Venus Optics LAOWA 9 mm f/5.6 FF RL review - Chromatic and spherical aberration

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Venus Optics LAOWA 9 mm f/5.6 FF RL

13 August 2020

Maciej Latałło

5. Chromatic and spherical aberration

Chromatic aberration

In the case of the Laowa 9 mm f/5.6 FF RL it would be difficult to speak about any colouring of out-of-focus areas because, with such parameters of the lens, there are hardly any such areas at all. A photo taken at the maximum relative aperture does show slight colouring of areas before and behind the centre of depth of field. It seems that, despite employing two low dispersion ED glass elements, the tested lens doesn't correct longitudinal chromatic aberration in a perfect way.

Venus Optics LAOWA 9 mm f/5.6 FF RL - Chromatic and spherical aberration

Correction of lateral chromatic aberration is very interesting for a change – let's look at a graph below.

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The graph is quite untypical. The CA level increases very quickly as you move further away from the frame centre so on the edge of the APS-C sensor, close to the maximum relative aperture, it reaches high values. Then it starts to decrease and it stops being bothersome on the edge of full frame.

A7R II, RAW, APS-C, f/5.6	A7R II, RAW, FF, f/5.6

Spherical aberration

The tested lens's extreme parameters made it impossible to conduct two tests we usually perform in order to assess spherical aberration correction. Depth of field, provided by the Laowa, is so significant that it's very hard to notice any focus shift effect. Additionally, it was impossible to reach circles of light of a sensible size both before and behing the focus.