Nikon Nikkor AF-S 28-300 mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR review - Distortion

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Nikon Nikkor AF-S 28-300 mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR

14 November 2010

Arkadiusz Olech

6. Distortion

When we attach the Nikkor 28-300 mm VR to a body with a DX format sensor the geometric deformation on the edge of the frame won’t be troublesome at all. At 28 mm we get a noticeable barrel distortion of –2.60% which swiftly passes into a slight “pincushion”. At 50, 100, 200 and 300 mm we get respectively: 0.79%, 1.12%, 0.98% and 0.97%. As we already mentioned before, these values don’t cause any problems but you should be hardly surprised by that. On the DX sensor the tested lens gives us an equivalent of the 42-450 mm focal range so it becomes rather a telephoto device, not a wide-angle instrument.

When we look at the results on full frame our optimism is definitely being diminished a lot. At the widest angle of view we get barrel distortion of – 6.04%, almost a record-breaking value. At 50 mm we already have pincushion deformations which level we measured as 1.59%. The problem gets worse at 100 mm focal length where the distortion reaches 2.44%. On further increase of the focal length the deformations are less pronounced because at 200 and 300 mm the distortion level amounts to 2.06%. It’s worth emphasizing here that these values are much higher than in the case of 18-200 mm class lenses, which, after all, provide the same range of angles of view on small sensors as the Nikkor 28-300 mm VR on full frame.

Nikon D200, 28 mm

Nikon D200, 50 mm

Nikon D200, 100 mm

Nikon D200, 200 mm

Nikon D200, 300 mm

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