The 16mm f/2.8 on the X-E2

Anyone using this combination? It seems that whilst my X-T2 corrects the lens’s optical distortion (in fact to my eye it over-corrects it just very slightly) the X-E2 doesn’t, and nor did the X-T1 that I previously had. My X-E1 also doesn’t correct it, but I expected that, as I believe (perhaps incorrectly) that the E1 doesn’t have the LMO whereas the E2 does—though perhaps I’ve misunderstood the scope of the LMO.

There seem to be no relevant firmware updates to either the E2 or the lens, so it would appear that there’s no way round this. Obviously, it’s not a big deal for rural shots but it is for urban ones.

Is anyone using the 16/2.8 on an X-Trans II body without seeing the barrel distortion?

(I know one solution is “swap the 16 for the 14” but I’ve tried two copies of that lens and not had much luck: one seemed to have unreliable AF while the other had a faulty aperture ring, so I’m not convinced by the build quality—and in any case I like the compact size, fast AF and—on other bodies—weather resistance of the 16.)

Jeff Biscuits wrote:

Anyone using this combination? It seems that whilst my X-T2 corrects the lens’s optical distortion (in fact to my eye it over-corrects it just very slightly) the X-E2 doesn’t, and nor did the X-T1 that I previously had. My X-E1 also doesn’t correct it, but I expected that, as I believe (perhaps incorrectly) that the E1 doesn’t have the LMO whereas the E2 does—though perhaps I’ve misunderstood the scope of the LMO.

There seem to be no relevant firmware updates to either the E2 or the lens, so it would appear that there’s no way round this. Obviously, it’s not a big deal for rural shots but it is for urban ones.

You're probably correct in assuming this is due to a lack of firmware support for the earlier generations.

If you're shooting RAW, you might be able to apply a lens correction profile to at least correct lens distortion in your final image. Unfortunately, this won't do anything to the distortion displayed during composition and capture.

FTOG wrote:

If you're shooting RAW, you might be able to apply a lens correction profile to at least correct lens distortion in your final image. Unfortunately, this won't do anything to the distortion displayed during composition and capture.

Indeed (and the lack of correction in the viewfinder isn’t a major issue), I’m just trying to minimise workflow these days. One of the things I really like about Fujifilm (having come from mainly Ricoh) is the quality of JPEGs so I’m seizing the opportunity to do as little as possible in Lightroom 🙂

Hi Jeff,

I just put my 16/2.8 on my old XT1, and it looked quite rectilinear through the EVF..... I lined up interior building details - walls and cupboards, etc.  No problem.  I can't explain why your lens might not have looked rectilinear on your XT1.

Regards, Rod

Rod McD wrote:

I just put my 16/2.8 on my old XT1, and it looked quite rectilinear through the EVF..... I lined up interior building details - walls and cupboards, etc. No problem. I can't explain why your lens might not have looked rectilinear on your XT1.

Interesting. Thanks. Now I look again at the X-T1 shots there’s also a lot of softness/CA in the edges and corners, but again this is (impressively) well-corrected on the T2. I’ve also used it on my A5, but that’s infrared so hard to draw robust conclusions from—but that certainly seems much better than the T1, if maybe just a little shy of the T2. Hmm…