Roger Cicala: why I don't use an MTF bench to test my own lenses

Roughly clockwise from left: 300mm collimator, laser transmission testing, lens test projector, Trioptics Imagemaster HR optical bench, spectrometry measurement. It might not look like much, but the total cost is similar to really nice house in a small city (or a decent house in big city). I have a complete testing lab at my disposal: MTF benches, lens test projectors, spectrometers, lasers, an Imatest setup gathering dust in a back room; everything all the cool kids have. A lot of people assume...