Rangefinder lenses should include the latest 24/3.8 and 21/3.4 from Leica.
The 24 shows no CA according to Sean Reid's review.
My 21/3.4 is absent of CA, you might be able to force it to show ~1 pixel of red/blue if you examine the most extreme corner with overexposed tree branches wide open. Certainly less than the 21/2.8 Distagon.
freaklikeme wrote:
To the original question, "What lenses lack CA," there's a handful of APO LF lenses with maximum apertures of f/5.6 that lack any evident CA regardless of aperture setting. It's probably true of the Contax 645 120 macro and the R 280/4, but if lacking CA even wide open in all shooting scenarios is the criteria, none of these lenses belong on this list:
Voigtlander APO Lanthar 125mm f/2.5 Macro (1:1) - About $2.3k
Nikkor 200/2 AF-S VR I and II.
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM
(C/Y or ZE/ZF) Zeiss Distagon 21/2.8
Zeiss (Contax N) 85/1.4
Zeiss (C/Y) Planar 85/1.2
Angenieux 180/2.3 APO
Leica Elmarit-R 28mm f/2.8 V2
Leica APO-Summicron-R 90/2 ASPH
Leica APO-Macro-Elmarit-R 100mm f/2.8
Leica APO-Elmarit-R 180mm f/2.8
Leica APO-Summicron-R 180mm f/2
Sigma 150/2.8 macro
Leica APO-Telyt-R 180mm f/3.4
Pentax 200mm A* f/4 ED Macro
(C/Y) Zeiss Planar 85mm f/1.2 (Anniversary edition) - About $4k
Canon 200/1.8, 200/2
(Contax 645) Zeiss Distagon 35mm f/3.5...Show more →
The OS version of the Sigma 150 macro has no visible LoCA. It is quite different from the non-OS version. I think the OS version should be included, but not the non-OS version.
Gunzorro wrote:
Bif -- How do Canon's 90 TS-E and new 100L stack up? I'm not as widely versed in these esoteric lenses on your list, but these two seem pretty clean to me, in the same range as the 24 TS-E II.
The 90 TS-E is free of lateral CA, but has serious LoCA. This is the case with many lenses. LoCA is where they all fail.
freaklikeme wrote:
To the original question, "What lenses lack CA," there's a handful of APO LF lenses with maximum apertures of f/5.6 that lack any evident CA regardless of aperture setting. It's probably true of the Contax 645 120 macro and the R 280/4, ...
I'm sorry to report that the Apo-Telyt-R 280 does have color aberrations. Not much, mind you, but a small (and correctable) amount of TCA. For bokeh fans, color uniformity is also slightly off. Based on web samples (diglloyd), best lens for color performance is the CoastalOpt UV-VIS-IR 60mm Apo Macro. Price: $4650, and 1% linear distortion.
The only two lenses I own which has no apparent CA is Contax 120/4 APO macro and the Canon FDn 300/2.8L. Every other lens I've tried has at least som CA at wide apertures.
Not that it matters much when CA is slight, but it can be very annoying whith severe purple fringing from lenses such as the ZF 85/1.4 or HB 110/2 which are extreme.
alundeb wrote:
The OS version of the Sigma 150 macro has no visible LoCA. It is quite different from the non-OS version. I think the OS version should be included, but not the non-OS version.
So I've heard, and admittedly, I haven't used the newest model. But in the 135L vs CZ 135 thread, someone pointed to the photozone.de review of the lens, and in that review at the bottom of this page there's a shot of a ruler sampled from f/2.8 to 8. It shows magenta shift in the foreground and green/blue shift in the aft. At f/2.8 and f/4, it's also visible in the in focus areas (by 5.6 it's mostly out of the in focus). Is that not LoCA? If not, what kind of aberration is it?
Just to be clear, I'm not arguing against the greatness of the lenses in my reduced list (I cut it down to just what I've shot with enough to know that they aren't perfect). If you want to talk about the best corrected/best performing SLR lenses, it's a good list. But expecting perfection at all apertures (particularly on lenses with maximum apertures greater than f/4) isn't practical, in my experience.
rico wrote:
I'm sorry to report that the Apo-Telyt-R 280 does have color aberrations. Not much, mind you, but a small (and correctable) amount of TCA. For bokeh fans, color uniformity is also slightly off. Based on web samples (diglloyd), best lens for color performance is the CoastalOpt UV-VIS-IR 60mm Apo Macro. Price: $4650, and 1% linear distortion.
Disappointing, but not entirely surprising. I've shot with the 280/4, but not enough to make the determination. I've never touched a CostalOptics lens, but it sounds fantastic and I can see why it attracts D800e users. Too bad about the hot spot issue, though.
freaklikeme wrote:
So I've heard, and admittedly, I haven't used the newest model. But in the 135L vs CZ 135 thread, someone pointed to the photozone.de review of the lens, and in that review at the bottom of this page there's a shot of a ruler sampled from f/2.8 to 8. It shows magenta shift in the foreground and green/blue shift in the aft. At f/2.8 and f/4, it's also visible in the in focus areas (by 5.6 it's mostly out of the in focus). Is that not LoCA? If not, what kind of aberration is it?
