Sony E 35mm f/1.8 OSS Lens Review

Sony E35mm f/1.8 OSS Performance

At f/1.8 sharpness in the centre of the frame is already very good, and the clarity produced towards the edges isn't too far behind, which is excellent performance for a wide aperture lens like this.

Stopping the aperture down improves clarity across the frame with peak clarity being achieved at f/4, where sharpness is outstanding across the frame.

Resolution at 35mm

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-6 using Imatest.

Chromatic aberrations are very well controlled, barely exceeding half a pixel width at any most apertures. CA's just exceed half a pixel width towards the edges of the frame with the lens stopped down beyond f/5.6. This low level of fringing should pose very few issues, even in large prints, or harsh crops from the edges of the frame.

Chromatic aberration at 35mm

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-6 using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination towards the corners of the frame is quite reasonable for a lens with a f/1.8 maximum aperture. At f/1.8 the corners of the frame are 1.26 stops darker than the image centre and visually uniform illumination is achieved with the lens stopped down to f/4 or beyond.

A very mild, but barely noticeable amount of pincushion distortion is present in images taken with this lens. Imatest detected 0.981% pincushion distortion, which will be very difficult to spot in normal images. If, however, you require absolutely straight lines, you'll be glad to know that the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, which should make applying correction in image editing software afterwards a doddle.

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 very resistant to flare and retains good contrast, even when shooting into the light.

Add your message