Lens review

Samyang 14 mm f/2.8 IF ED MC Aspherical

6. Distortion

As long as we use APS-C/DX cameras, the problem of distortion is not really bothering. The measured level of -3.78% is as a matter of fact quite large and easily noticeable, but with this angle of view practically acceptable. It’s enough to remember the results at 16-18 mm obtained by universal zoom lenses, where the “barrel” reached -4% or even 5% quite often.

The hard part begins on a full frame. The official result of -3.4% doesn’t really indicate much, but a quick glance at our test charts (below) explains everything. We’re dealing with wavy distortion. Up till APS-C/DX dimensions everything is normal, then the lines are not curved anymore, and we go from a typical “barrel” to slight “pincushion”. On one hand, the corners of our pictures will not suffer much from bending straight lines, but on the other, computer programs will have a hard time with correcting this type of aberration.