Uniform quality and good workmanship Sony E 10- 18mm lens evaluation.

IT 168 Evaluation In this era when digital cameras are increasingly advocating compactness and portability, mirrorless cameras have become the first choice for more photographers and even professional photographers to go out to shoot. In mirrorless cameras market, Sony NEX series, which bears the brunt, is well received by consumers, and its outsole and design for different users are refreshing.

▲ Evaluation of Sony E 10- 18mm lens with uniform distortion.

However, as Sony NEX users, we definitely hope that the more lens groups, the better. In the past two years, Sony has really worked hard on the camera and released many new mirrors. In Sony's E-mount lens, there has always been a lack of a super wide-angle lens for shooting scenery. 20 12 September, Sony released the first ultra-wide-angle lens of Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS with e-mount. At this point, the number of E-mount lenses has risen to 12, which basically covers the full focal length from super wide angle to telephoto. Today, Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens came to the IT 168 evaluation room. Let's see how it performs in the evaluation. The body used in this evaluation is Sony NEX-5R.

▲ Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS is equipped with a petal-shaped hood.

When we shoot the scenery, we will want to use a wide-angle lens to show the macro magnificent scene. At present, there are naturally a few super wide-angle SLR lenses on the market, but they are relatively large in size and poor in portability. Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens has a compact lens body with a lens size of 70x63.5mm Although it is relatively small, it is also a large-caliber milkshake in E-lens. On the compact NEX-5R, there is a top-heavy feeling.

▲ Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens has a moderate size.

▲ Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens has a moderate size.

My first impression of this lens is exquisite workmanship, which is very weighty in my hand. The lens barrel reflects a faint luster, giving people a high-grade feeling. The zoom ring of this lens is very interesting. Generally, the zoom ring of a lens focuses outward from the telephoto end, while the zoom ring of Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens focuses inward from the telephoto end.

▲ Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS

The lens length in the unfocused state is very suitable, and it will not feel a burden to carry it in the bag.

▲ Contrast before and after lens zooming

This lens adopts a constant F4 aperture design, which ensures the shooting ability with a large aperture. The nearest focusing distance is 0.25m In addition, it also has built-in OSS optical anti-shake function, which can shoot sharp images that are 4 levels slower than the normal shutter speed of hand-held cameras. 1 low dispersion glass lens and 3 aspheric lenses ensure excellent image quality.

▲ Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS has built-in optical anti-shake function.

The tail of Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens is designed with a metal bayonet, which can effectively improve the use strength of the bayonet and greatly prolong the life of the lens. Next, let's take a look at the performance of this lens in the objective evaluation part.

Long focal length resolution test

In order to speak with real data as much as possible, we used ISO 12233 standard resolution test card to test the resolution performance of this lens, and then we used Imatest software to analyze the test results. This test uses Sony NEX-5R camera with Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens.

▲ Wide-angle end center resolution histogram

As can be seen from the above figure, the central resolution of the wide-angle end of Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS is basically maintained at the level of 2000+. Just after the aperture F 16, it quickly drops below 1900, which is of course a very normal phenomenon. As a super wide-angle lens, its quality is still remarkable.

▲ Wide-angle end center resolution map

As can be seen from the trend chart, basically the horizontal and vertical resolution of the center of the wide-angle end reaches the peak at F8, and then drops obviously after F 1 1. Therefore, it can be said that the central resolution of the lens is the best when the aperture is F8. To my surprise, this lens still shows excellent quality under the maximum aperture. In the past, the aperture performance of lenses produced by Japanese lens manufacturers was usually hump-shaped, that is to say, the resolution reached a high value at F8 or F 1 1, while the resolution of large aperture and small aperture decreased relatively obviously. However, this lens still maintains a resolution of 2000 at F4 aperture, and it also shows a gentle downward trend after F 1 1, which can be said to reflect an obvious feature of modern digital lenses.

▲ Wide-angle edge resolution histogram

According to the test data, the wide-angle edge resolution of Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens is not very high, and all files are basically below 2000. However, considering that the focal length of 10mm will be very close to the card plate when the ultra-wide-angle lens shoots the resolution standard card, it will inevitably encounter the reflection problem of the edge card plate, which will affect the edge test data to some extent. The horizontal edge resolution of the lens reaches the highest value at F 1 1, and the vertical edge resolution reaches the highest value at F8. After F 16, the resolution decreases obviously.

