How To's

Testing for a Decentered Lens: an Old Technique Gets a Makeover

Published May 20, 2012

What is Decentering and What Does it Do?

Strictly speaking, decentering would involve one or more of the lens elements being off of the central axis of the lens. This would prevent the curved surfaces of the lens from bending the light properly. In severe cases it could result in halos or ghosting. In most cases it causes softness, especially away from the center of the lens. A decentered lens may be normally sharp in the center, but very soft in the corners. Or it may just be soft and blurry everywhere. Most lenses have one or more elements that are adjusted to correct centering. Which element that is varies depending on the lens type and design. The front element is often a centering element, with the rear element being the second most common centering element.

Diagram of a Perfect Lens

Lens with the Front Element Decentered

An element can also be tilted to one side or another. Strictly speaking this is not decentering, but it can have similar effects, so people often say a lens is decentered when in fact it’s tilted. In this case one axis may remain sharp, but the other will be out of sorts. If the tilt is side-to-side, the top and bottom of the image might be fine, but both sides soft. If it is corner-to-corner the top right and lower left corners might be fine, while the top left and lower right are soft. High quality lenses usually have one or more elements on which the tilt can be adjusted by two or three elliptical collars.

Lens with the Front Element Tilted

 

The third problem that can occur with lens elements is spacing. If elements aren’t the proper distance apart the lens may not focus the image sharply, or might not focus all the way to infinity. But the lens is not decentered and the tests we’re describing would be normal. There are usually a couple of elements that have ‘critical spacing’ within the lens. Theses are adjusted when the lens is assembled either by removable shims or by installing an element on a ‘ramp’ so that rotating the element moves it forward or backward.

Lens with a Poor Spacing of a Central Element

 

Some Generalizations

It would be nice if we could say “a decentered lens looks like this” and “a tilted lens causes that”. Unfortunately lenses are too complex for that. But one common issue people ask me about is a lens that seems OK in the center but is very soft in the corners. Sometimes that’s just how the lens is designed. But if the lens doesn’t have a reputation for soft corners, it may well be that the copy in question is decentered.

The Way It Used to Be

Back in the days of film and manual focus lenses, most repair shops had a centering collimator. It shined a star chart or a chart of concentric circles through the lens. If an element was decentered the chart would flare or be distorted in one direction. The technician would then adjust those elements that could be adjusted until the lens was properly centered. Obviously in film days you didn’t take a test shot, send it off to be developed, make an adjustment, take another shot . . . . it was all done off camera.

When lenses became more automated, so did testing: Lenses are mounted to the manufacturer’s electronic test system and most of the adjustments made electronically – or the computer report suggests which lens elements need be adjusted. The equipment is breathtakingly expensive and only the factory and some (not all) factory authorized centers have access to it. Standard centering collimators became a thing of the past, except for some specialty shops. (You can find them on eBay every so often if you want one to keep around the house.)

A Simple Test for Decentering

If you want to correct a decentered lens you need an optical bench, a computerized MTF program, or at the very least a lens projector and a lot of knowledge about which elements can be adjusted to correct an abnormality. But if you just want to check and see if your lens is centered properly (at least for most lenses) you don’t need much equipment at all. Now that we have live-view focusing and the ability to look at images in real-time, we nearly have the same thing as a centering collimator built into our camera and lens. You need just a couple of accessories: a tripod to give your camera a stable platform and a simple chart.

The screening test I’m going to describe is not perfect: a few lenses (particularly ultra-wide and 10x zooms) will give false-positive results; and this test won’t detect other causes of softness like problems with spacing of elements. But it’s at least 95% accurate for detecting decentering in our experience (which is for several thousand lenses tested over-and-over).

We use a the Zeiss modified Siemens Star Chart. Star Charts are often used as focusing aids, which is one of the reasons we put them on the resolution charts we use for Imatest and our other testing setups. You determine the lens is properly focused as the rays of the stars get closer and closer to the center. The Zeiss version adds a small white circle around a small black dot in the middle of the star chart. You can buy them for about $30.

