S9000 Distortion

[ifxmnfly]

This picture of the TV Towers in Shanghai bothers me. There is a lot of distortion, with an obvious inwards tilting of the buildings. Is this typical of the S9000 zoom lens? Assuming it is ... will a DSLR such as the K10D with a good lens avoid this warpage?

[GB1]

ifxmnfly -

Welcome to the wonderful world of distortion. There is barrel distortion, pin-hole distortion, etc. But I think it is possible that this distortion is normal for photos of tall structures taken from below. I could be wrong. Perhaps someone w/ more insight will reply on this one.

Welcome to the board btw.
GB

[eaglesona]

You might as well get used to Barrel distorion, it is a fact of life. My own Camera the Panasonic DMC-FZ 20 has a bit of a barrel distortion problem, which I regularly have to correct in Photoshop.

Distortion usually shows up with you take pictures of strait verticle or horizontal objects (such as tall buildings). Generally speaking, at the wide end of any lens (Zoomed all the way out) , you will have what is known as Barrel Distortion and at the Telephoto end of any lens, you will have pincusion distortion (though not nearly as severe, if it exists at all).

The best way to avoid distortion is to use the middle range of a camera lens. The higher priced lens's will have less distortion, but they all have it to some degree, just get used to it and use it as a tool of the trade