Chromatic Aberration

Microscope optical systems suffer from the same defects as all other lens systems. Among these are various forms of chromatic aberration and spherical aberration. Chromatic aberration is the failure of a lens or a lens system to focus all colors at the same focal point. All modern microscope designs go to great lengths to to minimize or eliminate this defect. It is commonly accomplished by designing lenses that are defined as being achromatic. Achromatic means "without color" and is usually meant to imply without color distortion. This means that the objectives bring images into focus without dispersing their colored components. In simple achromatic microscope objectives the correction is made so that the red and blue wavelengths are brought to a single point of focus. This correction helps to eliminate chromatic defects for most of the visible spectrum in a very effective and cost efficient manner. Manufacturers who work very hard to achieve this include NIKON, UNICO and MOTIC. When searching for a quality microscope, achromatic optics should be high on the list of requirements.