Fujifilm Fujinon XF 16-55 mm f/2.8 R LM WR review - Distortion

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Fujifilm Fujinon XF 16-55 mm f/2.8 R LM WR

18 April 2015

Arkadiusz Olech

6. Distortion

When you work with JPEG files the distortion won’t be bothersome because the camera’s software helps correcting it in a significant way. As a result at 16 mm you deal with its barrel variation and its level is slight, amounting to −1.45% and then decreasing to −0.97% at 23 mm. At 35 mm and 55 mm it disappears almost completely – the values we got were, respectively, −0.25% and −0.06%.

Much more problems you encounter when it comes to RAW files. The results are so high that it is obvious the constructors depended mainly on the software of the camera to correct the geometrical deformations of the lens. At 16 mm focal length the distortion reaches a huge level of −5.59%. Fortunately it decreases very quickly with the increase of the focal length and at 23 mm it is just −1.13%. Then it changes the sign immediately and already at 35 mm you deal with distinct pincushion deformations of +1.91%. Still it is only a prelude to the results you get at the maximum focal length where the “pincushion” increases to +3.07%.

The chart below shows clearly how unfavourably the Fujinon compares with its rivals in this category. Only the Sony keeps its company as it also had a high distortion level at the wide angle and, additionally, it was of the troublesome moustache variation. Still the Sony corrected that aberration better at the bigger focal lengths and the Fujinon didn’t even try. Anyway a result of +3,07% is one of the highest pincushion distortion levels we’ve seen so far in our tests.

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	16–17 mm	28–35 mm	50–55 mm
Fujinon XF 16–55 mm	−5.59%	+1.91%	+3.07%
Canon 17–55 mm IS	−2.47%	+1.06%	+1.38%
Nikkor AF-S 17–55 mm	−3.39%	+1.06%	+1.12%
Sigma 17–50 mm OS	−3.47%	−0.08%	+0.66%
Sony DT 16–50 mm	−5.29%	−0.87%	+0.11%
Tokina AT-X 16–50 mm	−4.10%	−0.22%	+0.69%