Sigma 24-70 mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM review - Distortion

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Sigma 24-70 mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM

3 June 2009

Arkadiusz Olech

6. Distortion

All the lenses, with the focal length starting at 24 mm, have quite wide field of view, reaching 61 degrees, on small APS-C/DX sensors. No wonder all of them also show barrel distortion but, luckily, its level isn’t significantly high. The Nikkor performed the best here, reaching the level of –1.46%; the Zeiss performed the worst, showing the distortion of -2.14%. Unfortunately the Sigma is even worse. At 24 mm it shows the distortion of -2.66%, which decreases on stopping down. At 45 mm it reaches just -0.07% and at 70 mm it increases slightly to the level of 0.52%.

This aberration will cause far more problems on full frame, of course. Here we deal with 84, not 61 degrees field of view so the distortion is clearly perceptible. It’s measured level reached -4.59%, a result you can hardly boast of. Fortunately on stopping down it improves quickly. At 45 mm it is just -0.21%, so almost invisible, and at 70 mm it increases slightly to 0.91%.

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