and Canon. We don't know what Pentax have planned and whether they will continue to mix it up with the big boys, and then there's Panasonic too - I imagine they will be taking it right to Sony and won't be taking a backwards step on resolution.
~50MP corresponds roughly to an APS-C resolution of ~20-24MP, but about 4 years ago we already had the amazing 28MP Samsung NX-1. At say ~70MP FF , we will be up over 30MP APS-C .....
We already have two diffractive optics lenses to suit these hi res FF cameras - the Canon 400 f4 DO ISII , and the Nikon 300 f4 PF. I haven't heard of any resolution brick walls for these diffractive lenses on these ~ 50MP cameras, even with 1.4xTC's attached - taking them out to f5.6.
This new Nikon 500 f5.6 PF certainly is a 'focused' wee-beastie ..... it seems that it will spend all it's time in practice living in the rather narrow f5.6 - f6.3 - f7.1 - f8 aperture range of peak IQ. A rather thin margin. Given it's sharpness wide open, and the fact that it will be mostly used by birders/ distant wildlife photographers, this shouldn't be a problem. I don't know if you would ever run into depth of field limitations (IQ drop) on say oblique shots of large animals like bull elephants etc.
The manufacturers have known that higher resolution sensors have been coming for a while now .... I don't think it's so much the sensor technology, design, and manufacture that holds them back, but rather the camera's central processors, architecture, and storage medium capacities and speeds, as well as things like heat dissipation.
You would think that they have the corresponding resolution parameters of their lenses up to standard to suit and future proofed - certainly the new S series of Nikon lenses for the Z mount mirrorless cameras have been designed with that capacity, and I would bet Canon's MkIII's too. Being a 2018 released design that's not exactly in the bargain basement, you would hope that the PF range of lenses has been designed to cope with these upcoming hi res cameras too .....
Just to be on the safe(r) side though - Nikon had better get that super secret 600mm f4 PF out
Chosun :gh: