Venus Optics LAOWA 9 mm f/5.6 FF RL review - Distortion

Have you rated your lenses yet?

Venus Optics LAOWA 9 mm f/5.6 FF RL

13 August 2020

Maciej Latałło

6. Distortion

Distortion of the tested lens is quite noticeable already on the smaller APS-C sensor – you deal with its barrel variation of −3.95%. It is a piece of bad news. The Venus Optics LAOWA 9 mm f/2.8 ZERO-D, with exactly the same focal length and designed for smaller detectors, on the same APS-C sensor was able to correct distortion to a level of −1.80%. Why the full frame model fared weaker? Its performance on full frame explains that up to a point.

In order not to allow an uncontrolled increase of barrel distortion the producers decided to introduce moustache deformations. As a result across the frame you get an averaged out result of −6.65%. If you limit yourself to an area within 1:1 markings, you will get an even higher value, that of −7.69%.

Of course you can say that the tested lens didn't promise you low distortion as it doesn't feature ZERO-D in its name. Still, in my humble opinion, its producers could have done a better job in this category.

Please Support Us

If you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - advertisement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -