Soft vs Sharp lens, explaination please?

[Sinister_kid]

I'm just trying to figure out what people mean when they talk about a soft lens and sharp lens? I can take a pretty good guess, but I just want a solid answer from somebody.

Thanks.

 

[tirediron]

A soft lens is one which when focused as accurately as possible rendes images which are not 100% focused; that is: If you examine something where there should be a sharply visibile division such as say a black line printed on white paper, instead of seeing sharp, solid edges to the black line, it will appear fuzzy. "Sharp" is the opposite.

Softness is most common in lenses at their largest apertures, and even [most] cheap lenses are acceptably sharp when stopped down to the f8 - f11 range.

 

[Derrel]

Here's a good example page, with sample photos shot by three different lenses, all presented side-by-side.

Nikon 14-24mm v Canon 16-35mm v Contax 17-35mm