Quote:I think what matters is the final output regardless of the correction that happens before the RAW file is written on the SD card.
We always hear that such corrections affect the MFT results.
However, let's consider the review of the Olympus 12-40 which is heavily corrected for barrel distortion at 12mm. According to the whooping > 8% distortion at 12mm, one would assume it doesn't perform well at such focal length, especially in the corners. When looking at the resolution figures it doesn't appear to be the case at all. How do you explain this? Perhaps the figures would be even higher without correction?
Personally, I couldn't care less whether a lens is optically corrected or whether it's done in post processing. What counts is the en result: the resolution the whole system achieves. On the plus side, post capture corrections allows designers to create smaller lenses which is a good thing IMO.
As others noted the distortion correction is accompanied by cropping which basically means that the "borders" are shifted towards the center. Thus there are two opposing forces at work here - the negative one from the interpolation and the positive one from the shift towards the higher quality inner image zone.
Whether this works out Okay is a matter of design. However, a fully corrected lens designed with the same efforts will always be better (albeit also bigger - which is the reason for underdesigning lenses - besides cost cutting).