Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS Review

Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS Performance

At 18mm, central sharpness starts off well and is excellent from f/3.5 all the way through to f/11. It is still very good at f/16, only dropping away to being quite soft at f/22. The edges are very good from f/3.5 to f/8, good at f/11, dropping to soft at f/16 and very soft at f/22.

35mm sees excellent central sharpness from f/4.5 to f/11, still being very good at f/16 but dropping into softness at f/22 and beyond. The edges start off quite soft at f/4.5, become good at f/5.6 and very good from f/8 to f/16, but f/22 and f/29 are soft.

At 70mm, centrally sharpness is excellent from f/5.6 to f/11. It remains very good at f/16, but from f/22 to f/36 quickly becomes very soft. The edges are very good from f/5.6 to f/16, soft at f/22 and very soft at f/32 and f/36.

At 135mm central sharpness is excellent from f/5.6 to f/11. It is very good at f/16, good at f/22, but very soft beyond that at f/32 and f/36. The edges are the weakest performance in the zoom range, being good at f/8 but really quite soft at all other apertures. At this longest setting, the main subject may be best kept to the centre, in which case it will be rendered crisply.

CA (Chromatic Aberration) at 18mm is centrally very well corrected. The edges do show significant fringing. At 35mm this improves slightly, the centre being again very well corrected and but the edges still showing some fringing. 70mm sees a very similar performance. At 135mm things become rather worse. Central CA is still quite well under control, but the edges stray considerably and colour fringing is very visible in subject matter such as branches against bright sky. This can of course be tackled in software.

It can be difficult to be sure when looking at distortion in MFT format cameras and lenses whether or not we are seeing the performance of a lens or in fact whether the camera is applying corrections regardless of what we switch off. In any event, the distortion correction here is excellent, measuring -0.44% barrel at 18mm, +0.47% pincushion at 35mm, +0.19% pincushion at 70mm and -0.11% barrel at 135mm. With a general purpose lens this is unlikely to be an issue, and can always be further corrected in software if desired.

There is no sign of flare. Against bright light no loss of contrast seems to occur, which is an excellent result, especially considering the large number of lens elements.

Bokeh, the quality of the out of focus areas, is very smooth regardless of the 7 bladed construction of the diaphragm. The lens will no doubt be excellent for flower studies, with backgrounds being smooth against a nice crisp central image. The same applies equally well to portraits.

The inbuilt OSS (Optical Steady Shot) system operates in conjunction with the Steadyshot built into the Sony A6500 used in the review. This proves to be extremely efficient, suggesting that 5 stops advantage can be expected for critical sharpness, but perhaps another 2 stops at a lower measure of sharpness that would still be usable for web. Of course it will not help where the subject is moving, but it is remarkably good for still subject matter.

Value For Money

The Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS lens is priced at £569. As there are no direct alternatives, perhaps surprisingly, but we can see if the price level is on a par by looking at what other marques provide for their users.

Fujifilm offer the Fujinon 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 WR LM R OIS at £699. Canon have the EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, priced at £429. Pentax do not need shake reduction built into their lens, it being installed in the camera bodies, so the SMC Pentax-DA 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 ED AL IF DC WR is available at £379.

Considering the Sony lens does not have weather sealing, it may be a tad high at the moment, but perhaps will settle back in time to a more competitive level. For more options have a look at the Top 15 Best Sony E / FE Mount Lenses.

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