When lens reaches around 95 percent of desirable sharpness in it’s DOF then it’s considered useful. When comparing sharpness in that 5% range it’s true modern lenses usually beats older. But this isn’t important for anyone else then lens sharpshooters. The point is in lens design and MF AF difference. Older MF lenses produced in 10.000pcs or even less are nowdays sought due to their unique vision. One could say these are eyes with soul. AF lenses have more then 13 elements which results in compressed detail and fake bokeh. I was sure for a while that folks using top CANON lenses blur their background due to it’s soft character. Well, i don’t like it :)! 5-7 elements optical designs mostly make “harder”, swirly bokeh that i prefer.

Then there is another point in MF lenses. They have faults in special (or not so special) conditions – they are not multipurpose. All new lenses tend (try really hard) to be multipurpose. That takes some of the magic away again. One has to know the classic lens to produce good results! I see so many demo photos of vintage lenses that i know they are soo untrue since photographer used lens in totally unappropriate conditions. One must take into account the angle of light, the color of light… AF lenses admirer hates flares, MF lenses fan seeks and create them.

Many dared to try vintage lenses. They picked a lemon (faulty sample) and gave up sadly. For example: i had 5x Zeiss Flektogon 2.8/35mm. All of them had foggy elements deep inside. Normal thing due to condensation and age. As such they were working on 70% of it’s full potential. When pro-cleaned story changed and photos were superb! I really like to see new plastic AF lenses after 40 years.

Elle

I already use Manual Focus A LOT with my kit lens! ^_^