I really like the depth of field on my 85mm 1.8 D lens, but the CA is killing me. I feel as if it's almost unusable wide open outdoors due to the strong purple fringing. Here's an example from today.



Obviously, this is just a snap and the lighting/subject matter probably brings out the worst, but I see this when photographing seniors, especially around earrings and even in the highlights in the catchlight in their eyes and it even shows up through f3.2.

Is the Nikon 85 1.8G any better when it comes to CA? The 85 1.4G is out of my budget. How does the new Sigma 85 fare?

There's a button for that in Lightroom and this has to be among the worst type of light for fringing. But yeah stopping down will help.

Sorry, I meant to post this in the Nikon forum. If a mod wants to move it over, that would be great.

TTLKurtis - I actually did use the Lightroom option and this was the "after".

My Nikon 135 does the same thing, but the depth of field on that is so shallow at f2 that I almost never shoot it wide open so it isn't as much of an issue.

Did you play with the sliders in the CA tool? You really should not have that much CA visible with the sliders set properly. I used to use the default setting, but on heavier cases, I adjust the color and amount, and it really knocks it out.

Now I feel like a real idiot, but I can't find any sliders for CA in LR4. I'm off to research this.

My 1.8G is MUCH better. I've never had to touch the CA tool in Lightroom.

James - Thanks for the info.

I guess I need to upgrade LR. The sliders were added after 4.0.

Agree with James, the 85 1.8G is much better at handling CA.

Coming from 85 1.8D to 1.8G, yes, the purple fringing is much controlled on the G version. That was my main gripe why I decided to get the G actually.

I haven't tried the D lenses, but the 85 f/1.8G has a lot of purple fringing wide open. I can distinctly recall a few photos where the fringe line was so big (on D800 photos) that LR's purple fringe removing slider gave a huge grey border and still left fringing. I am not sure how it does after f/2.8 because I basically never use it past f/2.5 or so.

form wrote:

85 f/1.8G has a lot of purple fringing wide open. I can distinctly recall a few photos where the fringe line was so big (on D800 photos) that LR's purple fringe removing slider gave a huge grey border

Of course, the Canon 85/1.8 can be the same way. I love how people say, "Oh, you can remove fringing easily these days so it's not an issue". Uhhh ... and what about the big gray line that's left behind once the fringing is removed. Maybe they've never shot with lenses that can fringe to that degree.

Purple saturation down and luminance up? Might help.

The only lenses I can remember ever having that problem to such an extent have been 85mm lenses (except the 100mm f/2 canon that I never owned). 85mm seems to be the worst for that. I had a Tamron 90mm macro that did the same thing wide open, but it was a macro lens and not necessarily meant for wide open shooting...

85L, Canon 85 f/1.8, Nikon f/1.8G...all about the same. 85L is a little better overall about fringing, but then $1600-$1800...and f/1.8-f/2 is stopped down for that lens.

form wrote:

85L is a little better overall about fringing

I've shot the 85L several times. I would say it's a little better about fringing than the 85/1.8 but, still, the 85L does have a fringing problem. I thought about buying the 85L but one thing that turned me against it is the fringing. Yeah, if you stop the 85L down you can get away from it but who spends all that money to shoot it stopped down.

The Nikon 85mm f1.8D was the very worst lens I've ever owned when it comes to flare and CA. That's saying something considering I own lenses as old as one made in 1847!!! I couldn't do much with it in PS either. The Sigma 85mm f1.4 is a HUGE improvement.


Kent in SD

Here to say that the 85 f/1.4G is just as bad in some situations. I find stopping down to f/2 doesn't lose you much in light, but definitely assists in keeping the fringing and CA away, but it still exists.

Nature of the beast when shooting wide open in broad daylight.