Just to be clear, I'm not arguing against the greatness of the lenses in my reduced list (I cut it down to just what I've shot with enough to know that they aren't perfect). If you want to talk about the best corrected/best performing SLR lenses, it's a good list. But expecting perfection at all apertures (particularly on lenses with maximum apertures greater than f/4) isn't practical, in my experience....Show more →
When I know what to look for, I can see a very weak green/magenta cast and of course it is longitudinal color. When I download the images and sample the RGB values, it is evident also in the f/8 sample, where you say it is gone.
It is a question of magnitude and visibility. The Sigma APO OS is so enormously better in this respect than comparable lenses like Canon 100 2.8 macro IS, Canon TS-E 90 and ZE 100 MP. And the list of lenses with such good correction is so short, and the visible difference from perfection is so small, that it carries little meaning in a photographic sense to say the Sigma 150 APO OS has LoCA. If it does, it is not possible to find other lenses (except scientific instruments designed for infrared and ultraviolet) that don't either. I guess this is what you say in your last paragraph, and we actually agree.
Yes, I heard about that. Jenoptik should have solved this problem. I suspect it's caused by the coating from some of the elements. Besides that, this lens has the minimum LCA I've ever seen.
All of my Leica APOs have visible LCA wide open. The 90 APO is the least LCA corrected lens among them.
alundeb wrote:
The OS version of the Sigma 150 macro has no visible LoCA. It is quite different from the non-OS version. I think the OS version should be included, but not the non-OS version.
Really? Have you used both of them? I remember Jordan/Jman13 (among others) saying that it had very little LoCA.
AhamB wrote:
Really? Have you used both of them? I remember Jordan/Jman13 (among others) saying that it had very little LoCA.
I own and have used both of them, but the non-OS version in Canon mount and the OS version in Nikon mount. I haven't made a direct comparison.
For lateral CA, there is some data at photozone (cross platform)
At photozone, the non OS version gets lateral CA at about 0.8 px on 24 MP Nikon, and the OS version at about 0.2 px on 21 MP Canon. I would say this is enough to classify these two lenses in different leagues with respct to APO correction. 0.8 px is just average, nothing special.
Those results match pretty well TDP for lateral CA, with the OS version clearly better:
CA is measured and defined IN the plane of focus. Many of the Leica "APO" lenses that are atrocious at what should really be called "bokeh LoCA" or "exit pupil variance over wavelength" are very good at this point - among others. So answering the initial question is rather easy.
-That is, if you can agree on what the word "no" means. There's always CA, just more or less of it.
The only lenses that combine low CA, low LoCA and low variance are either slow (F4.0 or slower at <200mm focal lengths), very complex (the EF70-200F2.8IS2 23/19, Sigma 150F2.8OS 19/13) or very long - with lots of anomalous dispersion glass - like the modern 400/2.8's and the likes.
Thanks for the reminder about in focus and out of focus color aberrations. I wanted to make that distinction in my posts, but I couldn't find accepted terms anywhere in my memory or at tootwalker.org or any other place right now.
Should we sidetrack a little, and bring on some suggestions for semantics? "LoCA" and "Bokeh LoCA" for short and then exact wavelength dependent properties?
And yeah, the Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II deserves honorable mention here. Is varies a bit with focal length, but at 200 mm and even combined with the 2X TC III, it beats the 400 mm f/5.6 L easily for Bokeh LoCA. The combo also has more SA and a nicer in focus- out of focus transtion than the highly regarded prime.
alundeb wrote:
Should we sidetrack a little, and bring on some suggestions for semantics? "LoCA" and "Bokeh LoCA" for short and then exact wavelength dependent properties?
The problem is that technically you can't really speak of aberrations at all with regards to the OOF areas (outside the focal plane). Toothwalker suggested the term "bokeh fringing", which is unspecific enough to not be incorrect.
AhamB wrote:
The problem is that technically you can't really speak of aberrations at all with regards to the OOF areas (outside the focal plane). Toothwalker suggested the term "bokeh fringing", which is unspecific enough to not be incorrect.
Really?
I may have said something like "defocus color fringing". "Bokeh fringing" does not imply color artifacts and might be mistaken for spherical aberration.
The Samsung 85/1.4 (for NX) is near perfect, and has very low LoCA. It is the closest to APO quality of any lens I own that does not have APO in the name. Beats the Sigma APO's I own in that regard.
pdmphoto wrote:
The Samsung 85/1.4 (for NX) is near perfect, and has very low LoCA. It is the closest to APO quality of any lens I own that does not have APO in the name. Beats the Sigma APO's I own in that regard.
Considering online tests and pics it does have some, but its indeed pretty interesting and well corrected lens (in every possible aspect). Tho some of these results might be SW "fixed" (vignetting). But as LoCA isnt possible to be fixed that way, maybe its just really good lens.
Not much, mind you, but a small (and correctable) amount of TCA. For bokeh fans, color uniformity is also slightly off. Based on web samples (diglloyd), best lens for color performance is the CoastalOpt UV-VIS-IR 60mm Apo Macro. Price: $4650, and 1% linear distortion.