In the early eighties I used to carry out MTF testing for a camera shop in central London. Charts were supplied for each lens sold but of course the cost of doing this had to be borne somewhere. In that increasingly competitive time the testing was finally abandoned for a variety of reasons and whilst the shop still exists, neither it nor any other that I know of now offers what would undoubtedly be an expensive service, presumably because no-one considers it to be an viably economic proposition.
I use both Canons with L series fixed focals and an M8. My own experience is that it is much easier to get sharper images out of the M8 - due to a number of factors I'm sure - but the lack of a mirror is most certainly one of them!
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Yes, I hear many excuses for not carrying out individual MTF tests and they all usually boil down to cost.
If the public doesn't want to pay for the service, they have no right to complain. Unfortunately, we are in a bit of a bind here because some lenses which happen to be really excellent, although expensive, might be able to be adapted to Canon bodies but usually with loss of certain significant features such as autofocus for one.
The market is really wide open here to an enterprising country like China where the entire MFT testing procedure could possibly be automated. In conjunction with low wages, the additional cost would be minimal.
However, such an endeavour could not take place without Canon's co-operation because lenses would have to be re-badged and re-priced according to quality.
The top 5% of a particular model would have an ESP rating (Extra Special Performance), the next 10% SHG (Super High Grade), the third group, say 30% of all lenses, could be classified as simply HG, (High Grade) and the final category comprising perhaps 50% of all lenses of a particular model could be rated as D for Deluxe, to disguise the fact they are really crap.
Am I being too harsh?
Oh! I forgot to mention, the cost of such a precedure would be borne by the buyers of the ESP, SHG and HG grades. The price of the Deluxe versions would remain the same.