Canon EF 16-35 mm f/4L IS USM review - Distortion

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Canon EF 16-35 mm f/4L IS USM

22 July 2014

Arkadiusz Olech

6. Distortion

On a smaller sensor of the Canon 50D distortion won’t be a problem. You have some chances to notice it only at the shortest focal length where you must take into account barrel deformations amounting to –1.61%. At 24 mm the distortion becomes practically zero as its value, measured by us, was +0.11%. At 35 mm the pincushion deformations increase to +0.48% but even there the influence of this aberration on images would be difficult to perceive.

On full frame at 16 mm the problem becomes noticeably as the distortion reaches –4.00%. It is already a huge value and a good quality lens should have performed a lot better. On the other hand, with the Nikkor’s AF-S 16-35 mm f/4.9 VR distortion level of –6.33% the result of the Canon still looks great. At 24 mm focal length the distortion disappears almost completely – the official result being +0.04%. At the maximum focal length the level of that aberration remains slight, reaching just +1.11%.

Canon 50D, 16 mm

Canon 50D, 24 mm

Canon 50D, 35 mm

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