Heavy Distortion FUJIFILM XF 23mm f/2 R WR Lens

[bushwick1234]

I was going over a series of images shot last year with my X-T1 and the Fuji XF 23mm f/2 R WR lens bought at B&H last year, and was impressed by the amount of distortion of all backgrounds, specially of buildings. Most of the times I could not correct the distortion with Adobe LR. Or is it only me?

 

[retinax]

Are you certain you see lens distortion and not perspective? This comes up quite often. That things further away are depicted smaller, making rectangles into trapezoids etc., is not something that lenses do, it's a result of seeing a three-dimensional world from one point. I don't see why you couldn't correct lens distortion of whatever level in LR.

 

[bushwick1234]

Unedited file.

 

[Dogman]

I've never experienced distortion with my 23/2. I recall Lenstip's review of the lens indicated virtually zero distortion, even in uncorrected Raw files. Also, LR automatically corrects the Raw files from the 23/2 by applying Fuji's lens profile.

EDIT: You posted image shows the perspective distortion retinax mentioned. It's present in all lenses, more pronounced as they get wider.

 

[BernardL]

Perspective: straight lines that are parallel in real world are recorded as converging lines, straight but not parallel. The rules of perspective have been established by Brunelleschi and Alberti in the 15th century.

Distortion: straight lines in real world are recorded as (more or less) curved.

 

[shawn]

If you are looking for perspective and volume deformation corrections then DXO Viewpoint gives a lot of control.

https://www.dxo.com/dxo-viewpoint/

Shawn

 

[willie_901]

As others mentioned, keeping the camera square to the subject will eliminate converging verticals (also called keystoning). We see converging verticals when lines that are | | in reality render as / \ . This has nothing to do with lens quality. All you can do is tilt the camera until the converging vertical edges render as lines. In many cases (tall buildings) this is impractical. You can't get the camera high enough and still frame the subjects of interest.

The X-Pro 1 has an electronic level that helps eliminate horizontal tilt. You can check for vertical tilt by inspection using the optional grid overlay in the EVF display. I'm not sure the converging verticals are easy to detect in the OVF.

Most post-production software will correct for converging verticals. However this results in a crop. The larger the correction the more the frame becomes cropped. Im my experience correction converging verticals is very easy when there is no horizontal tilt. Automate correction works well in Adobe products. But when both planes are off, proper corrections can be tedious.

Kudos to Shawn for mentioning a volume deformation. This always occurs because it impossible to project three-dimensional objects into a two-dimensional plane without error. So lens quality is not a factor. Volume deformation is often observed when spherical objects render as ellipsoids or square objects render as rectangles. When you are close to objects and, or they are at the frame edges, volume deformation is most obvious.

Newer versions of Photoshop will minimize volume deformation (link).

 

[shawn]

Here is a DXO tutorial for their volume corrections. Works well and is easy to combine with their other corrections too.

Shawn

 

[bushwick1234]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I returned the lens already. And the camera as well.
DXO is not for free, right? And there are many lenses that don't have distortion at all. Isn't it a paradox to have to purchase extra software to correct lens design flaws? To me the heavy distortion displayed by this lens is a serious flaw.

If you are looking for perspective and volume deformation corrections then DXO Viewpoint gives a lot of control.

https://www.dxo.com/dxo-viewpoint/

Shawn

 

[shawn]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I returned the lens already. And the camera as well.
DXO is not for free, right? And there are many lenses that don't have distortion at all. Isn't it a paradox to have to purchase extra software to correct lens design flaws? To me the heavy distortion displayed by this lens is a serious flaw.

No, because those corrections have nothing to do with a 'flaw' in the lens. That is the reality of all wide angle lenses, even an optically 'perfect' lens will have perspective and volume deformations.

Optical lens quality distortions are combinations of barrel and pincushion distortions. Your image isn't showing that. Your image is showing perspective distortion which was caused because you didn't have the lens level and square with your subject. You were shooting with the camera pointing down, the top of your image is closer to the sensor than the bottom of your image. You would get that same distortion with any lens of that focal length if it was held at the same angle.

As an easy example of this take out the camera on your phone. Hold the camera up to a framed picture on your wall, tilt the camera top torward/away from the frame and watch how that changes the perspective distortion on the screen. That is what happened in your picture.


