Lens review

Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 17 mm f/2.8

6. Distortion

Fixed focal length lenses giving an angle of view around 65 degrees have showed distortion, in our tests, at the level of -1.5%. This was the case with 35 mm class Sony, Canon or Nikon lenses tested on full frame. This was also the case of tested on a small APS-C sensor Sigma 1.8/24. Unfortunately we don't have good news for 4/3 system users. Using such a small sensor requires small focal lengths if you want a wide angle of view. And small focal lengths often cause large distortion. In the case of M. Zuiko 17 mm f/2.8 it’s particularly onerous, as it reaches as much as -5.45%, which is a dishonorable record for this class of appliance.

Another thing is worth mentioning here. E-P1 users may not even notice this aberration, as it’s automatically removed from JPEG files. You can see it only after developing RAW files. What’s more, E-P1 removes it somewhat on the run, showing image already free of distortions on the LCD. In a lens test, however, it’s not our job to show what a camera or a computer can do to a picture, but how the optics works. And the optics of M. Zuiko 17 mm is burdened with very large distortion and the lens deserves criticism for that.