Sony E 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS Lens Review

Sony 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS Performance

Sharpness is outstanding in the centre of the frame at maximum aperture and 18mm. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about how this lens performs towards the edges of the frame. Here clarity is fair at maximum aperture, improving to good levels as the lens is stopped down to between f/5.6 and f/11.

Zooming to 35mm results in similar performance in the centre at maximum aperture, but clarity towards the edges of the frame is much improved. Here sharpness in the centre is still excellent and clarity towards the edges of the frame is good at maximum aperture. Stopping down to f/5.6 results in peak performance across the frame. Here sharpness is outstanding in the centre of the frame, and very good towards the edges of the frame.

Finally, at 55mm, performance is similar to that found at 35mm. Sharpness is outstanding in the centre of the frame at maximum aperture and clarity towards the edges is good. Stopping down to f/8 results in the best performance, with excellent sharpness in the centre and very good clarity towards the edges of the frame.

MTF@18mm

MTF@35mm

MTF@55mm

How to read our charts The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. For this review, the lens was tested on a Sony NEX-7 using Imatest.

Chromatic aberrations well controlled, at wider apertures, increasing with stopping down to f/16 and beyond for much of the zoom range. The low levels of fringing encountered should pose few issues, even in images with high contrast towards the edges of the frame.

CA@18mm

CA@35mm

CA@55mm

How to read our charts Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For this review, the lens was tested on a Sony NEX-7 using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination towards the corners of the frame is well controlled. At 18mm the corners of the frame are 0.7 stops darker than the image centre at maximum aperture and at 55mm the corners are 0.81 stops darker. Visually uniform illumination is achieved with the lens stopped down by one stop from maximum aperture throughout the zoom range.

Distortion is well controlled at either end of the zoom range. At 18mm, only 0.195% barrel distortion is present and this is replaced with 0.106% barrel distortion at 55mm. This amount of distortion will be very hard to spot, and will rarely require correction.

The supplied lens hood does an excellent job of shielding the lens from extraneous light that may cause issues with flare. Even without the hood this lens is resistant to flare and produces good contrast when shooting into the light.

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