Nikon Nikkor AF-S 24-120 mm f/4G ED VR review - Chromatic aberration

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Nikon Nikkor AF-S 24-120 mm f/4G ED VR

31 January 2011

Arkadiusz Olech

5. Chromatic aberration

One glance at charts testing the autofocus accuracy, presented in chapter 10 is enough to see that the longitudinal chromatic aberration won’t be any problem for the tested lens. When it comes to the lateral version of this aberration, though, the situation is quite different and the measurements, presented on graphs below, show it very clearly (the first graph concerns the edge of the DX sensor, the second – the edge of the FX sensor)

Nikon Nikkor AF-S 24-120 mm f/4G ED VR - Chromatic aberration

At the maximum relative aperture and all focal lengths we deal with a high level, amounting to 0.2%. What’s interesting this aberration is characterized by intensive blue-purple borders because the shortest wavelengths of the visible spectrum are exactly the worst controlled here; on the other hand we can also notice yellow borders only slightly less intensive than the blue ones. It can be observed very well on the MTF function graph presented below which has been divided into separate basic colours. The blue curve stands out from the average and the curves of other colours a lot.

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On stopping down the aperture the lateral chromatic aberration is corrected in a better way. The problem is that only near f/11 we see it reduced to average levels. If you want to take a photo in the range from f/4.0 to f/8.0 you must take into account huge lateral aberration problems.