Capture Sharpen ~ Sony 55mm f/1.8, Nikon Nikkor 105mm f/2.5, Nikon Nikkor 135mm f/3.5 with 1.4x Sigma AF teleconverter

In a previous post I noted that a couple of Nikkors mated with a Sigma 1.4x AF teleconverter were softer than the nature lens sans Sigma.  This was conventional wisdom back in the day and is easily confirmed using modern cameras.

There are tools in this Digital Age, however, that were not available to us Old Dinosaurs of the Film Age.  Sone of them are image sharpeners.  In particular, something called "Capture Sharpen."  It is available in Adobe rentware as well as the Open Source RawTherapee and is used as a pre-sharpener before using something like "UnSharp Mask" or other sharpeners (of which there are many).

So thinking a little about the softening effects of the Sigma 1.4x teleconverter, I wondered what would happen if I "Capture Sharpened" the Nikkor images?  Just to see how it compared, I thought it might be interesting to see how the Sony Zeiss FE 55mm f/1.8 "Capture Sharpened", too.  And shoot everything at the soft-ish wide open aperture.

Here's what I found.

 

 

The "Capture Sharpened" Nikkor/Sigma images are "sharper" than the un-sharpened Zony.  The Zony "Capture Sharpened" is, well, over the top amazing.  Wide open.

Voila the Miracle of Modern Image Processing tools.