Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 50-200 mm f/2.8-4 ASPH. review - Distortion

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Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 50-200 mm f/2.8-4 ASPH.

25 June 2018

Arkadiusz Olech

6. Distortion

As long as you work with JPEG files you won’t experience the slightest problems with geometric deformations. Our measurements also showed that the distortion is practically zero at every focal length. Officially the results at 50, 100, 150, and 200 mm are, respectively, −0.12%, −0.11%, −0.10% and +0.01%.

In the case of Micro 4/3 bodies the distortion correction is helped by the software of a camera. In order to assess how the optics fares without any help you have to analyze RAW files developed by independent software like e.g. dcraw.

In this case the results we got at 50, 100, 150, and 200 mm are, respectively, +0.60%, +0.71%, +0.85%, and +0.88%. At no point we saw results higher than 1.0% so the distortion correction should be described in superlatives only. It should also be added that full frame 100-400 mm lenses can exceed a level of +1.0% without any problems and, you should add, at several focal lengths (see our tests of the Sigma and the Tamron, published not so long ago, or the test of the more expensive Canon 100-400L II which, at the longer end of its focal spectrum, also exceeded that level).

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