And for photographers who want to create unique images that express their personal style, character can be even more important than MTF and resolution numbers, corner-to-corner sharpness, freedom from aberrations, evenness of illumination, high contrast, low distortion, and color fidelity-in short, all the criteria lens testers consider crucial in evaluating lens performance. Why would anyone in their right mind want to use old lenses on their shiny new high-performance DSLR or mirrorless camera? The simple answer is that some older lenses can capture images that have that elusive quality known as character.