I appreciate the input regarding the Blackmagic 12k sensor. Very interesting. That is not what I had read.
Here is a link to an article about the 12k sensor, its 6×6 +luminance CFA pattern, aliasing, moire, required lens resolution, etc. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.
One seemingly relevant clip from the article: "To actually resolve 12K, you need a lens that resolves 227 lines per millimeter (L/pm). Most lenses that are considered “sharp”, are around 200 L/pm, but the analog nature of optics doesn’t really have a fixed breaking point, that would render any other lens useless."
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The conversation seems to be splitting into two conversation, which is fine, but knowing that I think I should have formulated my questions more succinctly like this:
Assuming the perfect sensor (whatever that is), what lenses have the highest resolving power?
Assuming the perfect lenses (whatever they would be), what sensor resolves the highest level of detail?
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Also I just want to add the disclaimer preemptively that obviously sharpness and resolution aren't the highest priority in all or even most cases. In fact, the only expensive set of cinema lenses that I've purchased to own myself are LOMO Square Front Anamorphic lenses, which are technically just about the least perfect lenses in the history of cinema but aesthetically are just so romantic and dreamy and perfect. I feel all sorts of emotional ways about them. My absolute favorite for narrative, emotional storytelling. But anyway, on the flip side, there are times where clinical sharpness and resolution do matter, like shooting Apple TV screensavers or, in my case, doing detail-oriented product work. So I hope that's enough of a justification to still have this nerdy conversation and to prevent people from rightly pointing out that I probably seem like I'm focusing on the wrong thing.
Thanks again so much for all the input. I am getting all sorts of ideas for future camera and lens tests!
If anyone has further lens and/or sensor recommendations for best-of-the-best resolving power, I'm all ears.