Sharpest aperture for my Nikkor lenses?

[Army35mm]

There seems to be an obsession with high resolution as an important goal by itself. If all of a person's photography involved only flat test charts then that would be most important. More often than not we are shooting three dimensional subjects and the need for adequate depth of field may outweigh the benefits of shooting at an aperture setting which produces the highest resolution. This has become an issue with high megapixel digital sensors. A 50MP Canon DSLR used with a 50/1.8 Canon EF lens will have its highest resolution with the lens stopped down to only f/4. If you are shooting a group of people, for example, f/4 may not provide adequate depth of field based on the distance you are shooting from. The difference with digital shooting is that you have some leeway by changing the ISO. With film shooting you could try TP/Imagelink HQ/CMS 20. That would get you fine grain and high sharpness but a very low ISO. Those film types just aren't suitable for every subject. If you are using 35mm film and need to make very large prints and are worried about the resolution of the final image, moving up to a larger format will do more good than worrying about whether your 35mm lens is set to f/5.6 or f/8.

no so much a question of resolution as it is of clarity.

 

[dynachrome]

You will not get clarity in the areas in front of and behind the immediate point of focus unless you have adequate depth of field.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

As the title states, I'm curious as to what the sharpest aperture is for my nikkor lenses.
I have the following:
28mm f2.8 ais
50mm f1.4 ais
135mm f3.5 converted ais
been trying to shoot around f8/f5.6 but I'm noticing a lot of potential blur on the outsides of my images.

all these lenses will be best at f/8-11.

 

[Leigh B]

There seems to be an obsession with high resolution as an important goal by itself.

It's an important goal in any subject.

That includes intricate objects, distant groups of people, or other subjects.
Fine detail in a print, even finer than a viewer can actually resolve from a distance, gives the print life.

- Leigh