▲ Wide-angle edge resolution trend chart

From the wide-angle resolution trend chart of Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens, we can see more clearly that its edge resolution gradually rises from F4, reaching the highest value at F8 and F 1 1, and then decreases at F 16, at the edge of the minimum aperture F22.

By testing the wide-angle resolution of Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens, it is found that "the central resolution of the wide-angle end of this lens is still good, basically staying above 2000, reaching an excellent level; The edge resolution is not good. Of course, the problem of reflection on the edge of the scale card in ultra-wide-angle shooting also has a certain impact on the resolution.

After reading the wide-angle resolution test, let's take a look at the resolution performance of the telephoto end.

Wide angle resolution test

▲ Histogram of central resolution of telephoto end

As can be seen from the above figure, the center resolution of the telephoto end of Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS is basically maintained at the level of 1900+. The best horizontal resolution of telephoto end center appears on F5.6, which is1953; The best vertical resolution of the telephoto end center appears on F8, which is 2 155. The central vertical resolution of telephoto end is better than the central horizontal resolution.

▲ Trend chart of center resolution of telephoto end.

From the trend chart of the center resolution of the telephoto end of Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens, we can clearly see that the resolution rises slowly from F4, reaches the peak at F5.6 and F8, and drops from F 1 1.

▲ histogram of edge resolution of telephoto end

As can be seen from the above figure, the horizontal resolution of the edge of the telephoto end of this lens reaches the maximum 1978 at F8, and the vertical resolution of the edge reaches the maximum 1 1.

▲ Trend chart of edge resolution of telephoto end

As can be seen from the trend chart, the edge resolution of the telephoto end of this lens is relatively general, with little difference from F4 to F22.

Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens has a good central resolution at the telephoto end, generally above 1900, and the maximum resolution appears on the F8 aperture. The edge resolution of telephoto end is average, but there is little difference from F4 to F22. Next, let's take a look at the problem that everyone is most concerned about in the super wide-angle lens, lens distortion.

Lens distortion test

Photographers like the shocking expressive force brought by super wide-angle lenses, but distortion is really a problem that they have to face. Generally speaking, the distortion of super wide-angle lens is difficult to control. Let's take a look at the distortion control of Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens.

▲ wide-angle lens distortion test

As can be seen from the above figure, the wide-angle distortion of Sony E 10- 18 F4 OSS lens is -2.39%, which belongs to barrel distortion. For the ultra-wide-angle lens of 10mm, this distortion value is within the acceptable range.

▲ Distortion test of telephoto end

As can be seen from the above figure, the telephoto end distortion of Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens is 1.59%, which belongs to pincushion distortion. There is pincushion distortion at the telephoto end of 18mm, which is the result of lens correction. But even so, the distortion value is a bit large.

Generally speaking, this lens has a mediocre performance in controlling distortion. Although it is difficult to control distortion at ultra-wide angle, we still hope Sony can do better.

Anti-glare ability test

Glare is a noticeable problem when shooting in backlight. When light enters the lens directly, there will be strange geometric shapes and bright spots, which are the actual shapes of the lens aperture. Glare will also reduce the contrast of the whole picture. Digital manufacturers can reduce the influence of glare on image quality through lens coating, but it can only be reduced. At present, they can't really completely avoid glare. In fact, glare is not as terrible as imagined. Many photographers can use glare to take very creative photos. So whether there is glare is not the problem, but whether it looks good or not is the problem.

▲ Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens glare.

The above picture shows us simulating strong sunlight in the evaluation room and shooting directly at the light source. As can be seen from the figure, the anti-glare ability of Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens is ok, and the green glare spots generated are not particularly obvious, showing a slender tail shape, which is not particularly beautiful.

Lens Jiao Wai test

Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS has a constant F4 maximum aperture. Because this is a super wide-angle lens, the aperture of F4 should get good background blur ability when shooting close-ups of objects.

