In part III of my series examining Sony APS-C standard “walk-around” zooms we look at the performance at 50mm.
Center Sharpness
At 50mm the Zeiss 16-70 looks pretty good at f5.6 and stopping down to f8 doesn’t add anything significant.
Both the 18-105G and original 18-200 are slightly sharper at f8 and pretty comparable here.
We see a big difference with the 18-200LE though, very soft at f5.6 and still noticeably weaker at f8.
Corner Sharpness
In the corner we again start out with the Zeiss looking ok at f5.6 with no noticeable improvement at f8.
The original 18-200 performs similarly with just a bit less sharpness.
The 18-105G disappoints here: weak at f5.6 and still somewhat at f8.
Likewise with the 18-200LE, which cleans up even less at f8 and really performs poorly all around at this focal length.
Summary at 50mm
The obvious loser here is the 18-200LE and the 18-105G is also weaker in the corners than the other options. The original 18-200 actually keeps it close with the Zeiss at equivalent apertures.
All content Copyright 2016 Joseph P Kenny.