Zeiss Siemens Star Chart

 

If you manually defocus the lens just a bit, the star rays and the white and black circles in the center blur, of course. If the lens is in proper alignment and pointed directly (lineup isn’t critical, you can eyeball it) at the star, the white and black circles remain circular as they blur. But if the lens is decentered or significantly tilted the center blur will ‘flare’ out in one direction or another as you defocus.

For example here are star charts shot just out of focus using four Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L lenses at 70mm.

Even at the low resolution of blog-post graphics you should be able to tell that one of these things is not like the other: the lens in the lower left has a blur which is flared out toward 9 o’clock while the other three lenses have nice round blurs. The nice thing about this test is it’s not very set-up critical. The chart doesn’t have to be exactly in the center of the lens, you don’t have to line the lens up at exactly right angles to the chart, it doesn’t even matter which way you go out of focus (near or far) or exactly how far you go.

Let’s look at the resolution tests we did on the same 4 lenses using our Imatest lab – keeping the graphs in the same positions as the star patterns were above. Yellow areas are the highest resolution, blue are worst.

Imatest results for the 4 lenses

You probably notice that our lower left lens (the one with the flared star chart) has a pattern much softer on the right side. Also note the vertical axis (which shows the peak resolution) is different for this lens (the program automates the axis). The other three lenses peak near 800 line pairs, while the lower left lens peaks at about 600. It’s significantly worse than the other lenses.

Our star-chart flare did a nice job of identifying this decentered lens. The other thing that’s nice is the expensive Imatest lab shows me exactly how much the lens is affected, but it doesn’t show WHY it’s affected. The star chart made it pretty obvious the lens had a centering problem. We recentered the front element (the most common place for decentering on this particular lens) and the lens returned to perfect resolution.

If you don’t have $30 to spend on a Zeiss Star Chart, you can make a reasonable substitute yourself: just stick some white rings (like notebook paper reinforcing rings) on some black posterboard.

 

The flare isn’t as easy to spot as with the star chart, but it’s still noticeable. Here are the same four lenses that were used for the example above. Look particularly at the black center and see how it bleeds out onto the white circle at 5 o,clock — the opposite direction from the white flare noticed above. There is still some white flare noticeable: compare the outside of the white circle at the lower right and upper left areas. It’s not as easy to spot as the Star Chart flare, but it’s there (and this chart is free).

Uses and Limitations

Using the Star Chart as a poor-man’s centering collimator is a nice screening tool. It’s not perfect by any means. Some consumer grade zooms (particularly superzooms), some retrofocus lenses, and a few others show a pattern like this even when they are perfectly aligned, but those are the exception. For the majority of lenses, seeing a decentering pattern when the lens seems soft provides you some confirmation that the lens has a problem and may need a trip back to the factory. It can often answer the ‘is it me, or is it the lens?’ question. It may provide some further data when you’re trying to decide if the corners on your new lens are supposed to be sharper than they seem.

Because I know some people are going to ask, I don’t recommend trying to adjust lens elements at home using this method. Centering the lens element to remove the flare can be a good starting place and we do it here. But it’s just a starting place and you need a LOT of other equipment to fine tune the resolution (especially in a zoom). There are some lenses that don’t have any elements that allow tilt or centering — a factory rebuild is the only option when it gets out of sorts. With others, nearly complete disassembly is required to make such adjustments. And, of course, opening up your lens voids any warranty.

 

Roger Cicala
Lensrentals.com
May 2012

Author: Roger Cicala

I’m Roger and I am the founder of Lensrentals.com. Hailed as one of the optic nerds here, I enjoy shooting collimated light through 30X microscope objectives in my spare time. When I do take real pictures I like using something different: a Medium format, or Pentax K1, or a Sony RX1R.

Posted in How To's
  • sneamia

    @roger_cicala:disqus this is super helpful for lenses. Do you have any recommendations for testing whether a camera sensor is tilted?

  • Dear Roger,

    Thanks for sharing two simple and elegant solution to problematic lenses, but as yet my Sigma seems to work well, so I haven’t had a need to try these tests. Not even the AF fine-adjustment, as yet.

    As usual, had I known these tests when I was a Pentax guy I would probably had a lot of help from them!

