LensTip.com

• useful focal lengths range in a compact and physically light housing,
• affordable price,
• decently controlled vignetting,
• not very high coma,
• quite accurate autofocus,

Cons:

• weak resolution in the frame centre and especially weak at the frame edge,
• monstrous chromatic aberration in the 18-30 mm range,
• high astigmatism,
• slow fastness,
• a lot of plastic components in housing and mount,
• slow and noisy autofocus.

That was just the first time – such saying is, I think, a good description of the kit Sony lens. The debut of that company on the market of digital reflex cameras’ lenses was not very successful. Unfortunately, the Sony 18-70 mm lags behind other rival cheap kit lenses and it does so in important categories, offering weaker resolution, the record-high chromatic aberration, significant astigmatism and slower aperture. As a consolation we might add that the Sony keeps such an asset as the Carl Zeiss company up its sleeve, which will be able to provide the Alpha series reflex cameras with instruments like the Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar T* DT 16-80 mm. If you don’t want to wait for the Zeiss lenses, though, you might always turn to independent producers, which offer such good devices as the Sigma 17-70 mm or the Tamron 17-50 mm – both of them fared well in our tests.

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Sample shots:

Camera: Sony Alpha 100 Parameters: 70 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/125 s, ISO 800 File: JPG, 3872x2592 pix, 3.2 MB	Camera: Sony Alpha 100 Parameters: 18 mm, f/5.0, exp. 1/640 s, ISO 100 File: JPG, 3872x2592 pix, 2.2 MB	Camera: Sony Alpha 100 Parameters: 24 mm, f/5.0, exp. 1/400 s, ISO 100 File: JPG, 3872x2592 pix, 3.8 MB
Camera: Sony Alpha 100 Parameters: 70 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/50 s, ISO 200 File: JPG, 3872x2592 pix, 2.6 MB	Camera: Sony Alpha 100 Parameters: 26 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/50 s, ISO 100 File: JPG, 3872x2592 pix, 2.0 MB	Camera: Sony Alpha 100 Parameters: 50 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/30 s, ISO 100 File: JPG, 3872x2592 pix, 2.1 MB