Venus Optics LAOWA 6 mm f/2 Zero-D MFT review - Chromatic and spherical aberration

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Venus Optics LAOWA 6 mm f/2 Zero-D MFT

14 March 2023

Maciej Latałło

5. Chromatic and spherical aberration

Photos below show clearly that the Venus Optics LAOWA 6 mm f/2 Zero-D MFT doesn't have any problems with longitudinal chromatic aberration. Still, we are aware that the performance in this category is hard to assess because the parameters of the lens make it difficult to produce wide out-of-focus areas even if you shoot from close distances and at the maximum relative aperture.

Venus Optics LAOWA 6 mm f/2 Zero-D MFT - Chromatic and spherical aberration

Now let's the situation of lateral chromatic aberration correction – an appropriate graph can be found below.

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Basically, the chances of perceiving this aberration you get only at the maximum relative aperture where it is 0.115%, a level we consider to be medium. The aberration decreases swiftly on stopping down the aperture so in the f/2.8-4.0 range it is low and up from f/5.6 even very low.

Olympus E-M5 II, RAW, f/2.0	Olympus E-M5 II, RAW, f/8.0

Spherical aberration

The parameters of the tested lens don't allow to assess easily the degree of correction of spherical aberration. A very significant depth of field makes it very difficult to find out whether there is any focus shift effect and there are also problems with creating significantly big defocused circles of light on both sides of the focus.

It seems that, while passing from f/2.0 to f/2.8, the depth of field moves toward greater distances. Additionally, circles of light, even if small, differ significantly from each other. There is also the fact that image quality at the maximum relative aperture is distinctly weaker than images by f/2.8.

All these factors make us think that spherical aberration is the main factor limiting image quality in the frame centre by f/2.0. Still, on stopping down the aperture by 1 EV this aberration is curbed down very efficiently.