Color Fringing with the 35mm F1.4 EF USM

[sdean7855]

There's a BH review on this lens which says:


Love the lens. Best I own but it has big time purple fringing with my 5dmk ii. Too bad. Wait for mark ii.


Was thinking of getting this lens for use with my 5DMkII. This gives me to worry. Has anyone else seen this problem? Or does he possibly have a lens with loose/shifted component that's causing chromatic aberration? Is a new model coming, as he seems to imply?

[neuroanatomist]

CA is a problem with pretty much all very fast primes - the 35L, 50L, and 85L all show it, even on 1.6x crop bodies. Here's an example from the 50mm f/1.2L on a crop body, from photozone.de's review of the lens:





It's just physics, and I suspect lens designers do their best but the problem is very hard to overcome. Best to avoid specular highlights when shooting wide open with these lenses.


No one can say if Canon will release a 35mm f/1.4L II soon (or ever), but I hope they do (for weather sealing and improved coatings, otherwise the existing one seems to be a fine lens). I can point out that every other Canon L-series prime lens at 100mm and shorter has either been updated or newly released in the past 4 years, except the 35L. Gives me hope, but who knows.

[Alan]

That's why post processing programs include CA removal. Use it. In the meantime, enjoy this wonderful lens!