Lens review

Canon EF-S 18-200 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

6. Distortion

While testing the Sigma 18-250 mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM recently we were very pleasantly surprised by its distortion results. At 18 mm it reached –3.44% and at longer focal lengths it was within not very bothersome 0.8-1.1% range. The standards were set very high but after all the Canon’s task in this category is easier because of its narrower focal lengths range. Unfortunately the Canon didn’t perform here well either because at the shortest focal length it showed ‘barrel’ distortion reaching as much as –5.06% and at 50 mm - ‘pincushion’ getting to 1.82%.

	Canon 18–200 IS	Nikkor 18–200 VR	Sigma 18–200 OS	Tamron 18–200
18 mm	−5.06%	−5.40%	−4.40%	−5.14%
50 mm	1.82%	1.59%	1.20%	1.78%
100 mm	1.41%	1.46%	1.00%	1.38%
200 mm	1.32%	1.21%	1.00%	1.17%

To defend the Canon a bit we can say that its achievements aren’t worse than those of the majority of its rivals. When it comes to the distortion only two Sigmas, the 18-200 mm and the 18-250 mm, can show good or decent results; the rest of lenses from this segment fare rather badly here…

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Canon 50D, 18 mm

Canon 50D, 50 mm

Canon 50D, 100 mm

Canon 50D, 200 mm