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Olympus Stylus XZ-2 iHS Digital Camera Review

$599.99
By Ben Keough October 31, 2012
9.4
Better than 95% of Reviewed Digital Cameras
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Distortion

Chromatic Aberration

Fast lenses are prone to chromatic aberration and (to a lesser extent) geometric distortion, and the XZ-2's 28-114mm equivalent f/1.8-2.5 lens suffers to some degree from both issues. Its performance in this regard is pretty much identical to what we saw from the XZ-1. Aberrations are visible at all focal lengths and f-stops, though they're most prevalent at wider apertures and full wide angle. At wide and middle focal lengths it shows up as green fringing, but flips over to purple/magenta at full telephoto. On the whole, the effect isn't too distracting in real world shots, but it can become noticeable in extreme high-contrast scenes.

Distortion

Geometrical distortion is fairly moderate, peaking at 1.2% barrel distortion at full wide angle. At middle focal lengths it switches to 0.25% pincushion, and continues to increase in that direction until it hits 1.0% pincushion distortion at full telephoto. This isn't bad at all, but it's pretty ordinary. The G15 outclasses it in this regard, though it beats other competitors like the Samsung EX2F. As always with a compact camera, it's hard to tell whether the XZ-2 is doing any in-camera correction of distortion and chromatic aberration behind the user's back, but from the results we're seeing we don't think that's the case.

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Ben is an experienced industry journalist, now covering cameras and camcorders for Reviewed.com. Most recently hailing from the vast wilds of the American southwest, he is an avid photographer who is deeply disturbed by the lack of wide open landscapes in Boston.
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