▲ Wide-angle lens Jiao Wai

When the lens is at the wide-angle end, the blur ability is not obvious when the aperture is fully opened F4. The center of Jiao Wai presents a small circular spot, but the edge has a relatively large deformation.

▲ telephoto lens Jiao Wai

When the lens is at the telephoto end, the circular spots scattered in the center of Jiao Wai look better and are very round. There is also elliptical deformation at the edge, but it is not too serious.

Aperture dark angle test

The dark angle of each aperture at the wide-angle end

The above picture shows the dark angle at the wide-angle end of Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens. In order to be more intuitive, we made a GIF dynamic picture. Through the actual measurement, we found that when the lens aperture is fully opened F4, the dark angle at the wide-angle end is still obvious, but when it reaches F8 aperture, the dark angle basically disappears. In fact, dark corners can't be generally considered bad. In some cases, it can help photographers get special picture effects. However, if you don't want to shoot dark corners, please try to choose an aperture above F8.

The above picture shows the dark angle of the lens at the telephoto end under various apertures. We can intuitively see that the dark angle at the telephoto end is not obvious when the aperture is fully opened F4, and it basically disappears when the aperture is F5.6, which shows that the dark angle at the telephoto end of the lens is not obvious.

Final evaluation summary:

Generally speaking, Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens gives me a good feeling. After some objective tests and trials, I was deeply impressed and had a very shocking expressive force when shooting architectural landscapes. The workmanship of this lens is very fine, it is metallic, and the damping of its zoom ring is also very soft. The lens size is moderate in the super wide-angle lens, because we used the extremely compact Sony NEX-5R in the evaluation, so we feel a little top-heavy. Built-in OSS anti-shake, you can take clear images with a shutter speed 4 levels slower than the usual shutter speed of hand-held cameras. In addition, this lens adopts the design of constant F4 aperture, which ensures the shooting ability of large aperture and also brings good background blur effect.

However, Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS lens also has some shortcomings, and the distortion control is not good. Although distortion control is technically difficult as a super wide-angle lens, we still hope that Sony can do better in distortion with refined skills. In terms of imaging, this lens performs well in the center of the picture when the aperture is fully open, but there will be a slight purple edge at the edge, which is also worthy of attention and needs to be improved.

Because of its particularity, super wide angle is likely to become a necessary lens for some landscape photographers. Except this 10- 18mm, the widest angle of Sony E-mount lens is 16mm, and 16mm is not considered as super wide angle. Therefore, lens 10- 18mm will definitely become the only choice for some photographers after it goes on the market. However, the current price of this lens is more than 5,000 yuan, which I personally think is still a bit expensive. If the price is reduced to 4000 yuan, I believe it will attract more people to buy, and the price of 4000 yuan is more reasonable. Click to view the latest quotation.

Advantages:

1, 10- 18mm ultra wide angle

2. Constant F4 aperture

3, the lens works fine and feels good.

4.OSS anti-shake

Disadvantages:

1, poor distortion control

2. The resolution is average, and there is a slight purple edge on the edge of the picture when the aperture is fully open.

Real shot sample

For the real performance of the lens, Muer took some samples outdoors with this super wide-angle lens, and judged the actual performance ability of this lens through real scenes. The following is the real shot of Sony E 10- 18mm F4 OSS. The pictures are all original, except for the size of the photos.

▲ focal length: 10mm aperture: F9 shutter: 1/200 s ISO: 100 (click to enlarge)

▲ focal length: 10mm aperture: F9 shutter: 1/200 s ISO: 100 (click to enlarge)

▲ focal length: 18mm aperture: F4 shutter:11/80siso:100 (click to enlarge).

▲ focal length: 10mm aperture: F7. 1 shutter:11/80siso:100 (click to enlarge).

▲ focal length: 10mm aperture: F4 shutter: 1/800 s ISO: 100 (click to enlarge)

▲ focal length: 10mm aperture: F4.5 shutter: 1/250 s ISO: 100 (click to enlarge)

▲ focal length: 10mm aperture: F4 shutter: 1/60s ISO: 800 (click to enlarge)

▲ focal length: 10mm aperture: F4 shutter: 1/250 s ISO: 100 (click to enlarge)