Venus Optics LAOWA 17 mm f/1.8 MFT II review - Vignetting

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Venus Optics LAOWA 17 mm f/1.8 MFT II

28 January 2020

Arkadiusz Olech

8. Vignetting

Let's glance at thumbnails, presented below, in order to assess vignetting of the tested lens on JPEG files; these were produced with the help of the Olympus O-MD E-M5 Mark II.

Olympus E-M5 II, JPEG, f/1.8	Olympus E-M5 II, JPEG, f/2.8

Olympus E-M5 II, JPEG, f/4.0	Olympus E-M5 II, JPEG, f/5.6

Small physical dimensions of the tested lens had to influence the performance in this category. At the maximum relative aperture the brightness loss in frame corners is huge, amounting to as much as 59% (−2.59 EV). In the case of such a small detector as the Micro 4/3 it is a really high result.

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By f/2.8 vignetting decreases to a still visible value of 35% (−1.25 EV), and by f/4.0 it drops further to 22% (−0.73 EV). A low level, descending to the border of perception, is reached by f/5.6 and f/8.0 where we got the following results: 18% (−0.58 EV) and17% (−0.55 EV) respectively. Further stopping down didn't have any measurable influence on vignetting.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II, JPEG, f/1.8