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Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm f/2.8 ASPH OIS - Review / Test Report - Analysis |
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Lens Reviews -
(Micro-)Four-Thirds
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Page 2 of 3
Distortion
The Lumix lens produces an absolutely negligible degree of distortion. It is worth to mention that this
aspect is NOT auto-corrected via software so we're not talking about a purposely under-designed lens here.
Vignetting
At ~1.2EV the amount of vignetting is surprisingly high at max. aperture - this can be visible in some situations.
It's not overly field relevant anymore at f/4 and the problem is basically resolved from f/5.6 onwards.
Here're two sample images taken at f/2.8 and f/4:
MTF (resolution)
The Leica lens produced very impressive resolution figures in the MTF lab. The performance is excellent straight from f/2.8 till about f/8. The peak quality is already reached at f/4 although
it's not overly superior to the directly adjacent aperture settings. The quality remains
more than respectable at f/11 and it's still good at f/16. Everything beyond is lost in diffraction which is a
physical limitation and not a lens flaw.
Please note that the MTF results are not directly comparable across the different systems!
Below is a simplified summary of the formal findings. The chart shows line widths per picture height (LW/PH) which can be taken as a measure for sharpness.
If you want to know more about the MTF50 figures you may check out the corresponding Imatest Explanations
Chromatic Aberrations (CAs)
Lateral chromatic aberrations (color shadows at harsh contrast transitions) are very well controlled with a
maximum of less than 0.5px at the image borders. This isn't really field relevant anymore.
Bokeh
The quality of the bokeh (out-of-focus blur) is generally very good at max. aperture. Out-of-focus highlights
are pretty uniform here and the blur in the focus transition zone is smooth. The highlight quality deteriorates
a little when stopping down - please observe the developing outlining effect in the sample crops below. It's
also worth to mention that out-of-focus highlights are circular in the inner image portion but they change
towards an ellipsoid shape the closer they get to the image borders.
Bokeh Fringing / Longitudinal Chromatic Aberrations (LoCA)
Bokeh fringing (colored focus halos in the focus transition zone) is often a problem for large aperture lenses but the
Leica lens is very resistant here. There're only marginal traces of LoCAs at f/2.8 and there isn't really anything
left beyond. The degree of correction is certainly unusually good here.
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Move the mouse cursor over the f-stop marks below to observe the respective LoCAs
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| f/2.8 |
f/4 |
f/5.6 |
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