Sigma 85 mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM review - Chromatic aberration

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Sigma 85 mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM

20 December 2010

Arkadiusz Olech

5. Chromatic aberration

You certainly remember the Nikkor’s AF-S 85 mm f/1.4 significant slip-up in correcting the longitudinal chromatic aberration. At the maximum relative aperture the level of that aberration was huge and it didn’t disappear even after stopping the lens down to f/2.8. Let’s check how the Sigma fares here.

Sigma 85 mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM - Chromatic aberration

By f/1.4 the situation is not good and the level of aberration – significant. It is a frequent problem of fast lenses. Fortunately, contrary to the Nikkor, the stopping down is very effective because already by f/2.8 that aberration becomes not very bothersome.

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Let’s check how the Sigma corrects the lateral chromatic aberration.

On the graph you can see that there are no problems whatsoever. Its value, within the margin of error, is the same on the edge of the APS-C/DX sensor and the full frame sensor - in the vicinity of 0.04% so a level deemed by us to be very low.

To compare the performance of the Sigma and its competitors in an objective way we decided to create a chart including all average aberration values ranging from f/1.4 to f/16, measured on the edge of the APS-C/DX and full frame sensor.

	Sigma 1.4/85	Nikkor AF-S 1.4/85	Canon 85 mm f/1.2L II	Samyang 1.4/85	Zeiss 1.4/85
APS-C/DX	0.040%	0.062%	0.058%	0.051%	0.033%
FF	0.039%	0.066%	0.092%	0.036%	0.042%

Although the differences between particular lenses are small and all devices fare well or very well here, the best are the cheapest instruments so the Samyang, the Sigma and the Zeiss. The most expensive ones – the Nikkor and the Canon- are a bit worse.