Zeiss 28mm f/2 Distagon on Nikon D810: Aperture Series 'White Mountains Landscape'
A suitable distant landscape can be very instructive as to the general performance behavior of a lens when the subject is carefully arranged to show near to far and across the frame sharpness.
Here, the Zeiss 28mm f/2 Distagon is put to it on a scene that is an unforgiving test of any lens. In Guide to Zeiss:
Aperture Series: 'White Mountains Landscape' (D810)
This scene has fine details that really require more megapixels than the Nikon D810 offers. That’s because the majority of interesting subject detail in the scene is only a few pixels in size: small rocks, sagebrush texture, tree branches, etc.
A thought immediately came to my mind in light of recent developments: a 50-megapixel sensor might possibly be just enough extra to add that extra persuasiveness to the details, while also reducing various artifacts on the finest of edges. It also brings to mind an early lesson years ago with the Nikon D1: pine needles quickly become green mush instead of pine needles if the resolution is inadequate. Ditto for many natural subjects. There is of course always a magnification that falls just a little short of what the subject might demand, and of course there are many subjects for which only the broadest strokes are important. But not this one.
Includes HD and UltraHD images in as well as large crops from wide open through f/16.