I will play the devil's advocate and suggest that no, a larger front element will not reduce vignette or even improve light gathering ability or overall performance for a given focal length and relative aperture. I have lenses that represent the extremes on both ends of the spectrum and can say with all honesty that, in my experience, big glass is well, big glass.
Note: Front element diameter and maximum aperture are not always correlated either, despite fast lenses typically having larger front elements. Case in point might be a couple of 28mm lenses I have on my shelf. Both are f/2.5 and both cover the 24x36 format with minimal vignette. Aside from that, the two could not be more different:
Vivitar 28/2.5 (Kiron-made):
- 67mm filter thread
- 49mm front element diameter
- 60mm overall length from mount flange
Tamron 28/2.5 (02B):
- 49mm filter thread
- 22mm front element diameter
- 38mm overall length from mount flange
FWIW, the Tamron is superior in all senses including distortion, vignette, and field curvature. I actually shoot with the Tamron, while the Vivitar is, errr, a shelf queen intended to make one of my Spotmatic bodies look more impressive on the mantle.
Steve
Last edited by stevebrot; 01-28-2017 at 02:56 PM.