Studio Tests - NX 30mm F2 Pancake lens

The NX10's second kit lens is the fixed-focal length 30mm F2 'Pancake'. This fits very well with the downsizing concept of mirrorless interchangable lens cameras, giving a compact, lightweight and highly portable combination with the NX10.

The 30mm F2 pancake measures up extremely well in our studio tests. It's impressively sharp, even at F2, and shows very low distortion, chromatic aberration and falloff. Overall it gives just as good results as Panasonic's Lumix G 20mm F1.7 ASPH pancake - but without apparently making any use of software corrections to get there.

Sharpness
Sharpness is high in the center of the frame wide open at F2, but the corners are just a little soft. However they sharpen up rapidly on stopping down, and by F4 sharpness is excellent right across the frame. The very best results are achieved from about F4 to F6.3; at smaller apertures sharpness progressively decreases due to diffraction, with apertures smaller than F16 probably best avoided.
Chromatic Aberration
Lateral chromatic aberration is negligible.
Falloff
We consider falloff to become perceptible when the corner illumination falls to more than 1 stop less than the centre. Here it measures just 0.7 stops wide open - nothing to be concerned about at all.
Distortion
Distortion is very low, measuring just 0.7% barrel, which you're unlikely to see in normal use.

Macro Focus

The measured closest focus distance is 0.25m, which gives a working distance of about 20 cm between the subject and the front of the lens.This translates to a magnification of 0.16x.

Image quality is pretty good; central sharpness is high even at F2, but the corners are a little soft and low in contrast. They sharpen up well on stopping down, though, and at F8 the lens renders our test chart crisply from corner to corner. There's moderately strong barrel distortion, but no visible chromatic aberration.
Macro - 143 x 95 mm coverage
Distortion: Barrel
Corner softness: Low
Focal length: 30mm (45 mm equiv)