Best way to test for sharpness?

Title pretty much covers it guys....

Looking for the best way to test the sharpness of a lens. I just aquired a 70-200 2.8 IS and i really dont think its that sharp.

Any help greatly apprieciated.

Somebody move this out of the Sub-Forum. Totally didnt mean to put it in here.

CliffordPhotography wrote in post #9587630
Title pretty much covers it guys....

Looking for the best way to test the sharpness of a lens. I just aquired a 70-200 2.8 IS and i really dont think its that sharp.

Any help greatly apprieciated.

Can't help with the sharpness test I'm afraid.
But I'm also looking at a 70-200 for motorsport shots,so I'm thinking it needs to be the 2.8 version.

I was comparing both versions (f/2.8 and f/4) in these very sample threads here,and after looking at both I'm in the same frame of mind as you.

Don't get me wrong,the photos in the 2.8 thread were absolutely fantastic but the difference in sharpness of the 2 lenses seems quite significant

Take a few shots with your camera and lens on a tripod, shoot something static, set the lowest iso, for example iso 100, I think set the aperture to somewhere between f4 and f8 (someone correct me if this is wrong), use the self timer or a cable release to trigger the shutter to minimise movement of the camera, turn off image stabilisation (when on a tripod), and then bump up the sharpness in dpp or photoshop.

Gordon ill check it out. I wanst using a tripod at the time...but I had the 70-200 resting on my table with the tripod mount and self time was on. ill run it through the f stops a bit. That i didnt do.