Relationships between lens performance and different sensor sizes in professional photographic still SLR cameras

Current photographic still cameras, in the professional SLR step, are available in two basic sensor sizes, 16x24mm and 24x36mm and both of them can be used with the same or similar range of focal length lenses. Lens aperture determines resolving power and diffraction effects and indeed, MTF function. In order to preserve an acceptable image quality level, it must be taken into account that a high lens resolving power at larger apertures can be replicated by the sensor as a false response or aliasing, while the size of the Airy disc must be related with photo receptors pitch. Provided that a standardized metric of image quality is the system MTF, this work compares different lenses resolving power as a function of aperture with the lens and system MTF; both aliasing and resolution affectations can be observed in the system MTF. Lens resolving power has been measured by visual inspection of the aerial image of an USAF1951 test target through a suitable microscope. The lens PSF and MTF has been measured by means of a Shack-Hartmann optical wave front sensor. The system MTF is measured by the slanted edge method. The different experimental procedures have been applied to two professional SLR cameras equipped with the same general use lens.