Panasonic G X VARIO 35-100 mm f/2.8 P.O.I.S. review - Distortion

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Panasonic G X VARIO 35-100 mm f/2.8 P.O.I.S.

22 March 2013

Arkadiusz Olech

6. Distortion

Lenses with angles of view amounting to just several dozen or even a dozen or so degrees never have any special problems with distortion. As long as you look at JPEG files it seems the Panasonic 35-100 mm doesn’t have such problems either because the value of such an aberration reaches just −0.24%, −0.08% and −0.13%, respectively for the beginning, the middle and the end of the focal length.

The problems start when you look at RAW files developed by neutral software (e.g. dcraw). Then you find out that the lens is characterized by really high barrel distortion which at 35 mm goes to –4.24% and it decreases to –1.90% in the middle of the range and to 0.65% at 100 mm. The distortion level of –4% is really high – it is usually seen in zooms designed for full frame or APS-C sensors but you should remember than their angles of view are of 70-85 degrees, not over two times narrower!

I get an impression that it was caused by following rigidly an idea that the Micro 4/3 system should correct distortion on principle. A good, reliable optics specialist from an older generation would try to correct that aberration using the optics. It wouldn’t be difficult to succeed, with such angles of view. Unfortunately, apparently they didn’t bother…

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