Nikon Nikkor AF-P DX 70-300 mm f/4.5-6.3G ED VR review - Chromatic and spherical aberration

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Nikon Nikkor AF-P DX 70-300 mm f/4.5-6.3G ED VR

12 August 2018

Arkadiusz Olech

5. Chromatic and spherical aberration

Chromatic aberration

Only one low dispersion glass element in the optical construction of the tested Nikkor is, evidently, not enough. Photos shown below prove that the lens has noticeable problems with the longitudinal chromatic aberration, clearly visible at 135 and at 300 mm focal length even on stopping down the aperture by 1 EV.

Nikon Nikkor AF-P DX 70-300 mm f/4.5-6.3G ED VR - Chromatic and spherical aberration

When it comes to lateral chromatic aberration the graph below presents its correlation with the focal length and aperture values.

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Only the 70 mm focal length won’t give you any reasons to complain, even though the aberration gets to medium values at that place. That medium value can be spotted without any problems at 135 mm and at the longer end of the focal spectrum the situation is only worse. At 200 mm you see high values which turn into very high at 300 mm. We have to say in this category the tested lens didn’t exactly distinguish itself.

Nikon D500, RAW, 70 mm, f/16.0	Nikon D500, RAW, 300 mm, f/6.3

Spherical aberration

Looking at first photos of this chapter it’s obvious the Nikkor AF-P DX 70-300 mm VR doesn’t have any ‘focus shift’ effect.

Circles of light presented below aren’t perhaps exactly perfect but there are no visible differences between images before and after the focus. Both these features allow us to say that in our opinion the tested Nikkor doesn’t have any distinct problems with spherical aberration.