LensTip.com

Lens review

Sony FE 40 mm f/2.5 G

23 March 2021
Maciej Latałło

6. Distortion

After being attached to a camera body the Sony FE 40 mm f/2.5 G does what I personally hate. Let me explain. When I buy a camera with certain options I do so in order to have a free choice, not be limited.The tested lens deactivates immediately distortion correction option and distortions are corrected automatically. I completely don't understand and don't tolerate such an approach – especially that in case of this lens it's way over the top because its distortion is not that high to resort to such limitations.

First let's see what such a move of the producer and optics constructors means in practice – I think here of the performance on the corrected JPEG files. On the smaller APS-C sensor you get a result of −0.05%, and it's −0.03% on full frame. The algorithms deal with the problem exceedingly well and, as a result, distortion is practically zero.

Only after analysing RAW files, developped with independent software such as e.g. dcraw, you see how the lens's optics really deals with distortion. There are a bit more problems but, as we've already mentioned, these values are not especially bothersome. On the APS-C sensor you have to look really hard to notice slight barrel distortion of −0.62%. On full frame you are able to notice deformations without any problems but still they can hardly be called high – we got a result of −1.44%. Such values are typical for classic full frame 35-50 mm lenses for reflex cameras that were offered some 10-15 years ago.


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Sony A7R III, 40 mm, JPEG, APS-C
Sony FE 40 mm f/2.5 G - Distortion
Sony A7R III, 40 mm, JPEG, FF
Sony FE 40 mm f/2.5 G - Distortion

Sony A7R III, 40 mm, RAW, APS-C
Sony FE 40 mm f/2.5 G - Distortion
Sony A7R III, 40 mm, RAW, FF
Sony FE 40 mm f/2.5 G - Distortion