Nikkor 28-105 3.5 - 4.5 D - chromatic aberration

[frederikboving]

Hi, I have just got the Nikkor 28-105 3.5 - 4.5 D for 95 USD and very happy with it. However, in some pictures (a few) I see massive blue lines in the high contrast area. Example attached. Can anyone tell me what this is? Is it chromatic aberration? Or some other issue that I have not heard of? I noticed without pixel peeking as the blue line to the left of the central-left tree trunk is very visible. Thank you for your feedback. 

[Matthew Currie]

I'm not sure just what it counts as either, but mine has it too.  I never paid much attention, but it's there.  I use the lens occasionally when going out after bugs, because it's a good range, but recently I've been favoring a freshly cleaned-up 105/2.8D for that.  Mine was gotten nearly 20 years ago, and has a little fungus, but still works pretty well.

In mine, I note that it's always on the left side of an object, and not present if the object is white.  I took pictures of white porch posts, and no such fringe occurred.  It seems particularly prevalent with darkish tree trunks, but the visibility depends on what it the trunk borders.  I haven't tried it extensively, and not checked what software solutions might be available, but it's certainly there.  If I have some time later today I'll take it out again and see if I can narrow down the instances where it's most visible.  In at least a few, it's quite obvious.

[Birna Rørslett]

This is lateral chromatic aberration probably combined with spherical aberration. High-contrast transitions are most prone to showing these artefacts. Many RAW converters can reduce this issue to insignificant levels during processing.

Decentering of a complex optic design such as a zoom lens is fairly common at least after the lens has seen some serious use, and will contribute to the issues mentioned above.

[Matthew Currie]

Mine has had a lot of use and a long life as the walk-around lens on my wife's F100 for years, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's gone a bit awry, although it's still a pretty decent lens for some uses, good and sharp for nature closeups.  I took another picture of a part of my barn, with white trim on red, and all the edges of the white trim were blue in multiple directions.  For many things it's seemed completely unremarkable, but there it was surprisingly bad.

Here's a crop of a quick and dirty shot out of a window at the barn....

[Nasos Kosmas]

I have the same lens for the last 20+ years, it’s the most used lens in my past cameras  F70, D70 and now D750
I prefer it over 24-120 f4 sometimes for the 1:2 macro capability
But I have seen it from the film days sometimes not every time I get a litle unfocus areas from almost the middle of the frame and up to the right end of it
I am sure that has decentered issues cause if I switch to macro and come back again most of the times disappears
It has a nice rendering and once I found someone who was searching the same lens cause he has sown a very nice rendering match with his D700

[frederikboving]

Hi, and than you for all your responses. I have tried to play with the CA correction sliders in PS and it helps some, but the blue line to the left of the tree trunk is simply to wide for the post processing to work. Judging from the serial number, min was among the first 2000 copies of the 40.000 they made of it. So it is probably from 1999, and hence an oldie. But it looks like brand new - not a scratch; glass looks like new. Will try the tip with switching in and out of macro mode to see if it helps.

[MEPER]

Have you tried using Capture NX-D and let it convert the raw file?
The software probably knows the lens and has a specific formular to correct CA for a specific lens. There is a check box for lateral and axial CA correction. Axial is connected to a slider while Lateral is just a check box. 

[Matthew Currie]

I just tried the nasty shot I showed a piece of, in Capture NX-D and View NX-2 (which still works with my D7100).  In both cases, Axial color aberration with the slider pretty far to the right appeared to fix it.

Here's a detail from the same shot as before, from NX-D with axial aberration at 100 percent to the right.  The shot was lousy and poorly focused to start with, but it's definitely a lot better.