Mirrorless camera distortions?

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skater

New member
Anyone with a mirrorless camera notice a lot of distortions at some focal lengths?

We got my wife an Olympus 4/3rds camera a few weeks back. Last night, I was working on her pictures from her trip to Seattle, and I'm seeing some horrible barrel distortions in some of the pictures.

I know all lenses have some distortions, and I correct the ones from my D7000 as much as I can (not all of my lenses are in the database I use, so not all can be corrected). But with those, I can't even see the distortions until after they are corrected, if that makes sense - that is, if I didn't correct it, I'd never notice the distortions in the first place. So, not bad.

The ones in the Olympus, though... wow. Glass display cases that look like they bulge out in the middle. Walls that look like they curve. It's pretty serious and obvious. I'll try to post some examples later.

So, my question is whether this is something unique to the lenses she has, or if it's some weird limitation of the format, or what... I don't think there's anything "broken" that would need repair.

(Side note - I need to figure out how to take photos for the lensfun people to add in the corrections for distortions. I have several lenses that aren't in the database now.)
 
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PapaST

Senior Member
If I had to guess I'd say the distortion is more tied to the focal length and the actual quality of the lens you are shooting and possibly the size of the sensor. I have a mirrorless and I do see some distortion but nothing to raise a flag over. It's a Sony A6000 so it's a crop sensor not a 4/3rds.

What focal length was the glass display you were shooting? And what was the lens?
 
AC016

AC016

Senior Member
" So, my question is whether this is something unique to the lenses she has, or if it's some weird limitation of the format, or what... I don't think there's anything "broken" that would need repair." It would help if you told us which lens was being used and at what focal length. Won't be able to answer without the info.
 
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skater

New member
Sorry - I didn't mention which lens it is because (a) I didn't know off the top of my head, and (b) it's not a Nikon lens, so I figured people probably wouldn't be that familiar with them. The lenses are of the standard zoom range - an M.Zuiko 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 II R (28-84 mm equivalent) and the M.Zuiko ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 R (80-300 mm). They aren't fisheyes or lenses designed to intentionally distort the picture. I'm guessing the distortions I'm seeing are with the first lens - she probably didn't use the second lens much. (I wasn't there, so I have to rely on stories and EXIF data.)

Unfortunately I didn't get pictures posted last night like I'd hoped, but for example she took some pictures of Seattle from a boat, and the shoreline clearly curves upwards from the center of the picture, and the Space Needle appears to be leaning toward the rest of Seattle. It almost does look like a mild fisheye. When I post the picture we can check the focal length she used, but I'm assuming it's closer to 14mm than to 42mm.

But, since I know most people here probably aren't Olympus experts, I was trying to ask a more general question - is this something common to the 4-3rds format, perhaps a limitation of the smaller lenses? Or is it likely specific to that lens model?
 
AC016

AC016

Senior Member
skater said:
Sorry - I didn't mention which lens it is because (a) I didn't know off the top of my head, and (b) it's not a Nikon lens, so I figured people probably wouldn't be that familiar with them. The lenses are of the standard zoom range - an M.Zuiko 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 II R (28-84 mm equivalent) and the M.Zuiko ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 R (80-300 mm). They aren't fisheyes or lenses designed to intentionally distort the picture. I'm guessing the distortions I'm seeing are with the first lens - she probably didn't use the second lens much. (I wasn't there, so I have to rely on stories and EXIF data.)

Unfortunately I didn't get pictures posted last night like I'd hoped, but for example she took some pictures of Seattle from a boat, and the shoreline clearly curves upwards from the center of the picture, and the Space Needle appears to be leaning toward the rest of Seattle. It almost does look like a mild fisheye. When I post the picture we can check the focal length she used, but I'm assuming it's closer to 14mm than to 42mm.

But, since I know most people here probably aren't Olympus experts, I was trying to ask a more general question - is this something common to the 4-3rds format, perhaps a limitation of the smaller lenses? Or is it likely specific to that lens model?
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No need for "experts". We only need to do a little research online. Personally, i have never heard of distortion being associated with the sensor size. If you read a few reviews on the 14-42, you will see that if you use a program such as CaptureOne and look at uncorrected files, you will see that at 14mm, there is horrible distortion: Olympus M.ZUIKO 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II R - Review / Test Report - go to second page of review. Even right out of the camera, there is slight barrel distortion at 14mm. Though, i would expect it at such a focal length. Keep in mind that this lens is what they call a "kit" lens, so "pro" level performance should not necessarily be expected. I am sure that if you plug the lens profile into photoshop, it will be corrected. You can also chat with RickM about Olympus stuff ;)
 
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skater

New member
AC016 said:
No need for "experts". We only need to do a little research online. Personally, i have never heard of distortion being associated with the sensor size. If you read a few reviews on the 14-42, you will see that if you use a program such as CaptureOne and look at uncorrected files, you will see that at 14mm, there is horrible distortion: Olympus M.ZUIKO 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II R - Review / Test Report - go to second page of review. Even right out of the camera, there is slight barrel distortion at 14mm. Though, i would expect it at such a focal length. Keep in mind that this lens is what they call a "kit" lens, so "pro" level performance should not necessarily be expected. I am sure that if you plug the lens profile into photoshop, it will be corrected. You can also chat with RickM about Olympus stuff ;)
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Thanks. The 14mm example in the link is exactly what I'm seeing. It looks bad!

