The Lie About Sharper Lenses

For several years now, I’ve been saying over and over again that no one really needs sharper lenses. But consumerism has thought otherwise when post-production and in-camera processes can change things for you. And in 2026, I think that my statements have been more true than ever. Truthfully, we’ve all been sold the lie about sharper lenses.

I’m not going to get really super technical here and it really doesn’t make any sense to do so. But instead, let’s get practical.

Full-frame cameras haven’t majorly increased in megapixels in over 10 years. Most cameras use the same sensors from Sony or others between the 24 and 45MP range. Only two camera companies currently use sensors higher than that: Leica and Sony. Of course, I’m not talking about medium format cameras where things are different.

So really, I’m wondering this: what really was the point?

10 years later, all I really thought the point was was consumerism and getting everyone to just buy the newer lenses that lacked character and delivered such plain, clear image quality.

The manufacturers in many ways the fox in the hen house live streaming the feast. While they made tools for us based on something that they marketed, they did nothing to help many of us from getting duplicated by AI. They’d say that this is on us; but the truth is that their pursuit of the same vision made them all deliver the same products over and over again.

If you’re going to buy those lenses, then you really shouldn’t be doing any post-production. But we all end up doing post-production anyway. And we’d all end up doing even more post-production with older lenses, perhaps.

The camera manufacturers and the lens makers all lied to us in a world where everyone questions whether the photos you made are done by AI or not.

Here’s what so many of us don’t realize. AI has been trained on an internet that believes that optical quality is everything. So it has made images that are way more advanced and optically perfect than many of us make. And the only way to really do something different is to smack that optical excellence in the face. For humanity to really get better at photography, we need to dig deep into our emotions and our dreams instead of trying to copy everything that we see on social media.

Photographers, put the phone down. Put social media away. Pull out the lens filters, vaseline, etc. Stop using LEDs because it’s helping you just to document what you’re seeing. Start using flashes so that you have to think and predict what you’re seeing. Start using your minds, because it’s all that you’ve really got left in a world where the tech is trying to replace all of us.

I think an old friend at Fujifilm said it best when the Sony a1 was launched — you don’t even need the photographer anymore. The camera makes it just so easy to make the photos.

If you’re still making bad photos in 2026, the problem isn’t the camera.