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Distortion for Zeiss Otus 100mm f/1.4 APO-Sonnar
Distortion of the Zeiss Otus 100/1.4 is mild pincushion distortion, low enough that it should rarely need correction, but also very easily corrected during raw conversion (see example).
Distortion is always a negative, and in this regard the performance of the Otus 100/1.4 is inferior to the Zeiss 100mm f/2 Makro-Planar which has less than 0.2% distortion (“zero distortion”). That’s apparently the price to be paid for one stop more speed. Still, this is very low distortion which means it does not need correction for most all shooting.
Note well that a low level of distortion is critical to a truly exceptional and versatile lens because when distortion correction is required because of too-high distortion, a drop in MTF occurs which makes MTF charts an unachievable false claim*. Not so with the Zeiss Otus 100/1.4—shoot it as-is and correct distortion only in special cases.
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