Sony 18-135mm, Best Kit Lens for Sony A6000 and A6400
Real World Images from the Sony 18-135mm F/3.5-5.6 OSS:
Sony 18-135mm F/3.5 – 5.5 OSS lens review:
For a long time, Sony paired their aps-c mirrorless cameras with the Sony 16-50mm 3.5-5.6 OSS lens, an ultra lightweight and compact lens. While cheap, small and compact, it’s a lens of very poor quality suffering from extreme distortion and softness. When I first tried the Sony A6000, I owned this lens for a week before ditching it and resorting to just pairing my Sony A6000, and later A6300, with prime lenses.
While I now primarily shoot full frame, I was excited to try out the Sony 18-135mm F/3.5-5.6 with the Sony A6400. Released in 2018, the Sony 18-135mm is still a fairly new lens. It covers a large focal length range, the full frame equivalent of 27mm to 203mm. This large range qualifies as a “all in one superzoom,” and I’m not usually a fan of such lenses. Typically, major compromises go into baking so much range into a single lens. Still, such range is a convenience and it’s hard for any lens to be much worse, optically, than the Sony 16-50mm.
After using the Sony 18-135mm F/3.5-5.6 OSS extensively paired with the Sony A6400, it easily became my preferred general purpose lens for the Sony A6xxx cameras. Let’s take a look more closely..
Body and Handling of Sony 18-135mm
The size of the Sony 18-135mm shows off the compactness of a Sony A6xxx system compared to a full frame camera. Below, see the comparison to the Sony 24-105mm F/4. While the Sony 24-105mm F/4 is a higher quality optic, it actually covers less range and at similar aperture, but the lens is massive compared to the Sony 18-135mm F/3.5-5.6. A camera isn’t pocketable with the Sony 18-135mm but it remains fairly compact and lightweight. It weighs in at 326 grams. While that might sound heavy compared to the 116 grams of the kit 16-50mm lens, it is really a reasonable amount of weight when you consider that the A6000 weighs 344 grams and the Sony A6400 weighs 403 grams. Any time the lens weighs less than the camera body, it shouldn’t be perceived as very heavy.
Overall, build quality fits under the “consumer” category which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.To remain so lightweight, the lens feels like plastic. There are no external buttons or switches other than Manual focus/auto focus. There is a ribbed zoom ring that is smooth. Nobody would ever say the Sony 18-135mm is built like a tank, but it’s a solid construction that should survive normal bumps and bruises. It’s not weather-sealed so keep it away from more extreme conditions.
Autofocus on the Sony 18-135mm was virtually silent. While perhaps not as quick as Sony’s premium lenses, it was fast enough for most typical uses.
Image Quality of the Sony 18-135mm F/3.5-5.6
When I was a regular Sony A6xxx shooter, I hated all of the standard zoom aps-c lenses. There is the Sony 16-50mm F3.5-5.6, which suffers from extreme distortion and softness. I tried the Sony 16-70mm F/4 which is very expensive for mediocre performance. So when Sony announced the 18-135mm in 2018, their first aps-c lens in years, I was cautiously optimistic that there was finally a standard zoom worth pairing with Sony aps-c cameras. For the most part, the Sony 18-135mm F/3.5 – 5.6 delivered very solid results.
Vignetting of the Sony 18-135mm F3.5 – 5.6
Above, we see the uncorrected vignette of the lens at 18mm as you go from an aperture of 3.5 to 5.6. Typically, vignetting should improve as you stop down.
We learn that this lens, probably to keep it compact, relies on extensive software correction. Uncorrected, the Sony 18-135mm does no actually resolve into the far corners at the wide end of 18mm. As a result, vignetting does not significantly improve even when stopping down the aperture. Thus, lens corrections (either lightroom or in-camera) are critical but there is a cost to such corrections, which we will see further in the next section.
Below, we see the vignetting at 135mm at F5.6 and stopped down to F8. At the telephoto end, we get much better performance. We definitely have darkened corners and edges at F5.6 but it is not very extreme. By stopping down to F8, you get a fairly even exposure across the frame.
Distortion of the Sony 18-135mm F/3.5-5.6
Above, we demonstrated how the lens compromised the wide angle corners. This compromise becomes even more obvious when we look at the uncorrected distortion at 18mm:
In the first image, you note extreme barrel distortion. In the second image, we see that it is correctable, with the lines being flattened out. But there is a price to pay for such corrections. Below, see a sharpness corner crop, with and without corrections:
As demonstrated, the “correction” flattens out the image but actually causes the corners to become more distorted. The corners get stretched out, also making them less sharp.
Fortunately, these issues primarily affect only the wide end. Below we see the very mild pin cushion distortion at the telephoto end.
Flare – Chromatic Aberration/Purple Fringing – Sun stars
I’ll start with the good news. Chromatic aberrations causing color fringing is very mild. This mostly pops up in high contrast off-center parts of the image. We see it present in some of the test shots above, but it’s pretty minor. Most people won’t notice it unless you’re looking for it. If this was a $2,000 lens, I’d be disappointed but the results are quite good for a kit consumer lens.
