FujiFilm X100 T - Lens Distortion

[mbaginy]

I spent a week in beautiful Gdansk.  Mainly I used my X-T1 but also carried the X100 T when wanting to travel light.  While processing my images, I ran across interesting lens distortion of the X100 T.  Take a look at the train tracks at the bottom of the photo.

I was able to correct this in LR by enabling the Profile Correction plus adding +2 manually.  I've never seen such lens distortion as 23/2 lens exhibits - interesting.

[rdonson]

Mike, that's some weird distortion.  There really aren't any technical reviews of this lens that I could find online.  I'm wondering if that lens has a problem and if you should send it back to Fuji. 

[Rob C]

It's also in the roof; however, can you be sure it's all in the lens and not perhap's construction problems in the real world? Or both?

I hate it when this stuff happens; I get something unreal - probably barrel distortion - with my 2/35mm Nikkor whereas the old 2.8/35mm never gave me a hint of trouble. I only changed because the slower lens had gone physically wonky after maybe twenty years of use.

Rob

[mbaginy]

That's right, Rob, I hadn't noticed the distortion in the roof - probably though it was part of the wood construction.  I'm sure the tracks weren't warped. 

Ron, I'll send this (uncorrected) photo to FujiFilm, Germany to get their input.  They've been helpful and quick to respond with former queries I sent them.

Rob, whilst I prefer fast lenses in order to shoot wide open, many such lenses seem to distort a great deal more than their slower siblings.  I'm not pleased about the philosophy of companies which add lens correction during post processing.  Maybe that's one reason I always loved my Leica lenses, regardless of on analog bodies or attached to digital ones.  The lenses themselves are corrected (so it was explained to me).  Often little things matter: I preferred the Nikon 105/4 micro to the newer and faster 2.8 version simply because of the built-in lens shade.  I absolutely detest most current lens shades!

[TonyVentourisPhotography]

Do you use lightroom?  I wonder what happens if you activate the lens correction profile.  If it straightens...its probably just the lens.  I dont recall seeing that shape distortion on my x100... i'de have to look closer.  It definitely has some distortion though overall.  Lightroom corrects it great though.

[John R]

Are your sure that's lens distortion? Rail tracks undulate up and down and left and right, and seldom go in absolute straight lines. Even the up and down movement from a certain perspectives can make tracks look like they are bending or bowed, or curved.

JR

[mbaginy]

Do you use lightroom?  ...

I use LR CC.  Upon import, without lens correction applied, the images looks as I have shown.  I've been able to correct the distortion by using the appropriate settings.  I was simply amazed at the amount of and type of distortion the lens apparently creates.

[mbaginy]

Are your sure that's lens distortion?
JR

John, my hands are not as steady as decades ago, but if that isn't lens distortion, I had better hang it up.  I can still pot balls at snooker and hand-hold a 35mm lens (fairly well) at 1/15 second.  And no, the Polish railway didn't buy warped rails (I hope).

I've sent Fujifilm, Germany an E-Mail asking for their comments.  They're quite helpful.  Anyway, I'm not complaining, just amazed at the style of distortion.  I've known pincushion and barrel distortion but never encountered "barrelcushion" or "waviness" whatever you might call it.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

It is a known distortion type: mustache distortion.

[mbaginy]

It is a known distortion type: mustache distortion.

That's a new one for me, Slobodan.  Thanks!

[JeanMichel]

Slobodan has the right way of describing this distortion. My Canon 24-105 has the same moustache distortion at the 24 mm end, it disappears at even just a bit longer focal lenght. You cannot remove this type of distortion in LR. I read somewhere about some software, perhaps DXo, that has lens specific complex distortion adjustments.
Jean-Michelb

[AFairley]

I would have thought that the Fuji raw files have baked in distortion correction information that LR would automatically apply.  Also that Fuji would apply distortions correction in-camera to jpegs (is there a menu setting for this that is in the "off" state?).  However, you can create a custom distortion correction profile using the Adobe lens profile creator.  Since that is based on whole-image analysis, it should be able to correct mustache distortion that is beyond the reach of pincushion and barrel sliders..