    Five years ago, to be precise!

    Thanks again,

    Tord

  • gadgetaddict

    I have a Tamrom lens with a very soft lower left corner. Aiming at this Siemens Zeiss charted my computer screen shows no decentered flare on my life view. So at least im my case this test is useless.

  • Laurens van Herpen

    Hi Roger,

    Interesting article. I know you recommend against trying to calibrate zooms, but I’m one of those foolhardy people who want to try. I repair Canon lenses as a hobby and have recently bought a 70-200mm 2.8 IS USM II that has been taken apart by the previous owner, with complete disregard for the factory calibration. There are at least 4 lens groups that can be adjusted for tilt, so I’m struggling to get a good image. At this moment, 200mm is tack sharp in the center and soft in the corners, 70mm looks awful.

    I have a perfectly fine 70-200mm 2.8 IS USM to compare it to and use tethered live view, zoomed in as far as I can get, while adjusting any of the calibration rings. Every time the center or one of the corners looks good, another corner is soft or flaring. Long story short: I don’t know what a good approach is to get closer to a useable lens.

    Could you recommend an approach that will help me? Such as which lens groups to calibrate first and which last, or if I should read up on the Imatest program you use.

    I have not contacted Canon yet about the price to get it done by them.

    Thanks,
    Laurens

  • Hunter45

    Yep.

  • appliance5000

    Seeing kittens cry makes me happy. I will burn in hell.

  • Hunter45

    We don’t know if you are or not. Would you like to provide more info? (grin)

  • appliance5000

    I use a newspaper taped to the wall – am I a bad person?

  • Hello Roger.
    Thank you for this article !
    Little question : if the lens have a spacing error (and all elements are correctly aligned) , how can you notice that ? Is there any special test to do ?

  • Radu, it sounds like your lens may have a field tilt rather than a decentering. Field tilt makes the sides very different even though the lens is well centered.

    Remember, we’re talking about OPTICAL decentering. The internet uses ‘decentering’ to mean ‘any lens that is optically maladjusted’. A lens can have tilt or spacing errors yet appear well centered, even though it, as we say scientifically, sucks.

  • It does work, although with close focus it may give false positives if you’re getting near the minimal focusing distance.

    One other thing find is some wide angles will use a slight decentering to counteract a field tilt, so just seeing a little bit doesn’t mean a lens is bad.

  • Matt M

    I second Sally shears in does this work at close focus as I have a UW that I did it on?

  • Roger Cicala

    It is possible to have a problem at different focusing distances, and if you do that pretty much guarantees it is in the focusing cams/helicoid.

  • Sally Shears

    Roger, thanks for this simple test.

    Two Q’s:
    1. I’m taking photos and examining the images, rather than the live-view. Sound OK?
    2. Noting that this is all at close focus. Could decentering show up differently at close vs. far focus?

    Again, thanks.

    FWIW, Google “Zeiss Siemens Star Test Chart” images to find a high res file that seems to work pretty well.

  • radu

    Dear Roger,

    I applied your recommended method to a Tamron 15-30, Nikon mount, and everything appeared to be fine. However, in practical tests the lens is constantly weaker in the left margin. would it be possible that your test give false-positive result for the lens mentioned above?

    Thank tou,
    Radu

  • Mcroberg

    I shot a couple pictures slightly out of focused at the widest f2.8(Rokinon 14mm), there’s a slight shift in the center but doesn’t bleed out like the pictures you posted above. Do you think it’s acceptable for astrophotographery where you need to shoot wide open or something I should return?

  • Mcroberg, widest aperture is what we suggest.

  • Mcroberg

    I have a question, I am testing my Sony emount version utilizing the alternate version. Am I to use f2.8? When doing so the center ring is perfectly circular however the edge rings lose their center definition and turn into a glob, defective or normal? I am planning to use it for astrophotographery.

  • Mauro Schramm

    Thanks, Roger.

  • That’s the center of the image, Mauro.

  • Mauro Schramm

    Hi Roger, nice article, as usual.

    One question: in the alternative method (white rings over black background) which portion of the frame is used in the comparison (in the last picture)?