Now the bad news: Flare is poor and sensor ghosting is terrible. I included a lot of samples because I kept re-running the tests. Bright diffuse lights led to massive ghost blotching, likely due to reflections on the sensor. Below we see a comparison of the Sony 18-135mm on the Sony A6400 and the Sony 28mm F/2 on the Sony A7riii:
Same shot taken from the same perspective and angle at the same time. We clearly have a ghosting issue with the Sony 18-135mm F/3.5-5.6. It seems most evident when you have a diffuse bright light. When you have the clearly defined bright sun, you can get some lovely sunstars. There is some flaring, which I’d rate about in line with expectations for a kit lens:
Sharpness of the Sony 18-135mm
When talking about premium lenses, sharpness is often overrated. Most expensive lenses reach a threshold point where you don’t even notice differences in sharpness without pixel peeping. But when talking about kit lenses, not all lenses reach this threshold point. For example, the Sony 16-50mm F/3.5-5.6 will be noticeably soft at the wide and telephoto ends at wider apertures. So let’s see if Sony 18-135mm F/3.5-5.6 OSS meets the basic threshold of consistently sharp images….
Center Sharpness at 18mm
Starting with center crops at 18mm (click for large):
Now the centers at 18mm and more close-up focus distances:
At 18mm, we see acceptably sharp centers, even wide open at F3.5, but I wouldn’t call the center tack sharp. It doesn’t improve too quickly upon stopping down but I would say it’s tack sharp around f6.3. Practically speaking, the center is good enough for any real world use at all apertures.
If we look at the corners:
Corner Sharpness at 18mm
These are uncorrected images. Please recall from above, the corners actually become softer when you correct them. Below, let’s take a look from closer distance:
In the corners, performance is a bit better close up than from a longer distance. From close-up, the 18mm corners are soft at F3.5 but become acceptably sharp with stepping down a bit. From further away, the corners are simply soft. I’ve seen worse — the corners are not completely unusable or ugly. But even when stopping down, the corners at 18mm never become truly acceptably sharp. When you’re not pixel peeping, you’ll get passable images but an astute observer would notice some mild softness in the corners.
Center Sharpness at 50mm
And from closer distance:
There is nothing negative to say about the center of the frame at 50mm. You are essentially tack sharp, even at wide open apertures. Of course, “wide open” aperture is F5, which isn’t a very wide aperture.
50mm Corner Sharpness
And from closer distance:
The corners are generally good news at 50mm. Wide open at F5, the corners are quite acceptable and once you stop down to F6.3, the corners are superb: tack sharp.
Center Sharpness at 135mm
And looking at closer focus:
Kit lenses are often softer at the telephoto end but the Sony 18-135mm F/3.5-5.6 produces very nice results in the center. The center is pretty darn sharp at F5.6 but gets even sharper at F8.
Corner Sharpness at 135mm
And from closer distance:
I’d call the corners wide open at F5.6 “acceptable” and they basically become tack sharp at F8. For real world shooting, your images will look pretty sharp corner to corner even at wide open aperture. Stop down a bit, and you’ll really get a sharp image even on close inspection.
Overall:
This is a kit lens that’s worth owning but it’s far from perfect. Mostly, I’d say there are two issues to watch out for:
In some lighting situations, you really run the risk of sensor reflections / flare / ghosting wreaking havoc across the frame. Use the hood and watch your frame carefully, you should usually be able to avoid this issue.
Secondly, the Sony 18-135mm F/3.5-5.6 has several weaknesses at the wide end of 18mm. Extreme distortion and vignetting absolutely mandate significant use of software corrections, which will further soften an image that is already a bit soft. You can get usable images at 18mm, but you won’t get fantastic images at this widest focal length.
But the positives outweigh these negatives. As long as you aren’t at the widest settings, you’ll generally get very sharp images with very few defects. You can see the Sony 18-135mm F/3.5 – 5.6 at Amazon / Adorama. As of April 2019, the lens is on sale for $100 off.
It’s important to remember that the point of an interchangeable lens camera is to change the lenses. While I found the Sony 18-135mm to be a good option for general purpose use, one should consider the limitations of such a lens. For most people hoping to really see the potential of their camera, this is not a lens that should be on the camera 100% of the time. But it can be a good piece of your overall kit when grouped with other lenses in your bag.
The aperture of the Sony 18-135mm is “slow,” meaning it isn’t a wide aperture that lets in a lot of light. From about 57mm and longer, the aperture is a rather slow F5.6. As a result, the capability of the lens is limited in low light. In addition, you aren’t going to get a ton of lovely background blur that is often desirable in portraits.
Thus, if you want portraits that look better than the portrait mode on the newest iPhones, I wouldn’t really use the Sony 18-135mm, I’d get something like the Sony 50mm F/1.8 OSS (See on Amazon / Adorama. Read the Sony 50mm F/1.8 OSS review).
If you want breathtaking landscapes, I’d consider the Sony 10-18 F/4, my favorite Sony aps-c zoom lens. (See the Sony 10-18 F/4 on Amazon / Adorama). Read my article on ultra wide angle photography.
Final Score:
Returning to the Sony 18-135mm F/3.5 – 5.6 OSS, it’s a very good lens as long as you don’t expect it to really do everything. For general purpose daylight photography, it’s a very useful lens. It’s probably the best kit lens option for Sony A6000 series owners.
Rating (1-10): Score: 7
(About my scoring: 9-10 is a superb lens which could have a place in the bag of almost every photographer. 6-8: recommended with caveats. 3-5: A compromised lens that may still be suitable for some shooters and situations. 1-2: Just stick to your phone camera)
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See the Sony 18-135mm F/3.5 – 5.6 at Amazon / Adorama
