09-01-2015, 06:11 PM
When we talk about sharpness, we do not talk about details, we do not talk about resolution - sharpness is a term of it's own no matter what you try to define it with and also no matter what you "think" we're talking about 
speak for yourself, but "we" as a number of people and me included are not confusing details with sharpness, even if we categorize a high resolving lens as "sharp".
Anyway, it is logically clear that a high resolution lens will appear sharper on a sharp edge - if there are sharp edges in a picture of sand, stone, grass or other highly detailed and structured scenes. But even if there's only one edge in a picture and no more details, we're still talking about sharpness. Imagine one single guitar string made of nylon, a couple of meters away from the lens - and nothing else but a flat, dark background with no visible structure: See? No details, but maybe sharpness.
Also, "sharpness" on a lens testing site has absolutely nothing to do with software algorithms, otherwise we would talk about applications. We take it for granted the lenses are tested in equal surroundments and with equal software parameters - boom, that's it. If the influence of software is the same, you can subtract it from the equation. For sharpness you need glass, light and a sensor and all of that of decent quality and mounted on something quite stable.
speak for yourself, but "we" as a number of people and me included are not confusing details with sharpness, even if we categorize a high resolving lens as "sharp".Anyway, it is logically clear that a high resolution lens will appear sharper on a sharp edge - if there are sharp edges in a picture of sand, stone, grass or other highly detailed and structured scenes. But even if there's only one edge in a picture and no more details, we're still talking about sharpness. Imagine one single guitar string made of nylon, a couple of meters away from the lens - and nothing else but a flat, dark background with no visible structure: See? No details, but maybe sharpness.
Also, "sharpness" on a lens testing site has absolutely nothing to do with software algorithms, otherwise we would talk about applications. We take it for granted the lenses are tested in equal surroundments and with equal software parameters - boom, that's it. If the influence of software is the same, you can subtract it from the equation. For sharpness you need glass, light and a sensor and all of that of decent quality and mounted on something quite stable.