Sigma S 500 mm f/4 DG OS HSM review - Chromatic and spherical aberration

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Sigma S 500 mm f/4 DG OS HSM

5 September 2017

Arkadiusz Olech

5. Chromatic and spherical aberration

Chromatic aberration

The Sigma S 4/500 corrects the longitudinal chromatic aberration flawlessly. Even at the maximum relative aperture and in faraway blurry areas it would be difficult to notice any distinct colouring of the image. No slightest reservations here.

Sigma S 500 mm f/4 DG OS HSM - Chromatic and spherical aberration

We also don’t have any reservations concerning the lateral chromatic aberration and a graph, shown below, explains why.

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At the maximum relative aperture the level of that aberration doesn’t exceed a negligible value of 0.02%; the highest results reached near 0.03%. It is a level difficult to notice even if you look closely at enlarged 1:1 crops.

Canon 5D III, RAW, f/4.0	Canon 5D III, RAW, f/5.6

Spherical aberration

First photos of this chapter don’t feature any ‘focus shift’ effect. The crops below also prove that circles we got in front of and behind the focus look practically the same. It makes us think the tested lens doesn’t have almost any problems with spherical aberration.