Lens review

Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 50-200 mm f/2.8-3.5 SWD

8. Vignetting

In this category the whole Four Thirds system fares very well. After all, it’s one of the main advantages of a small detector use.

At 50 mm and wide relative aperture the vignetting is just 11% ( -0.34 EV) so practically imperceptible. On stopping down to f/4.0 we get just 4%.

What’s interesting, the highest vignetting level we get for the middle of the focal lengths range. At wide aperture it reaches 24% ( -0.81 EV) what is already a significant amount. We were also surprised that, on stopping down, the vignetting decreases quite slowly. By f/4.0 the level of this aberration is 20%, by f/5.6 we get 15% and only by f/8 we finally have an imperceptible level of 8%.

The situation is slightly beter at 200 mm setting. At wide aperture f/3.5 the vignetting reaches 22% ( -0.71 EV) and decreases to 16% by f/4.0. Using the f/5.6 aperture makes the problem disappear completely (8%).