Fujifilm Fujinon XF 35 mm f/1.4 R review - Distortion

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Fujifilm Fujinon XF 35 mm f/1.4 R

10 September 2012

Arkadiusz Olech

6. Distortion

Although in the case of wide-angle lenses the Fuji X-Pro1 body corrects the distortion, in the case of the 1.4/35 model it didn’t have to do it. The distortion is slight here, both for RAW and JPEG files, amounting to exactly –0.55%. The chart below shows how the Fujinon compares with its competitors. It is obvious that the tested lens prevails over other instruments with similar focal lengths for smaller detectors.

	Fujinon 1.4/35	Sony DT 1.8/35	Nikkor 1.8/35	Sigma 1.4/30	Pentax 2.4/35
30–35 mm	−0.55%	−1.38%	−1.94%	−2.10%	−0.75%

It’s worth mentioning that, because of the lack of distortion correction, JPEG images have almost the same field of view as those saved in RAW file system. To verify whether the producers treat seriously their own declarations we decided to check the size of that field nevertheless. The combination of 35 mm focal length and the APS-C/DX sensor should result in a field of view of 44.1 degrees. How big is it in reality? Fortunately there is a quite simple method to find out – you should take a photo of starry sky. Stars, with a very good approximation, are situated in the infinity. Then, knowing the equatorial coordinates of the stars in the photo (their right ascension and declination) and their coordinates, expressed in pixels (X,Y) you can transform the pixels into equatorial coordinates. It is based on the Turner method, using polynomials of the third or the fifth degree. That way you can construct a grid with an average error of several minutes of arc so you can determine the size of a field of view with a fully satisfactory precision – that on the level of 0.1-0.2 of a degree. Knowing the right ascension and declination of the outermost pixels of our image and employing the basic rules of spherical trigonometry you can compute an unambiguous result - in the case of the Fujinon 1.4/35 the angle of view is 42.7 ±0.2 degrees. Such a field of view is a bit narrower than declared and it means the focal length of the lens is a bit over 36 mm.

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