You can correct that (to a point) in LR but you needed to use the transform controls. The real solution is of course to understand where the distortion came from so you can avoid it next time. A different camera + lens won't solve this.

Shawn

 

[Dogman]

This is a job for Sinar, Linhof, Deardorff, etc.

 

[Dogman]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I returned the lens already. And the camera as well.
DXO is not for free, right? And there are many lenses that don't have distortion at all. Isn't it a paradox to have to purchase extra software to correct lens design flaws? To me the heavy distortion displayed by this lens is a serious flaw.

As has been pointed out, the lens is not showing a flaw whatsoever.

 

[jordan.dickinson]

That image posted looks totally fine and what I'd expect from the 23mm. I don't understand this original post as it seems you are after lens qualities that don't really exist. How do you shoot normally if that image is "too distorted" to the point of returning the camera/lens? Do you shoot only longer/tele focal lengths that are more to your liking?

Sorry, just confused on this whole thing...

 

[BernardL]

Thanks for the suggestions, but I returned the lens already. And the camera as well.

So you ask a question on a forum, and less than 6 hours later, as several people are trying to explain to you that your image is OK, you draw your own conclusions and return the lens.

 

[bushwick1234]

That image posted looks totally fine and what I'd expect from the 23mm. I don't understand this original post as it seems you are after lens qualities that don't really exist. How do you shoot normally if that image is "too distorted" to the point of returning the camera/lens? Do you shoot only longer/tele focal lengths that are more to your liking?

Sorry, just confused on this whole thing...

I shoot street mainly, and try to get as close as possible to my subjects. And I live in NYC where we have streets packed with buildings. As was pointed out here earlier, you can't always correct distortion on LR and crop images afterwards. This image isn't fine: look the top right of the vertical window frame, look the green subway fence that is not parallel but deviates apart. Some degree of distortion is natural. There are many! wide lenses without this huge amount of distortion. And I expected this 23mm to be one with little to none distortion.

 

[bushwick1234]

Another photograph shot with X-T1 and 23mm f/2 with heavy distortion. When I try to correct the image using LR I have to crop and the head gets trimmed off.

 

[13Promet]

As already pointed out, the distortion visible in your shot does not depend on the lens at all: it's perspective.
If you crouched a bit ad kept the sensor plane parallel to the fence, you'd get no distortion.

Or - from the standpoint you shot from - by using a tilt-shift lens, but that's another story and not really convenient for fast-paced sreet photography.
And anyway you'd need to understand perspective first, which you don't really seem to be keen on.

Ah... it's not a good habit to ask questions when you don't consider answers.
Especially if they are 100% consistent with each other 😉

 

[13Promet]

Another photograph shot with X-T1 and 23mm f/2 with heavy distortion. When I try to correct the image using LR I have to crop and the head gets trimmed off.

This is even funnier: you're pretending the lens to straighten your bent shot 😀

 

[shawn]

I shoot street mainly, and try to get as close as possible to my subjects. And I live in NYC where we have streets packed with buildings. As was pointed out here earlier, you can't always correct distortion on LR and crop images afterwards. This image isn't fine: look the top right of the vertical window frame, look the green subway fence that is not parallel but deviates apart. Some degree of distortion is natural. There are many! wide lenses without this huge amount of distortion. And I expected this 23mm to be one with little to none distortion.

Lens distortion would mean the window frame wasn't a straight line, or that the subway fences weren't a straight line but were curved.

This is an actual example of lens distortion from the Fuji 35mm f2:

In your pictures you have straight lines. The lens isn't distorting the picture.

That your lines aren't parallel to each other is perspective distortion. That distortion is not due to the lens at all. What you are seeing is the result of your camera being tilted relative to the subject. Nothing more.

Any same focal length wide angle lens will have the same perspective distortion if the camera+lens is tilted relative to the subject.

The wider you go, the more obvious it becomes.

Shawn

 

[bushwick1234]

Ah... it's not a good habit to ask questions when you don't consider answers.
Especially if they are 100% consistent with each other 😉

Am not closed to opinions. And I am not saying Fuji is bad. After I tossed my X-T1 along with the 23mm f/2 I purchased again the X100, but this time the faster focusing X100F, which is not giving me the "perspective" concern you mention.
And after researching a bit I found out that the 23mm f/2 has indeed a tendency to distortion (trying to avoid the term flaw and issue). I should have done the research before I bought the camera-lens combo. 🙂