All the curves in a MTF graph shows relative contrast between the two lines in a pair.
This kind of contrast is usually referred to as micro or local contrast.
The concept of "high resolution" may be trivially defined as "high contrast with small line pairs".
Erwin Puts has a very straighforward explanation for the "contrast" vs "resolution" issue:
"An image point, as is well known, has two main characteristics: it has a small core where the light cone is focussed and a wider area around the core where some light is spread out with diminishing intensity. An image spot then is composed of a core and a halo around it. To keep it very simple, we may say that the designer can influence the size of the core and the size and intensity of the halo. A larger core without any halo will give low resolution, but a high contrast and a small core with an extended halo will give you very fine detail, but low contrast. In real life, this contrast-resolution dichotomy does not exist: a small spot implies almost always a small halo around it. It is more a question of grade, than of principle."
Hence, a lens with a higher micro contrast not necessarily has a lower resolution
These previous three pages have a good list of lenses. One thing escapes me though - is there any common design feature that makes the lenses better in micro contrast than others? I noticed most of them are Zeiss, which should not surprise, it is a known fact. But other than that, I did not see anything common among these lenses. Did you?
Mirek--I'm sure whatever je ne sais qua that makes certain lenses have more "microcontrast" than others is well hidden in the design of the lens. Coatings also have to make a pretty big difference.
Micro contrast is a lens ability to differentiate between smaller and smaller details of more and more nearly similar tonal value. Looking at Paul's "bench in the snow" photo, I'm guessing the shading in the snow is an example of high micro contrast.
After reading this 4-year-old thread, I have no idea what "micro-contrast" is.
I wish someone would just post two photos, one photo taken with a lens that has good sharpness and good global contrast, but poor "micro-contrast", and a photo of the same scene with a lens that is good in all three areas, so I can see what this "micro-contrast" does.
