Canon EF-S 18-135 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS review - Distortion

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Canon EF-S 18-135 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

7 December 2010

Arkadiusz Olech

6. Distortion

Lenses with wide focal lengths ranges which, in addition, start from wide angle, almost always experience huge problems with the distortion correction. The Canon 18-135 mm IS is not an exception here. At the widest angle the distortion is bothersome because its value reaches as much as –4.93%. On lengthening the focal length the aberration decreases swiftly and at 24 mm it reaches –1.09%. Immediately afterwards it becomes zero and changes the sign because at 35 mm it is already 1.15%. Next, it reaches a peak on the pincushion side because at 50 mm it amounts to 1.54% and then it starts to decrease slowly, at 70 mm being 1.41%, at 85 mm 1.31% and at 135 mm 1.24%.

The chart below shows a comparison between the performance of the tested Canon and other lenses with similar parameters.

	Canon 18–135 IS	Sigma 18–125 OS	Nikkor 18–105 VR	Nikkor 18–135	Sony 16–105
16–18 mm	−4.93%	−4.25%	−5.00%	−4.60%	−4.67%
35 mm	1.15%	0.78%	1.44%	2.40%	0.97%
70 mm	1.41%	1.37%	1.97%	2.30%	1.38%
105–135 mm	1.24%	1.19%	1.92%	2.00%	1.26%

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As you see the Sigma 18-125 mm OS fares the best here, the second place goes to the Sony 16-105 mm and the Canon 18-135 mm IS is the third; the weakest results are showed by both Nikkors.