In spherical aberration, rays of light from a point on the optical axis of a lens having spherical surfaces do not all

meet at the same image point. Rays passing through the lens close to its centre are focused farther away than rays
passing through a circular zone near its rim. For every cone of rays from an axial object point meeting the lens,
there is a cone of rays that converges to form an image point, the cone being different in length according to the
diameter of the circular zone. Wherever a plane at right angles to the optical axis is made to intersect a cone, the
rays will form a circular cross section. The area of the cross section varies with distance along the optical axis, the
smallest size known as the circle of least confusion. The image most free of spherical aberration is found at this
distance.
Coma, so called because a point image is blurred into a comet shape, is produced when rays from an off-axis object
point are imaged by different zones of the lens. In spherical aberration, the images of an on-axis object point that fall
on a plane at right angles to the optical axis are circular in shape, of varying size, and superimposed about a
common centre; in coma, the images of an off-axis object point are circular in shape, of varying size, but displaced
with respect to each other. The accompanying diagram shows an exaggerated case of two images, one resulting
from a central cone of rays and the other from a cone passing through the rim. The usual way for reducing coma is
to employ a diaphragm to eliminate the outer cones of rays.
Astigmatism, unlike spherical aberration and coma, results from the failure of a single zone of a lens to focus the
image of an off-axis point at a single point. As shown in the three-dimensionalschematic the two planes at right
angles to one another passing through the optical axis are the meridian plane and the sagittal plane, the meridian
plane being the one containing the off-axis object point. Rays not in the meridian plane, called skew rays, are
focused farther away from the lens than those lying in the plane. In either case the rays do not meet in a point focus
but as lines perpendicular to each other. Intermediate between these two positions the images are elliptical in
shape.
Curvature of field and distortion refer to the location of image points with respect to one another. Even though the
former three aberrations may be corrected for in the design of a lens, these two aberrations could remain. In
curvature of field, the image of a plane object perpendicular to the optical axis will lie on a paraboloidal surface
called the Petzval surface (after Jzsef Petzval, a Hungarian mathematician). Flat image fields are desirable in
photography in order to match the film plane and projection when the enlarging paper or projection screen lie on a
flat surface. Distortion refers to deformation of an image. There are two kinds of distortion, either of which may be
present in a lens: barrel distortion, in which magnification decreases with distance from the axis, andpincushion
distortion, in which magnification increases with distance from the axis.

pherical Aberration: this is the aberration affecting rays from a point on the optical axis;
because rays from this point going out in different directions pass through different parts of

the lens, then, if the lens is spherical, or otherwise not the exact shape needed to bring them
all to a focus, then these rays will not all be focused at the same point on the other side of the
lens.
Coma: this aberration affects rays from points off the optical axis. If spherical aberration is
eliminated, different parts of the lens bring rays from the axis to the same focus. But the
place where the image of an off-axis point is formed may still change when different parts of
the lens are considered.
Astigmatism: this is another aberration affecting rays from a point off the optical axis. These
rays, as they head through the lens to the point in the image where they will be focused, pass
through a lens that is, from their perspective, tilted. Even if neither spherical aberration nor
coma prevents them from coming to a sharp focus, if we consider the rays of light that are in
the plane of the tilt, and the rays of light that are in the plane perpendicular to that, these rays
pass through a part of the lens with a different profile. So they may not be focused at the
same distance from the lens, even if they do come to a focus in each case.
Curvature of Field: even when light from every point in the object is brought to a sharp
focus, the points at which they are brought into focus might lie on a curved surface instead of
a flat plane.
Distortion: even when all the previous aberrations have been corrected, the light from points
in the object might be brought together on the image plane at the wrong distance from the
optical axis, instead of being linearly proportional to the distance from the optical axis in the
object. If distance increases faster than in the object, one has pincushion distortion, if more
slowly, barrel distortion.
Distortion
Distortion represents the inability of a lens to create a rectilinear image of the subject. It does not modify
the colors or the sharpness of the image but rather its shape. This distorsion happens because the focal
length of the lens varies over the Petzval surface (transverse magnification) and as parts of the image are
more magnified than others. Distortion occurs in two main effects : barrel and pincushion, also called
positive and negative distortion.

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