The optical science community has long used Modulation Transfer
Function or MTF, to measure and describe the sharpness of a
lens. They will continue to do so as it is a great way to
characterize the physical performance of a lens, however it’s
both rather complex to understand and difficult to communicate
how well a lens performs from the perspective of the human
visual system. At the end of the day photographs are primarily
produced for humans to look at: so DxOMark is introducing the
Perceptual MPix measure, a more intuitive way to describe lens
and camera perceived sharpness. Can you define MTF? Do you know
if an MTF20% of 50lp/mm is better or worse than an MTF 50% of 30
lp/mm? And when reviewing an MTF chart, can you distinguish
which curve is best? The short answer is probably no. Modulation
Transfer Function or MTF, describes how well a lens and a camera
reproduce a scene’s details and contrast in a final image. An
integral part of DxOMark’s image evaluation toolkit, MTF is
understood by optics experts