Canon 18-55IS red and blue fringing: normal?

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tomh260

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Hello, new member here. I'm posting in here because I don't know where otherwise to put this query!

I have a Canon 500D and mainly use the 18-55IS kit lens. I have had it for some time, but compared to the quality of the 55-250 I also have, and the previous panasonic lumix camera I had before that, I'm not that happy with the image quality.

For a start I'm not sure it is as sharp as I'd like, but mainly every photo has some degree of red and blue fringe to it (straight from camera as jpegs, no UV filter or anything). I'm not sure if this is 'chromatic aberration', which is generally described as purple. I have uploaded some cropped examples of what I mean below. Obviously it is worse in contrasty situations outdoors with bright sky, but if you zoom in far enough it is very evident everywhere: foreground, background etc. The worst examples are noticable at much lower zoom level, which is annoying. Do they all do this, or do you think I have a duff lens? I was thinking of upgrading the lens, but it is usefully small/light for me so would rather get another if the build quality can be a bit variable!

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Yep, its pretty normal Im afraid for certain lenses. Its commonly refered to as Chromatic Abberation, although Im sure someone will be along soon to describe the exact scientific differences between different types.
Some software such as Lightoom can automaticly reduce this, but you wont remove it completely.
 
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I use an 18-55mm IS II lens and don't have this problem? Lens broken in some way perhaps?
 
Pegasus2 said:
I use an 18-55mm IS II lens and don't have this problem? Lens broken in some way perhaps?
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No its not broken, its Chromatic Abberation, as I described above.
 
Ah, ok thanks. I hadn't really heard it as a criticism of this lens before, but it seems very noticeable to me. Maybe time for an upgrade then!
 
Even some pro lenses get it. My Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 had a bit, but it was easilly fixed with Lightroom.
 
TCR4x4 said:
No its not broken, its Chromatic Abberation, as I described above.
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You might have described CA, but that is not normal for the 18-55IS. That looks worse than the results with the original non-IS kit lens.
 
Dave1 said:
You might have described CA, but that is not normal for the 18-55IS. That looks worse than the results with the original non-IS kit lens.
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It seems pretty common on this lens

http://www.photozone.de/Reviews/181-canon-ef-s-18-55mm-f35-56-is-test-report--review?start=1

The level of lateral chromatic aberrations (color shadows at harsh contrast transition) is varying throughout the zoom range. At 18mm the CAs stay below 1px on the average at the image borders which is surprisingly well controlled even when compared to higher priced standard zoom lenses. In the middle range the CAs are quite significant (up to 1.5+ px) but the problem decreases again beyond.
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http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/News/DxOMark-news/Canon-EF-S-18-55mm-f3.5-5.6-IS-II

Brief report on the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f3.5 5.6 IS II measurements

It is rare that entry-level lenses achieve a high level of image quality and this is no exception.
he overall resolution is a bit low on the center and it worsens towards the field.
Lens distortion is high at 18mm; however it remains well controlled for other focal lengths.

Chromatic aberration is too high on the whole focal range.
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TCR4x4 said:
It seems pretty common on this lens
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Yes, the lens has some CA, but from personal experience of using the lens on a few Canon bodies (and not just reading a few reviews) the above examples are not what I (or Pagasus2 who also seems to have actually used the lens) experienced.

The lens is capable of better (or is a bad copy of the lens).
 
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Can you upload high quality copies f the uncropped images. It's easy to pick fault with any lens if you crop down to individual pixels. Maybe a test shot of something like a lamp post with light sky behind that we can reproduce and compare to other lenses.
 
Dave1 said:
Yes, the lens has some CA, but from personal experience of using the lens on a few Canon bodies (and not just reading a few reviews) the above examples are not what I (or Pagasus2 who also seems to have actually used the lens) experienced.

The lens is capable of better (or is a bad copy of the lens).
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What makes you think I havent used the lens??

I had a 50D and 450D for a year...

Dont jump to conclusions my friend, it will bite you on the ass. :wave:
 
Lateral chromatic aberration is the pink/red and blue/green you get either side of bright light/dark transitions. Purple fringing is axial chromatic aberration and tends to be harder to remove but is fortunately less common.

The good news is that DPP, the free Canon software that comes with the camera, gets rid of it very effectively, but you have to shoot Raw. It contains custom profiles for all Canon lenses, at all focal lengths and apertures. Lightroom has something similar, but isn't quite as good at it as DPP I find.
 
Thanks dave for understanding my post and clering things up.

My point was there may be somthing up with the lens that is exacerbaiting it.

I looked back through all my images with that lens and only found 1 picture that has CA of the level shown in the pics and that was at 70% zoom, where I began to see individual pixels and that was in really harsh light.

I know your pics are crops, but by how much?

It's still quite bad and i've not experienced it like that on the 18-55. I did not even notice until I had a really good look.
 
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I get CA in the corners with mine, a little less than this though.
 
I have a 550D and that lens but certainly haven't noticed anything like that in my photos which would suggest something isnt' right.

That said I'm pretty new to the whole photography thing so I'm probably not the best person to listen to :)

Can you borrow one from someone else to try it out?
 
Not using a cheap filter on it by any chance are you? I had a cheapo Cir-PL on mine a while back and noticed some off things. Took it off, then bought a better one and it seemed be be fine, not sure if it was a coincidence though lol
 
latercomer2 said:
I have a 550D and that lens but certainly haven't noticed anything like that in my photos which would suggest something isnt' right.

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Are you sure you have the same lens? My 550D came with the IS II and the OP says he has a 500D and IS. Are the lenses much different?

Alan
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Regardless, it is easy to fix in post processing. Use Lightroom and turn on Develop on import. Set it to fix Chromatic Abberation, Lens Distortion, and I also set it to apply the 550D camera profile.
 
Alanem said:
latercomer2 said:
I have a 550D and that lens but certainly haven't noticed anything like that in my photos which would suggest something isnt' right.

QUOTE]

Are you sure you have the same lens? My 550D came with the IS II and the OP says he has a 500D and IS. Are the lenses much different?

Alan
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According to a quick google the difference between the 2 lens is cosmetic, optically they should be identical.
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