Chromatic aberration

I like this little lens.  It was the first lens I bought for my X-T20.  The ONLY thing that's been bothering me is the heavy purple fringing it produces.  This lens has WAY more fringing than ANY other lens I have used on this system or my old Pentax system.  Other than that, it's great for sharpness, size, weight, handling, etc.  One downside vs. a sea of positives makes it a pretty good lens if you keep in mind this one weakness and shoot accordingly.

RedDogDarren wrote:

I like this little lens. It was the first lens I bought for my X-T20. The ONLY thing that's been bothering me is the heavy purple fringing it produces. This lens has WAY more fringing than ANY other lens I have used on this system or my old Pentax system. Other than that, it's great for sharpness, size, weight, handling, etc. One downside vs. a sea of positives makes it a pretty good lens if you keep in mind this one weakness and shoot accordingly.

I have to say this was not my experience at all with this lens. I don’t recall it producing any CA (or certainly none that I noticed).
I’d add that this is probably one of Fuji’s best primes (for the money) with no flaws to speak off. Super sharp right through the aperture range (until diffraction set in), superb micro contrast and blazing fast AF. The only reason I no longer have one is I wanted something faster - so I snapped up the Sigma 56mm as soon as it was released.

GMacF wrote:

RedDogDarren wrote:

I like this little lens. It was the first lens I bought for my X-T20. The ONLY thing that's been bothering me is the heavy purple fringing it produces. This lens has WAY more fringing than ANY other lens I have used on this system or my old Pentax system. Other than that, it's great for sharpness, size, weight, handling, etc. One downside vs. a sea of positives makes it a pretty good lens if you keep in mind this one weakness and shoot accordingly.

I have to say this was not my experience at all with this lens. I don’t recall it producing any CA (or certainly none that I noticed).
I’d add that this is probably one of Fuji’s best primes (for the money) with no flaws to speak off. Super sharp right through the aperture range (until diffraction set in), superb micro contrast and blazing fast AF. The only reason I no longer have one is I wanted something faster - so I snapped up the Sigma 56mm as soon as it was released.

RedDog, the only way it would show visible PF or CA is if you were processing a RAW without the Fuji profile - and even then it should be hard to spot. Certainly on C1, it is totally corrected. I have several Pentax lenses (majority of them film era though), and they all show far more PF than the XF 50f/2. You might have a defective sample, unfortunately. Do you see any softness to one side when shot wide open?

My sample is easily the best overall Fuji lens I own (two zooms, four primes), although none of the other five are less than "good" optically.

I have never seen the 50mm f2 produce CA

Morris

RedDogDarren wrote:

I like this little lens. It was the first lens I bought for my X-T20. The ONLY thing that's been bothering me is the heavy purple fringing it produces. This lens has WAY more fringing than ANY other lens I have used on this system or my old Pentax system.

If you make such a statement, please add samples including an information on how you processed them.

Other than that, it's great for sharpness, size, weight, handling, etc. One downside vs. a sea of positives makes it a pretty good lens if you keep in mind this one weakness and shoot accordingly.

I have this lens, too, and I find it my sharpest Fujifilm lens. Similar sharpness like the Laowa 65/2.8. I never observed special CA with it.

Regards,

Martin

Never had issues or CA with this little gem.It’s one one of the best lenses Fujifilm produced and surely the best cron.Great Micro contrast as well and ideal for bw photography!

This lens is definitely well corrected for CA optically, and not just a software gimmick. This is an excellent lens and super sharp. It’s pretty hard to make a 50mm lens NOT sharp unless it’s intentional. I have this lens and use it often and it is bitingly sharp, with very good contrast and detail, even wide open.

I love mine and use it all the time. I can definitely get it to show some purple fringing under fairly specific circumstances -- mostly on fairly distant out of focus forms in low angle sunset light-- but it's not a big problem.

Oh yes-- I have a few Pentaxes that will do it for at the oddest times.

Hi,

Like others, the OP's review surprised me. I've found the 50/2 an excellent lens with only marginal evidence of CAs in very harsh contrast situations. So, having read the post, I mounted my 50/2 and shot out of my window early this morning..... And for good measure, did the same with the 60/2.4 and Laowa 65/2.8 - possible short tele alternatives. Handheld only, no filters, SOOC, no PP.

I think CAs are a curse in skylight-through-trees backgrounds - so here's a torture test, two shots each, wide open and about two stops down..... This test would have been tougher if there had been bright white clouds behind the trees, but they're not on offer here today. There should be ample opportunity for lateral and axial CAs in this situation.

Edit - I've just recalled that the camera partially corrects CAs for XF lenses, so that undermines this test a bit. OTOH, Fuji cameras don't correct for non-XF lenses - so the images from the Laowa, which supplies no data to the body, are just as the lens delivered them to the sensor. Which confirms that it's an excellent lens on the CA front, as its apo tag implies.

There's nothing like a test. I'm not seeing a lot of CAs from any of them. Your thoughts?

Cheers, Rod

50/2/@f2

50/2@f4

60/2.4@f2.4

60/2.4@f4

Laowa 65/2.5 Apo Macro @f2.8

Laowa 65/2.5 Apo Macro @f5.6

Same here, for me close to stellar lens

I wonder if the OP is not referring to lateral/transverse chromatic aberration, but rather to the longitudinal/axial kind, also called bokeh fringing, demonstrated by this old Optical Limits review: https://opticallimits.com/fuji_x/1014-fuji50f2?start=1

(I don't have the 50mm f2, but have always been intrigued by it!)

You got a bad copy. Try and switch for another. It only has minor fringing usually.

Same thing happened to me with my first 23mm f2. Terrible CA. Next one had almost none.

graystubble wrote:

I wonder if the OP is not referring to lateral/transverse chromatic aberration, but rather to the longitudinal/axial kind, also called bokeh fringing, demonstrated by this old Optical Limits review: https://opticallimits.com/fuji_x/1014-fuji50f2?start=1

(I don't have the 50mm f2, but have always been intrigued by it!)

Longitudinal CA is something I am not familiar with how it is compensated for optically. I understand how lateral CA is produced and compensated for.

But yes, maybe he is referring to Longitudinal CA, which shows up in the bokeh highlights as light blues. I think the 23mm f/2 suffers from it in extreme cases, but for the most part I love the lens.