  • Zooms can decenter anywhere throughout the range. We test at both ends and in the middle of the range. BUT most zooms are going to be slightly decentered at some point. It’s really quite rare to find one that isn’t at all.

  • l_d_allan

    I was wondering about using this de-centering test with a zoom lens: is it sufficient to test just one focal length? Would the wide FL or the narrow FL be more sensitive to showing de-centering? About the same?

  • Lynn Allan

    Hope this question on an older blog article comes to your (RC’s) attention.

    Do you feel that this de-centering testing is sufficient to identify a large or maybe even great majority of lenses that are out of spec? Especially from Sony/Zony?

    Or is there still “insufficient data”?

    There is also what appears to be an even simpler de-centering test that just involves an out-of-focus LED. Your thoughts greatly appreciate on that.

    I would greatly welcome being able to get away from what I consider odious, tiresome, and error-prone brick wall testing … if one or the other de-centering tests was sufficient for perhaps 90% or [fill-in-the-blank]% of LUTs (Lens Under Test).

    There is a Y.A.T. (yet another thread) on DPR where a proposal has been made by YACPW (yet another clueless post.writer .. that would be me) to perhaps have a multi-step approach to “good copy vs bad copy” testing:
    Thread:
    http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/58013972

    Post … sorry fo tl;dr :
    http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/58027091 (proposal below)

    My speculation is that perhaps valid “best practice” for “good copy vs bad copy” might be done in multiple stages:

    * relatively simple de-centering test (OOF LED or LR approach)

    * if passes and concerns still exist about the LUT (Lens under Test), more involved far-horizon testing at a tilt (if adequate scene and climate easily available without driving)

    * if passes and concerns still exist about the LUT, more involved with something like a brick-wall

    * if passes and concerns still exist about the LUT or real MtfMapper numbers justified, more involved with silhouetted razor blade, perhaps with motorized, computer-controlled focus rail

  • Kenny, when we set up a camara focused on a test target and then change lens after lens to test them, we always see the ‘center’ of the image change location a bit with some of the lenses. This seems to be more a thing about how the optics are centered in the mount than anything about whether the lens is decentered or not. So what you said about the image shift is to me, just normal variation and nothing of importance if I’m understanding the question correctly.

    And as always, a reminder that this test is for optical decentering. It’s not going to detect tilt or spacing errors that could also affect sharpness. On the forums people often say ‘decentered’ when they mean any of those three things.

    Roger

  • Kenny

    I have 3 different lenses with 28mm focus distance. I tested them on a tripod pointing towards the same spot. Two of them centered at the same spot while the other one is a little bit shifted to the left bottom. Yet, when I tested the off-centered one using the Zeiss chart, it appeared totally normal (no flare). So is this lens de-centered or not?

  • Chik Sum,

    I can’t think of any – there are false positives (star chart looks decentered but lens is good) especially with zooms. But I’ve never seen a decentered lens with a good star chart.

    BUT – I’m using the term decentered here in an optical sense (a lens element is not lined up along the center of the lens). In online forums people say ‘decentered’ and mean ‘something wrong with the lens’. If there is a spacing error (elements too far apart or close together) or a tilt (element properly centered but not quite horizontal) you could get a normal star chart but have a bad lens. Online, people are often talking about tilt when they have a bad lens and this test may, or may not, detect a tilt. However, normal chart shooting usually detects tilt just fine.

    Roger

  • Chik Sum

    May I ask is there any case where decentering occurred but didn’t show up in the star test?

  • Brian

    I would assume the best way to do this test is with a lens wide open (f/1.4, f/2.8, etc.) vs say F/22. Correct?

    How far away should you be from the chart? I have a 25mm and 85mm prime.

    Thanks.

    -Brian

  • Lynn Ross

    I have the Rokinon 14mm it’s way out of focus so to say … but the thing is that you have to get so darn close to the test shot that anything could be out of focus …. does it work with the 14mm? or I’m I just wasting my time… I believe that it’s got a de-focus issue ..
    But anyway thanks for your idea and I want to try it on a different lens now … but will hopefully send this lens back for a replacement…
    Lynn

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