One of the pleasant surprises that’s come out of testing the full-frame coverage of APS E-mount lenses on the Sony A7R came when I discovered that the Sony 10-18mm F4 OSS E lens covers a lot more real estate than needed for the APS-C chip.
While this lens was not designed for Fullframe, the coverage is much better than I expected at 12mm and above. Sony’s SEL 10-18mm F4 OSS E-mount lens actually does a pretty good job from 13-16mm and is particularly good at 14-15mm.
It’s easy to turn off APS-crop in the camera: Menu > Custom Settings 5 > APS-C Capture > Off
For each focal length between 10-18mm, I’ve included the un-corrected iamges along with a second version that was processed using a modified Lightroom lens profile for the SEL 10-18 F4 OSS.
PLEASE NOTE: the Lightroom SEL 10-18mm lens profile was created for APS-C sensors and needs to be re-done for the Full-frame chip. An updated lens profile should straighten out the lines and help clean up the magenta cast in the corners.
Exposure: 1/80 at F8 ISO 200
Everything was processed from RAW captures using Lightroom version 5.3 RC.
The White Overlays show the original APS-C crop.
Sony A7R with SEL 10-18 F4 OSS at 18mm
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 18mm – No Lens Corrections
CLICK TO VIEW 100% CROP AT 18MM
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 18mm – Modified Lightroom Lens Corrections
Sony A7R with SEL 10-18 F4 OSS at 17mm
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 17mm – Modified Lightroom Lens Corrections
CLICK TO VIEW 100% CROP AT 17MM
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 17mm – Modified Lightroom Lens Corrections
Sony A7R with SEL 10-18 F4 OSS at 16mm
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 16mm – No Lens Corrections
CLICK TO VIEW 100% CROP AT 16MM
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 16mm – Modified Lightroom Lens Corrections
Sony A7R with SEL 10-18 F4 OSS at 15mm
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 15mm – No Lens Corrections
CLICK TO VIEW 100% CROP AT 15MM
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 15mm – Modified Lightroom Lens Corrections
Sony A7R with SEL 10-18 F4 OSS at 14mm
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 14mm – No Lens Corrections
CLICK TO VIEW 100% CROP AT 14MM
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 14mm – Modified Lightroom Lens Corrections
Sony A7R with SEL 10-18 F4 OSS at 13mm
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 13mm – No Lens Corrections
CLICK TO VIEW 100% CROP AT 13MM
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 13mm – Modified Lightroom Lens Corrections
Sony A7R with SEL 10-18 F4 OSS at 12mm
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 12mm – No Lens Corrections
CLICK TO VIEW 100% CROP AT 12MM
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 12mm – Modified Lightroom Lens Corrections
Sony A7R with SEL 10-18 F4 OSS at 11mm
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 11mm – No Lens Corrections
CLICK TO VIEW 100% CROP AT 11MM
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 11mm – Modified Lightroom Lens Corrections
Sony A7R with SEL 10-18 F4 OSS at 10mm
Sony A7R with Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS lens at 10mm – No Lens Corrections
CLICK TO VIEW 100% CROP AT 10MM
Sony A7R with SEL 10-18mm lens at 10mm – Modified Lightroom Lens Corrections
Bottom line, this lens is not Zeiss glass, but it’s much better than I thought it would be. I’d recommend shooting a bit loose so you can crop so you can crop from the sides. No need to crop top and bottom of the frame unless you’re in love with the 2×3 crop.
from 14-18mm plan to crop 5% off the sides 7360 > 6992 px
from 11-13mm plan to crop 10% off the sides 7360 > 6624 px
and I honestly would even bother shooting at 10mm
Tests shown were shot at F8. Vignetting is pretty much the same at 4 and 5.6, but extreme corner sharpness improves slightly with each stop down..
Order Sony 10-18 F4 OSS E-mount lens
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Comments
Pingback: Sony A7 and A7r test roundup… | sonyalpharumors November 24, 2013
[…] Sony A7 test scenes added at Dpreview. Test of A7 and A7R in German, with high-ISO pics at RalfsBude. Sony 10-18mm F4 OSS on Sony A7R by Brian Smith. […]
brian, its really and amazing camera i am also using this, i am a wedding planner and wedding photographer and i have captured so many photographs with this camera….you can see my photographs here.
Very nice Angela. Glad you like it too!
Does the OSS work when using the Sony 10-18mm F/4 lens on the A7r? My 18-55 doesn’t work with OSS on the A7r (it is greyed-out in the A7r menu).
Yes, OSS works with the SEL 10-18 on Sony A7/A7R
Bri
an, May I know which modified profile that you are using? Thanks
Hello Ryan, I use the Lightroom lens profile for the Sony E 10-18mm and then add a bit of additional distortion correction.
Brian,
Great pics showing the lens at various focal planes. Can you mount this lens directly to the a7r or do you need one of the various adaptors?
It’s an E-mount lens so you don’t need any adapter for A7/A7R.
Hi Brian,
thanks for posting this kind of test, it’s really helpful for ask who want to keep 10-18mm for A7/A7r :D.
One question, in the above pictures, when you say 11mm, it’s actually 11mm FOV in FF (35mm)? because 11mm in FF is soooo wide :D. Thanks!
Yes, fullframe. The APS crop is shown as an overlay.
Hi Brian,
One more question :p, one of my friend said that combination of A7r + 10-18mm isn’t good since the A7r’s sensor outresolve the 10-18mm. Is it true? is the picture quality (e.g sharpness level) is degraded?
Thanks
Same could be said of many of the Canon lenses people are mounting on the A7/A7R. The best way to look at it is that the sensor won’t be the weak link. It will capture the most detail possible the lens can resolve. There will certainly be a FE super-wide in the future, but until there is, this lens is a surprisingly good option – particularly at 14-15mm.
Brian
Thanks for all your great reviews on the Sony Alpha7. Did you have a chance to compare the Sony 10-18mm and the Zeiss Touit 2.8/12 lens on this body? Love the two primes made by Zeiss but I need a wide angle lens. Many thanks again for your work.
The Zeiss Touit 12mm F2.8 is a spectacular lens on APS-C. Unfortunately that’s about all it covers. It doesn’t come close to fullframe coverage. The generous coverage of the E 10-18mm F4 OSS was very unexpected.
I got this lens for my NEX-3N. I noticed when i used the zoom lever on my 3N that there is no sound? Is it that quiet? Of course i can zoom in or out with the zoom ring, but just wondering if it is suppose to not make noise when zooming with the zoom lever on the 3N…also, since it is not quite up to par in low light, what other tip do you suggest besides bumping up ISO and exposure compensation. thanks.
I don’t have a NEX-3N to test that on, but I’d assume that most people would consider silent zooming to be a good thing – particularly when shooting video. As far as working in low light, in addition to opening up, shooting at a slower shutter speed and raising the ISO your other option is to add Light – either from strobe or a continuous light source like a light panel or fluorescent lamp.
Will the 10-18 work equally as well on the a7 as its will on the a7r?
Yes. Same coverage on A7 as A7R.
Have you tried any other E mount lenses on the A7/A7R?
Yes, I’ve tried a number of other APS E-mount lenses and this is the only one that comes lose to covering fullframe.