Second attempt: pentax 100 2.8 smc dfa sharpness

Here is my second attempt (after this one) to solicit views on the sharpness of this lens. I took advise from my previous attempt and taken pictures of a map at various apertures. Any help much appreciated.

I think it may not have been totally straight as the top left seems to be out of focus or that could be the lens??

All at iso 100 and jpeg from camera with contrast, sharpening and saturation all set to zero



f2.8 1/500



center 100% crop





f4.0 1/250



center 100% crop





f6.3 1/100



center 100% crop





f9.0 1/50



center 100% crop





f13 1/25



center 100% crop





f18 1/13



center 100% crop





f22 1/8



center 100% crop

Within the limitations of the monitor image, it looks like a classic pattern of definition to me. The lens would appear to be sharp at all apertures, but it improves to a best of around f11 or f16 after which it drops in performance as diffraction effects become significant.

I would think that if you apply Unsharp Mask to the images then you will have sharp pictures.

My DFA 100mm Macro isn't particularly sharp wide open. f8 and beyond it is very sharp indeed. This is what I expected from a Macro lens. I always shoot RAW with Macro and use unsharp mask as John recommends to good effect.

They look OK to me a bit flat but that may be the lighting, the top edge where it looks soft could be a bit out of focus.

shim

Cannot see anything much wrong with these beyond what has been said. What is the issue?

I guess there isn't one

thanks for your responses. took some macro pictures this weekend and will post them in another thread. the lens seems to be good enough