Posts Tagged ‘Image Quality’

If you have an interchangeable lens camera and you're interested in capturing photos that are more than simple snapshots, then there will likely come a time when you want to purchase a new lens for your camera. Although some photographers seem to always be obsessed with the latest and greatest camera bodies, in most cases a new lens will do much more for your photography than a camera body will.

The problem can come in choosing a lens - there are so many different lenses to choose from. Different focal lengths, zooms, and fixed focal length lenses, with and without image stabilization, and at many different price points. In this article I'll look at the different features you should consider when looking at a lens, and how to decide which lens is best for you.

Chromatic Aberration can be seen as color fringes, most noticeable near the edge of an image. This is caused by different wavelengths (colors) of light being focused at different points.

In the image above you can see chromatic aberration - a green fringe on the left of the leaves, and a magenta fringe on the right.

This happens because lenses have a different refractive index for different wavelengths of light. So as the light passes through the lens, it can become split, like it does through a prism. The problem is only relatively small, but it can show up in images, particularly if you view them at large sizes.