please help!! is this gree bokeh fringe normal Zeiss 50f2 MP

despman · Joined: 27 Nov 2013 Posts: 7

Hi Guys,

Just got the zeiss 50f2 ZE for canon 5D3, found this green bokeh fringe when doing some test( SHOT AT ISO100 1/320 F2 the ruler is placed at about 10-15cm from lens) , is this normal or if thats too much I have to send to Zeiss Germany to get it repaird?

much appreciated for any advice!!!

philslizzy · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 4745 Location: Cheshire, England

it is chromatic aberration or 'CA'. Normal with most lenses. The extreme contrast and focus in this image accentuates it. I'm sure there are others here who can explain it better then I. Your lens will produce this normally when there is a high contrast.

Photoshop can remove it.

despman · Joined: 27 Nov 2013 Posts: 7

despman · Joined: 27 Nov 2013 Posts: 7

I know Lens may show this green fringe, but the green fringe looks too much to me in the picture, and Im not sure if this is normal particularly with the zeiss 50F2 MP? this is my first zeiss lens.

philslizzy · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 4745 Location: Cheshire, England

you have a red fringe too in the lower part of the image.

here is a post I made about a lens I got CA with in the second page there are a couple of suggestions on how it can be reduced.

http://forum.mflenses.com/rokkor-200mm-f3-5-t58903,highlight,+rokkor++200mm.html

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Shoot something real what you like and look , less chance a lot to get any CA.

despman · Joined: 27 Nov 2013 Posts: 7

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4060 Location: Charleston

Characteristic of the lens, I'm sure. The image is fascinating in that it illustrates the color change between out of focus front and out of focus rear. I've gotten this with my 180/2.8. Seems the Zeiss is more subject to this than blue fringing.

despman · Joined: 27 Nov 2013 Posts: 7

ForenSeil · Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 2726 Location: Kiel, Germany.

OOF fringing is perfectly normal with every fast lens wide open, even extremly expensive high-end lenses like Zeiss Otus have this.
But I have only very rarely seen that it's disturbing in field or visible in practice at all.

The "problem" should much less disturbing when stopped down a little and virtually gone from F4 onwards

shapencolour · Joined: 03 Oct 2013 Posts: 270

This is normal behaviour of this lens at f2.Don't worry.Mine presents the same.

Analog lex · Joined: 10 Nov 2013 Posts: 95 Location: East Europe

I have same green/red CA on my F4 Sonnar wide open. Looks like Zeiss lens feature. )

enliten · Expire: 2014-07-03

Just because it's a zeiss don't expect an achromatic lens. Very few lenses are corrected to have minimal fringing at all distances / focal lengths.

I imagine that you'll not get any better result if you send it back to Zeiss for servicing / adjustment.

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Yep, I had the Cosina Voigtlander Apo Macro 2.5/125mm and the Zeiss ZF 2/100mm at the same time and the Zeiss showed the very same CA, sold it immediately. A great and very sharp lens, but not APO corrected, so totally normal behavior.

ZF100 full format:

Detail:

buerokratiehasser · Joined: 12 Jun 2011 Posts: 470

I can't comment on whether it is normal for that lens or Zeiss lenses in general.

Green <--> magenta/red/orange spherochromatism occurs with a lot of lenses, mostly older designs. Older lenses like Sun etc. can almost be expected to have lots of it.
Unfortunately the very nice 60-300 pipe has it too, wide open.

And yes it can be pretty limiting.
Light reflexes out of focus (there is almost always something out of focus) become magenta/green. You can write it off as "that's how it is", like lens flare, doesn't disturb the image much.
But it can indeed get very annoying - as you can see with the white flower photo being unacceptable, or when I shot birds with a broken aperture wide open even if the birds rendered fine, the twiggery around didn't. It gave a funny look that was almost artistic but that was rather unintended.

Ray Parkhurst · Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 2:35 pm Post subject:

What you're seeing is Axial Chromatic Aberration (CA). Unlike Transverse CA, ACA is tough to compensate for in post. In ACA, the out of focus areas take on a different hue depending on whether they are OOF closer or farther than the critical focus plane. Editing programs in general can only determine if a pixel is OOF, not if it's OOF to the front or rear, so don't have reliable facilities to correct ACA.

I'm surprised at the level of ACA in this example. I was not aware that modern fast lenses have this level of ACA. Is this a design feature for some brands? Do the legendary "3D" lenses have the same level of ACA, or are they better and that's why they look more 3D??