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Sony Zeiss 16-70 4 OSS

philber

Member
It is hard for me to judge pictures which are taken in JPEG with a new lens on a new camera body and sensor. Most of the pictures are close up, colors look really nice. Other than that, I am unsure. Specs and MTF are appealing, though.
 

tashley

Subscriber Member
Mine arrived today. I will test and report. Feels a little less than super premium build I must say...
 

tashley

Subscriber Member
OK I gave it a run. Not formal enough testing to count as peer-reviewable science but easily enough for me to form a pretty firm judgement - which is that I do not like this lens at all. At most focal lengths, f4 is not very useful because it has very soft edges. In general soft edges are a problem in any event, more so at wider focal lengths. The best performance is from 35mm to 70mm but often F8 is needed to get edges that look even acceptably tight. I also have no sense of a sweet spot, either within the FOV or the focal length range or aperture ranges, where the results look impressive in the way one hopes for from Zeiss though it can look at best quite good. There is also a lot of purple fringing. I was going to review this lens against the Oly MFT 12=40 F2.8 when it arrives, but I may not wait since I want to return the Sony Zeiss asap...

All in all my copy of this lens on my Nex-7 performs rather as I would expect a cheaper kit lens to perform. Maybe a bit bit better than that but not by enough IMHO to justify the cost.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
You are an odd man, Tim! :clap:

How many reviewers would do this?
 
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tashley

Subscriber Member
I thank you Sir! I will certainly sanity check all this on a tripod under more rigorous conditions if the weather allows but if anyone was hoping for this lens to be the magic bullet that finally got close to unleashing the performance of the sensor on the NEX-7 with a zoom then, if my lens is a representative sample and the results I had today are replicated when I shoot it in a more formal test, I can say that the hope will have been in vain...

Here are some samples at 16mm. The first (hills) series was focussed centre on the far line of trees. The second (tower) was focussed using flexible spot on the tower itself with no recompose. Both series at F4, f.6 and 8 and all images can be downloaded full size. They were shot handheld with stabilisation on, in RAW and then given my default low ISO LR treatment for this camera which is a +12 clarity, and 50/0.7/70/20 sharpening. And whilst I do appreciate that it will be necessary to re-shoot with a tripod etc etc, and that the distant hills are not equidistant at the edges and centre, I have shot these scenes a huge number of times with a huge number of cameras and lenses and I know how these results fit in to that meta-level database of results...

http://tashley1.zenfolio.com/p805429655/h2afe221#h2afe221

Hope this is informative for now but I will try to do some more scientific testing tomorrow.
 
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mbroomfield

New member
I agree on all points and returned mine last week.

There are some photos on my pbase site, a little buried now in the Recent gallery. A couple are full size jpegs. I was shooting against the 10-18 Sony and the old 35-70/3.5 macro MD. Performance close up seemed better than far, but no cigar for this lens Zeiss!
 

darr

Well-known member
I thank you Sir! I will certainly sanity check all this on a tripod under more rigorous conditions if the weather allows but if anyone was hoping for this lens to be the magic bullet that finally got close to unleashing the performance of the sensor on the NEX-7 with a zoom then, if my lens is a representative sample and the results I had today are replicated when I shoot it in a more formal test, I can say that the hope will have been in vain...

Here are some samples at 16mm. The first (hills) series was focussed centre on the far line of trees. The second (tower) was focussed using flexible spot on the tower itself with no recompose. Both series at F4, f.6 and 8 and all images can be downloaded full size. They were shot handheld with stabilisation on, in RAW and then given my default low ISO LR treatment for this camera which is a +12 clarity, and 50/0.7/70/20 sharpening. And whilst I do appreciate that it will be necessary to re-shoot with a tripod etc etc, and that the distant hills are not equidistant at the edges and centre, I have shot these scenes a huge number of times with a huge number of cameras and lenses and I know how these results fit in to that meta-level database of results...

Tim Ashley Photography | Sony Zeiss E 16-70 | _DSC1840

Hope this is informative for now but I will try to do some more scientific testing tomorrow.
Thank you Tim for the review. I had my hopes up and scheduled a rental lens which I will still tryout. I will be looking forward to your tripod versions.

Kind regards,
Darr
 

tashley

Subscriber Member
Thank you Tim for the review. I had my hopes up and scheduled a rental lens which I will still tryout. I will be looking forward to your tripod versions.

Kind regards,
Darr
My pleasure! I will be very interested in your opinion of your rental lens. For me, this likely spells the end of my interest in the NEX system :-(
 

darr

Well-known member
My pleasure! I will be very interested in your opinion of your rental lens. For me, this likely spells the end of my interest in the NEX system :-(
A little wait on my end as it arrives on 11/11, but I will post my findings.

I use my NEX-7 primarily with a Nikon 50mm f1.2 for artistic reasons. :)

Here's a shot from 2 days ago (posted in the NEX with older lenses thread):

 

tashley

Subscriber Member
That's a lovely picture Darr!

I tested my lens more thoroughly today but as I was about to shoot the last frames (at 70mm) it started to rain and I had to pack up quickly, given that I was aware of the fact that I will probably return the lens and didn't want to get any rain on it.

However I did manage to shoot at F4 thru 11 at all focal lengths from 16 to 50mm and I have to say that I was about as close to shocked as a lens can make me. My copy on my camera gives results that I would consider barely adequate for a kit lens.
 

darr

Well-known member
That's a lovely picture Darr!

I tested my lens more thoroughly today but as I was about to shoot the last frames (at 70mm) it started to rain and I had to pack up quickly, given that I was aware of the fact that I will probably return the lens and didn't want to get any rain on it.

However I did manage to shoot at F4 thru 11 at all focal lengths from 16 to 50mm and I have to say that I was about as close to shocked as a lens can make me. My copy on my camera gives results that I would consider barely adequate for a kit lens.
Thanks Tim!

I was hoping I could find an all around e-mount lens for those walks at the fair! :(
I appreciate your feedback and will post my findings as well.

Darr
 

tashley

Subscriber Member
Darr, I have taken a series of more formal test shots and written them up, and on the basis of them and of the shots I had already taken, decided to return the lens - it just wasn't near my expectations of it. Mike (above) seems to have had similar problems and returned his too so unless we both got bad samples, I wouldn't hold your breath for results from your rental copy :-(
 

darr

Well-known member
Darr, I have taken a series of more formal test shots and written them up, and on the basis of them and of the shots I had already taken, decided to return the lens - it just wasn't near my expectations of it. Mike (above) seems to have had similar problems and returned his too so unless we both got bad samples, I wouldn't hold your breath for results from your rental copy :-(
Thanks Tim for the update! I am disappointed. :(
 
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