>We did cover it, but I'm asking again because I forgot! Actually, I don't
>even know what coma or astigmatism is, I was just wondering if you were
>taking them into account. Why would point light sourse behavior show up in
>sharpness checks? I'm thinking of a light bulb in a room... And overall
>flare seems easy to check in the finder (except a RF!), but what about
>minor flare that just causes a slight loss of contrast? NS

Theory, but in practice, a lens is VERY SHARP, sharp, somewhat less than
ideally sharp, soft, or VERY SOFT - other details and gradations aren't very meaningful for picture taking. I do check unfamiliar lenses with a bare bulb
and a dark adjacent area. Contrast (or, better, "brilliance") effects of a subtle nature are evident in the small clear areas of the negative (the
"snap"), and bright point handling ability can usually be seen in the
highlights of the test negatives, especially in the corners where coma
highlight smears can be quite noticeable (your test subject is perfect for infinity testing - my current one is not so easy to use). Astigmatism can be seen as soft areas containing some sharp edges but little detail, again mostly
in the corners. These can fall under the term "soft".