Venus Optics LAOWA 9 mm f/2.8 ZERO-D review - Distortion

Have you rated your lenses yet?

Venus Optics LAOWA 9 mm f/2.8 ZERO-D

20 April 2018

Arkadiusz Olech

6. Distortion

The Fujifilm camera bodies often correct distortion in JPEG files so below we present the appearance of our chart both in JPEG and RAW format. Don’t expect to notice any distinct differences between these images because the Laowa doesn’t have any contacts. It means a camera body simply doesn’t know what is attached and how to correct it. Our measurements confirm our speculations. For the JPEG file we saw moderate barrel distortion of −1.80%, and for RAW file that value was −1.73%. Both results are in accordance with each other within the margin of error.

Like in our latest test of the Sigma A 14–24 mm f/2.8, we decided to move the focus ring to infinity and stop the aperture down significantly while taking photos of our distortion testing chart – all that was done to get a sharp image even though the lens was positioned very close to the chart. In that case the distortion amounted to −1.06%. As you see you don’t get literally ZERO-D but still you have to admit the lens corrects that optical aberration quite well despite such a wide angle of view.

As we’ve already mentioned the field of view – our photos of starry sky allowed us to measure it very precisely. A 9 mm rectilinear lens on the APS-C sensor (1.5x multiple) should have a field of view of 115.2 degrees. The Laowa producers state in the specification that the field of their lens is 113 degrees. Our measurements produced a value of 113.6 degrees, with the measuring error amounting to 0.1-0.2 of a degree. As you see the producers were right and the field of view of their lens is even a tad wider than declared.

Please Support Us

If you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - advertisement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -