Nikon D40 full review Cameralabs corner sharpness results

Outdoor / Resolution / Noise / Noise 2 / Corner sharpness / Fringe & macro / Geometry / Vignetting

Nikon D40 corner sharpness comparison

To measure and compare the Nikon D40's kit lens corner sharpness we photographed the Enhanced Digital Camera Resolution Chart with it and a number of rival models, each using their best quality JPEG and default image tone and sharpening settings.

We used the kit lenses at their widest and longest focal lengths and with various apertures. The crops are taken from the extreme lower left corner of the chart and presented here at 100%.

Zoomed-out to wide angle with the aperture fully opened, the Nikkor DX 18-55mm II lens is very soft in the extreme corners in this test, although becomes pin sharp closer to the centre of the frame. Closing the aperture greatly improves the sharpness in the extreme corners, although it's not until you're at f11 or below that it matches the other lenses here. Once again though, this softness is only in the extreme corners and the situation is much improved when measured even only a little further in. Results here should also be compared with our Nikon D40 outdoor tests where the lens focused at infinity performs much better in the corners than it does at close range.

Zoomed-in to telephoto, the situation is much improved, with decent results even with the aperture wide open. Unlike the Canon lenses shown here, the Nikkor also doesn't exhibit lower contrast when zoomed-in with its aperture open.

Note: crop details which appear smaller here are due to them being captured with lower resolution cameras and / or a lens which couldn't focus as close to the chart. In each case though, the crop still represents the extreme bottom left corner of each camera's frame. The Canon G7 and Olympus E-400 show a different portion of the chart because they capture narrower 4:3 aspect ratio images, but again these still represent the extreme bottom left corners.

Nikon D40 Using DX 18-55mm II	Canon 400D / XTi Using EF-S 18-55mm	Canon PowerShot G7	Olympus E-400 Using ZD 14-42mm

DX 18-55mm II at 18mm f3.5	EF-S 18-55mm at 18mm f3.5	7.4-44.4mm at 7.4mm f2.8	ZD 14-42mm at 14mm f3.5


DX 18-55mm II at 18mm f8	EF-S 18-55mm at 18mm f8	7.4-44.4mm at 7.4mm f5.6	ZD 14-42mm at 14mm f8


DX 18-55mm II at 18mm f16	EF-S 18-55mm at 18mm f16	7.4-44.4mm at 7.4mm f8	ZD 14-42mm at 14mm f16

Nikon D40 Using DX 18-55mm II	Canon 400D / XTi Using EF-S 18-55mm	Canon PowerShot G7	Olympus E-400 Using ZD 14-42mm

DX 18-55mm II at 55mm f5.6	EF-S 18-55mm at 55mm f5.6	7.4-44.4mm at 44.4mm f4.8	ZD 14-42mm at 42mm f5.6


DX 18-55mm II at 55mm f8	EF-S 18-55mm at 55mm f8	7.4-44.4mm at 44.4mm f5.6	ZD 14-42mm at 42mm f8


DX 18-55mm II at 55mm f16	EF-S 18-55mm at 55mm f16	7.4-44.4mm at 44.4mm f8	ZD 14-42mm at 42mm f16