Venus Optics LAOWA 17 mm f/1.8 MFT II
5. Chromatic and spherical aberration
Chromatic aberration
The tested lens doesn't have any problems with longitudinal chromatic aberration – its influence on image quality remains slight and if you spot any colouring in blurry areas positioned further in the frame, its level is not especially bothersome.![]() |
In the case of the lateral chromatic aberration the lens can be assessed equally well – a graph below presents its performance depending on the aperture value.

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The results are more or less the same and they oscillate near 0.03%. Such a value can be described as very low so there's no danger you can notice chromatic aberration in typical photos taken with this lens.
Olympus E-M5 II, RAW, f/2.8 | Olympus E-M5 II, RAW, f/8.0 |
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Spherical aberration
When it comes to the level of spherical aberration it can be described as low. If you take a closer look at first photos from this chapter you can notice a very slight focus shift toward greater distances on stopping down the aperture from f/1.8 to f/2.8. A similar situation can be observed while comparing defocused circles of light – the rim from the circle before the focus is slightly more accented. Apart from that, you can't see anything alarming.
Olympus E-M5 II, f/1.8, in front of | Olympus E-M5 II, f/1.8, behind |
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