Unfortunately, I'm not comparing this to a pro lens, since we don't have any...

My photo editor of choice, Darktable, will do corrections but it relies on the library underneath having the info to do the correction. Until that's done, I'm not sure if I should tell my wife to shoot in JPG or stay away from the 14mm end (which she won't, I know) - it looks like the camera fixes the distortion in JPG mode. If she shoots JPG, less work for me...hmm.... ;)
 
AC016

AC016

Senior Member
skater said:
Thanks. The 14mm example in the link is exactly what I'm seeing. It looks bad!

Unfortunately, I'm not comparing this to a pro lens, since we don't have any...

My photo editor of choice, Darktable, will do corrections but it relies on the library underneath having the info to do the correction. Until that's done, I'm not sure if I should tell my wife to shoot in JPG or stay away from the 14mm end (which she won't, I know) - it looks like the camera fixes the distortion in JPG mode. If she shoots JPG, less work for me...hmm.... ;)
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If your wife is only looking at her photos on the pc or posting them online somewhere, i think the JPEGs would suffice. There is quite a bit you can do to a JPEG in regards to editing. Question: is there a built in RAW converter in your camera; meaning, shoot in RAW, then do simple edits in camera and convert into JPEG?
 
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skater

New member
AC016 said:
If your wife is only looking at her photos on the pc or posting them online somewhere, i think the JPEGs would suffice. There is quite a bit you can do to a JPEG in regards to editing. Question: is there a built in RAW converter in your camera; meaning, shoot in RAW, then do simple edits in camera and convert into JPEG?
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Yes, it does. It has a feature that lets you take several pictures and combine them into one in a "postcard" format, and my wife used it to combine a few raw images, so clearly it can do a raw->JPG conversion after the picture is written to the card. I'm not sure what other edits are available - I didn't look closely, because the whole in-camera editing thing is odd to me (my D7000 does it too, but I've never really used it). Or if it could do raw+JPG like the Nikon DSLRs, that would be nice. I'll have to look.

On the other hand, I don't know why I'm so worried about the raw file - it's not like our point-and-shoot Canon does raw files, and I edit them all the time.

Mostly our pictures do two things: 1. Go on the web to share with friends (and, occasionally, Nikonites), and 2. Sit in my database for about 3 years until my wife gets to scrapbooking that event/trip/etc. when we print them 4x6s - she's pretty consistently about three years behind in scrapbooking.
 
AC016

AC016

Senior Member
skater said:
Yes, it does. It has a feature that lets you take several pictures and combine them into one in a "postcard" format, and my wife used it to combine a few raw images, so clearly it can do a raw->JPG conversion after the picture is written to the card. I'm not sure what other edits are available - I didn't look closely, because the whole in-camera editing thing is odd to me (my D7000 does it too, but I've never really used it). Or if it could do raw+JPG like the Nikon DSLRs, that would be nice. I'll have to look.

On the other hand, I don't know why I'm so worried about the raw file - it's not like our point-and-shoot Canon does raw files, and I edit them all the time.

Mostly our pictures do two things: 1. Go on the web to share with friends (and, occasionally, Nikonites), and 2. Sit in my database for about 3 years until my wife gets to scrapbooking that event/trip/etc. when we print them 4x6s - she's pretty consistently about three years behind in scrapbooking.
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In that case, i would suggest sticking to JPEGs. Less headaches for you i think ;)
 
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Rick M

Senior Member
What software are you using to upload? I've been using Oly viewer 3 and then importing into lightroom. I have not seen any unusual distortion, but I only have their pro glass. For a more in depth response, post the question in dpreview under the M 4/3 section, lost of gear geeks there :).
 
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skater

New member
Rick M said:
What software are you using to upload? I've been using Oly viewer 3 and then importing into lightroom. I have not seen any unusual distortion, but I only have their pro glass. For a more in depth response, post the question in dpreview under the M 4/3 section, lost of gear geeks there :).
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I just copy them off the memory card then load them into Darktable for editing. It sounds like the issue is just within the lens we have, and other lenses aren't a problem.
 
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