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Distortion
This page covers distortion. With zoom lenses, distortion is usually of the barrel type at the wide end, and pincushion at the long end, with a happy medium somewhere in-between. The 70-200VR seems no exception.
200mm
The 70-200VR2 has quite noticeable pincushion distortion (bowing in). Mouse over the image below to see it change to the 200mm f/2 VR. Both images at f/2.8. Also observe the difference in vignetting and color. Also noted, but not shown here is that the 200VR is also notably sharper with better contrast.
Observe an odd central hot spot effect with the 70-200VR — I observed this with other images as well, with the center actually brighter than when stopped down. By comparion, the 200mm f/2VR has a beautifully uniform result, and to my eye the color of the 200VR is superior as well. But of course the 200/2 VR is stopped down one stop at f/2.8, and so should be expected to be near its peak already.
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Diglloyd DAP is DSLR-oriented, but also contains workflow and other topics. Much of the focus is on Canon and Nikon but also Pentax and Pentax medium format.
Special emphasis is placed on lens evaluation, focusing on Canon and Nikon and Sigma lenses, but with a few others like Rokinon/Samyang.
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- Aperture series from wide open through stopped down, showing the full range of lens performance and bokeh.
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