Phillip Reeve
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| p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Review: Zeiss Vario-Tessar E 4/16-70 ZA OSS (sel1670z) | |
edit: I have a blog now and you can find this review with additional information there as well:Carl Zeiss 16-70mm 1:4 Review on phillipreeve.net
The pictures are nicer to look at here though;-)
About this review
I am no professional reviewer and don’t make any money from this review, so please treat it as such. Likes are welcome btw ;-).
All images are taken with a Nex-6, processed with Adobe Lightroom 4 and can be found in full resolution at flickr by clicking on the image.
This review is a real world review, so no charts but real world images in full resolution. Photozone or Lensrentals.com are much better at shooting charts than I am.
I also performed some controlled tetst which can be found here: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1241824
Specifications
Visit sony to get them link
Size & Weight
You can see the images above, the lens it not much bigger than the average 18-55 Kit lens and therefore a perfect match for the Nex. It weights about 300g which is more than 150g less than similar DSLR lenses.
Build quality
Is quite nice and the lens feels like a premium lens butnot like a professional lens to me (as for example the Canon 24-70/2.8 L does).
The zoom-ring is made from metal and is perfectly damped and feels a little better than the SEL1855's.
It is the same for the focusing ring, manual focusing works quite well with a nice transmission.
The inner barrel and filter thread are made from plastics, play is minimal (which is less than with the SEL1855).
AF
AF is pretty snappy, noiseless and precise. I don't own many E-Mount AF lenses but it is much quicker that the 50/1.8, hunting is rarely seen.
Image stabilizer
It works well and noiseless.
I got sharp images @70mm with a shutter spedd of 1/25 sec, as I didn’t perform a test series I can’t tell you about the exact improvement.
70mm_f56_SEL1670F4Z_FullResolution by reevedata, on Flickr
Optical performance
In one sentence: optical performance is really good.
A warning: my lens shows an annoying degree of decentering so other copies might perform better.
Flare resistance
if the full sun is in the frame the image won’t be usable
SEL1670Z_FullResolution (5 von 12) by reevedata, on Flickr
but when it is partially shaded the lens performs quite nice
Bokeh
The bokeh is really nice and you can get a nice amount of blur @70mm.
Sometimes minor onion-rings can be seen.
SEL1670Z_FullResolution (1 von 12) by reevedata, on Flickr
ZEISSHD by Phillip Reeve, on Flickr
SEL1670Z_FullResolution (3 von 12) by reevedata, on Flickr
31mm f5.6 SEL1670F4Z FullResolution by reevedata, on Flickr
Colors
I was always really happy with the colors, just look at the images.
Distortion
As I mostly do landscapes I didn’t check it, sorry.
Sharpness
When the lens arrived I made an extensive comaprison with many other lenses which can be found here: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1241824/2.
What I hadn’t noticed back the was that my lens was decentered so the performance of a perfects lens in the corners would be better, especially when zoomed in.
I mostly photograph landscapes so this it were the review is focused.
I don’t mention the image center because here it performs well at any aperture.
at 16mm: the outer corners never reach optimal sharpness, the rest of the frame is sharp from f/4 with some improvement when stopping down once.
Real world images fullfill my requirements 100%, here are some samples:
SEL1670Z_FullResolution (2 von 12) by reevedata, on Flickr
16mm_f8_SEL1670F4Z_FullResolution by reevedata, on Flickr
16mm_f11_SEL1670F4Z_FullResolution (2 von 8) by reevedata, on Flickr
16mm_f9_SEL1670F4Z by reevedata, on Flickr
at 21mm: now even the corners are perfectly sharp
mm_f_SEL1670F4Z__FullResolution (6 von 16) by reevedata, on Flickr
21mm_f8_SEL1670F4Z_FullResolution by reevedata, on Flickr
at 35mm: for best corner performance it has to be stopped down to f/8 but then the corners are sharp
mm_f_SEL1670F4Z__FullResolution (7 von 16) by reevedata, on Flickr
34mm_f8_SEL1670F4Z_FullResolution by reevedata, on Flickr
34mm_f9_SEL1670F4Z34mm_f9_SEL1670F4Z by reevedata, on Flickr
at 50mm: somewhat soft @f/4 stopped down the corners seem to be sharp (I didn’t use it a lot at this setting)
mm_f_SEL1670F4Z__FullResolution (5 von 16) by reevedata, on Flickr
at 70mm: wide open the lens is somewhat soft. Stopped down even the corners are sharp.
(As said earlier: my lens is decentered, so for this review I assume that a perfectly centered lens would perform at least as good as my lenses best corner does.)
70mm_f8_SEL1670F4Z_FullResolution by reevedata, on Flickr
70mm f8 SEL1670F4Z FullResolution by reevedata, on Flickr
70mm f/5.6 SEL1670Z FullResolution by reevedata, on Flickr
Conclusion
This is a great addition to the Nex lineup.
It offers a wide range at a reasonable speed with good image quality.
Operation is super smooth because of a rather quick AF, OSS and nice build quality.
The only weaknesses I see are a really steep price, somewhat soft corners at 16mm and a certain softness at the long end. And they sold me a copy which certainly shouldn’t have passed their QC.
If you have any questions just ask.
Some more samples
You can find more samples by visitng my flickr account.
Even more samples
These are optimized for web-display and can’t be enlarged.
Edited on Feb 01, 2014 at 10:58 AM · View previous versions
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