|
Sony E 10-18mm f/4 OSS (SEL-1018) - Lab Test / Review |
|
Lens Reviews -
Sony NEX
|
|
Page 1 of 2
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published April 2013
Introduction
Sony is aggressively playing the megapixel game with their NEX camera series. However,
so far they are a bit short of lenses delivering the required resolution to match the camera sensors.
The Sony E 10-18mm f/4 OSS is a promising new contender in their lineup - at least
assuming that the price tag is an indicator for performance. That said, such ultra-wide
lenses are often difficult beings on mirrorless cameras due to the short register distance
(flange back distance) so it'll be interesting to see whether this new Sony lens is up to the task ...
The build quality of the Sony lens is, again, impressive. It has mostly an all-metal shell
based on a metal mount. While this may sound like heavy stuff, it is an amazingly
light-weight lens of just 225g. The inner lens tube extends slightly when zooming towards the long
end of the zoom range. Both the zoom and focus ring operate smoothly.
A plastic, petal-shaped lens hood is also part of the package.
While you usually don't really need a fast AF on such a lens, it is perfectly fine regarding
speed as well as noise level. A still unusual feature on an ultra-wide lens is an optical image
stabilizer. This and the constant aperture across the zoom range explains at least a bit
of the comparatively steep price tag.
Unfortunately, and that's a bit of a tradition in the local Sony test history, we experienced
significant centering defects in the two samples that we tested. The first sample delivered
miserable results throughout the range whereas and the 2nd sample showed a very soft output on
the left image side. Honestly, we consider two samples to be enough so the resolution observations
reflect the results from the 2nd sample (based on the center and right image side).
| Specifications |
|---|
| Equiv. focal length | 15-27 mm (full format equivalent) |
| Equiv. aperture | f/6 (full format equivalent, in terms of depth-of-field) |
| Optical construction | 10 elements in 8 groups inc. 3x aspherical & 1xSuper ED elements |
| Number of aperture blades | 7 (rounded) |
| min. focus distance | 0.25 m (max. magnification ratio 1:10) |
| Dimensions | 70 x 63.5 mm |
| Weight | 225 g |
| Filter size | 62 mm (non-rotating) |
| Hood | petal-shaped, bayonet mount, supplied |
| Other features | Optical Stabilizer |
|
