Nikon Nikkor AF-S DX 16-80 mm f/2.8-4E ED VR review - Distortion

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Nikon Nikkor AF-S DX 16-80 mm f/2.8-4E ED VR

7 November 2015

Arkadiusz Olech

6. Distortion

One glance at photos below and you know that at 16 mm focal length the barrel distortion is very distinct. Our measurements resulted in a value of −5.21% which is simply high. For example the Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* DT 16–80 mm f/3.5–4.5 fared significantly better in this category, showing a result of −3.98%.

Deformations decrease pretty quickly with the increase of the focal length and they change the sign because at 24 mm you deal with slight pincushion distortion of +0.49%. Then you see a quite dynamic increase because at 30 mm that aberration reaches already +1.51%, and at 35 mm it is +2.01%. When it comes to pincushion distortion the biggest amount of problems you see near 50 mm where we got a result of +2.11%. At the maximum focal length the distortion decreases to +1.80%.

A result around +2% you see in the Nikkor’s 35-80 mm range is huge and nothing to boast of. In the case of the Sony 16-80 mm at the longer focal lengths that aberration never exceeded a level of +0.7%. It shows clearly that the distortion performance of the tested Nikkor is simply weak.

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