Folks trying to "prove" their point with words and when those don't work, jpeg posts and crops, and when those don't work because of jpeg artifacting, they go back to words about print resolutions and the process repeats itself. Ad-nausium.
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Am I making you feel nauseous, Jack? Sorry!
Just for the record, all the jpeg images
I post do not have visible artifacting viewed at the magnification I post (ie 100% of whatever crop I'm posting, whether the crop before jpeg compression is a 100% crop of a TIF or a 400% crop of a TIF.) I use the maximum quality of jpeg compression which, to my eyes, is virtually lossless, but obviously not lossless at a machine level.
The argument that subtle differences cannot be transmitted over the net because of jpeg artifacting is a bogus argument in my opinion. It's just a matter of getting the magnification and crop right before compressing at maximum quality. Of course, it's not practical to transmit a 36MB image at maximum jpeg quality because that's still something like a 5 to 7MB image which would severely tax Michael's server as well as many folks' dial-up connection.
The reasons why we have these endless debates are as follows, in the order that springs to mind.
(1) Lens variability amongst different copies of the same model. It can be solved by the issuing of sets of MTF charts with each lens that's sold.
(2) Lack of proper and rigorous shooting technique. Ie., inappropriate choice of subject material for the point that is being demonstrated; sloppy focussing, whether due the camera's inadequate autofocussing system or due to the difficulty of accurate manual focussing because of a small viewfinder and/or poor eyesight on the part of the photographer; lack of a sturdy tripod, remote cord, MLU; sneaky sources of unnoticed vibration such as wind, heavy trucks trundling by, minor earth tremors etc etc. The list could be long.
(3) Complete ignorance of the scientific method.
(4) A common psychological reluctance to solve the problem once and for all because we enjoy the mess we're in and are afraid of unfamiliar territory.