This is from the Canon 24mm TS II at f4 full shift, bottom right corner.
no corrections applied
Here is the corner from the previous Canon 24mm TS I lens.
From this it is very clear that Canon is making very significant lens quality progress at a pace that the declining MF sector cannot match.
These improvements make the quality difference between MF and the latest Canon and Nikon gear smaller and smaller.
Here is an example of Nikon's optical improvements
The new 85mm 1.4G at f 4
The previous model 85mm 1.4
As you can see very significant progress.
There are many reasons for this progress. Volume and competition is one of them.
However another reason is that these companies are in the motion image Canon and Fuji in particular.
Canon has allocated huge resources towards optical design due to it's move into high quality motion picture.
We have been working with this lens on our latest production
$ 25,000 lens.
The resources and know how that goes into these $25,000 TO $48,000 spills over to the dslr
divisions and the results are what we are seeing in the latest Canon lenses.
Nikon is right on Canons heels as far as entering the motion picture field and has just opened offices in the heart of Hollywood.
It is going to be very difficult for small MF companies to keep pace. Also the relevance of MF in the shifting media world.
Today for long term progress and financial solidity it's important to have a good footing in multiple media types.
I think it's safe to say that most of the investments being made today are in smaller optical designs and motion picture optical designs
rather than larger format optical designs.
There are also probably more imaging engineers being hired by cell phone companies than MF companies.
Google recently bought Nik software. Kyochera that used to make the Contax now makes cell phones.
Nikon could easily move into the cell phone market as it already has cameras that run on the android OS.