Sony 18-250 vs 28-75/70-210

[bossel]

Recently I asked myself if a two lens solution (like CZ16-80 + a zoom) would be much better than the 18-250 alone.

So I did a little non-scientific test, based on my usage:
- The following crops are in camera JPG, vidid, sharpness +1, you can find the craw at http://dl.free.fr/mqOmnxKrP.
- The filenames: S=Sony 18-250, KM=Konica Minolta28-75 and M=Minolta 70-210
- The Sony was used at F8, the two other at 5.6

It might appear strange, but it's done with what I have and how I'd shoot.

I am posting crops of center and border at 28mm, 70mm and 200mm

Here is the total scene, recently on a Sunday in Nice (Sony 18-250 at 18mm F8, see filename):

all-18mm-F8-S.jpg (141.16 KiB) Viewed 5551 times

28mm center

centre-28mm-F8-S.jpg (184.03 KiB) Viewed 5551 times

centre-28mm-F56-KM.jpg (188.17 KiB) Viewed 5551 times

At 28mm in the center, I think the Sony 18-250 does very well. The KM is just slightly sharper and maybe offers a bit more contrast.

[bossel]

28mm border

bord-28mm-F8-S.jpg (77.93 KiB) Viewed 5550 times

bord-28mm-F56-KM.jpg (78.79 KiB) Viewed 5550 times

Here the difference is obvious, the Sony can't cope with the KM, even given a 1 stop advantage.

[bossel]

70mm center

centre-70mm-F8-S.jpg (173.25 KiB) Viewed 5547 times

centre-75mm-F56-KM.jpg (182.72 KiB) Viewed 5547 times

centre-75mm-F56-M.jpg (201.51 KiB) Viewed 5547 times

At 75mm center, the Sony does well. Of the 3 I'd prefer the KM28-75, I think it's a tad more contrasty.

[bossel]

70mm border

bord-70mm-F8-S.jpg (112.29 KiB) Viewed 5546 times

bord-75mm-F56-KM.jpg (138.03 KiB) Viewed 5546 times

bord-75mm-F56-M.jpg (122.56 KiB) Viewed 5546 times

Like at 28mm, at 70mm the Sony is clearly much behind the others at the borders.

[bossel]

200mm center

centre-200mm-F8-S-x.jpg (197.79 KiB) Viewed 5547 times

centre-210mm-F56-KM-x.jpg (229.04 KiB) Viewed 5547 times

At 200mm, we can already see a loss of quality in the center, even with a 1 stop advantage for the Sony.
On the other hand, the 70-210/4 suffers some PF.

[bossel]

200mm border

bord-200mm-F8-S.jpg (118.55 KiB) Viewed 5547 times

bord-210mm-F56-M.jpg (155.33 KiB) Viewed 5547 times

No surprise her, at 200 mm F8 the Sony is behind the 70-210 at F5.6. Not only in sharpness, I also think the contrast is less.

[Dr. Harout]

No need for scientific methods to show those differences. It's a nice experiment you performed Thomas.
This would give an idea for people thinking "which lens to buy". For me it's definite, I would go for the KM from those 3
Thanks for your efforts.

[bossel]

For me the question was if it would be worth getting the CZ16-80, 28mm on APS-C being soooo long . The 18-250 got lots of praise when it was released, and I love it's versatility, but this test showed me it's drawbacks. In two weeks my wife and me will go to Rome for a week (I have to mention this ), something we dreamed about for years. And I don't want to return with mushy pictures.

Meanwhile a member of the french forum offered me to test his CZ16-80 (and 70-300G). I have nothing prepared to post but it's so much better. I just bought a used CZ one from another guy on the french forum. I am giving up 80-250mm, but I can shoot the CZ fully open vs the Sony at F8 - I gain 2 stops, plus 2mm on the short end. I think that's important in town, when you photograph buildings and don't want to change lenses. The only trouble now is I liked that 70-300G sooo much as well

[Dr. Harout]

For me the question was if it would be worth getting the CZ16-80, 28mm on APS-C being soooo long . The 18-250 got lots of praise when it was released, and I love it's versatility, but this test showed me it's drawbacks. In two weeks my wife and me will go to Rome for a week (I have to mention this ), something we dreamed about for years. And I don't want to return with mushy pictures.

Meanwhile a member of the french forum offered me to test his CZ16-80 (and 70-300G). I have nothing prepared to post but it's so much better. I just bought a used CZ one from another guy on the french forum. I am giving up 80-250mm, but I can shoot the CZ fully open vs the Sony at F8 - I gain 2 stops, plus 2mm on the short end. I think that's important in town, when you photograph buildings and don't want to change lenses. The only trouble now is I liked that 70-300G sooo much as well

Congrats, and go for the 70-300 too. But for the trip to Rome, I guess the CZ16-80 would be perfect.

[pakodominguez]

Meanwhile a member of the french forum offered me to test his CZ16-80 (and 70-300G). I have nothing prepared to post but it's so much better. I just bought a used CZ one from another guy on the french forum. I am giving up 80-250mm, but I can shoot the CZ fully open vs the Sony at F8 - I gain 2 stops, plus 2mm on the short end. I think that's important in town, when you photograph buildings and don't want to change lenses. The only trouble now is I liked that 70-300G sooo much as well

For my trip to Peru last year I took the A700 + KM 17-35 f2.8-4; KM 28-75 f2.8 and Tamron 70-200 f2.8. I didn't use the 70-200 enough to justify carrying a heavy lens. I used the 28-75 most of the time (but I did just little urban landscapes). I think the Sony-Zeiss 16-80 will replace easily the 18-250. I don't think that taking the big and heavy 70-300G is a good idea. Try to get the 55-200 SAM or Sigma/Tamron version instead (Adorama used department have the Sigma for 100 us$!) instead. Then, a f1.7 or f2.8 lens for low light.

BTW, what "french forum" are you talking about? I must practice my French...

Regards

[bakubo]

A useful test to help you decide. One thing to remember. The 18-250mm is an APS-C lens, but the other 2 are FF. That means the corner crops of the FF lenses aren't really corner crops. In actual use though, it doesn't really matter why they are better in the corners, they just are. If you get a 16-80mm it would be cool to see the same shots with it.

[bossel]

If you get a 16-80mm it would be cool to see the same shots with it.

Busy right now and then off to holidays, hopefully I can repeat this test in June!!

[bossel]

BTW, what "french forum" are you talking about? I must practice my French...

Have a look at http://www.alphadxd.fr/ (forum) and http://www.alphadxd.fr/ (news & press-reviews).
I also needed to brush up my French with photography related vocabulary, but getting there And the good thing about a country-based forum is, you'll meet people living right next to you offering to test their lenses

[Birma]

Very useful test and analysis Bossel - thank you for sharing. Congrats on the CZ, and have a great trip to Rome - looking forward to the pictures

[Andy B]

My wife and I will be visiting Rome, Florence and Venice in September. I had already decided on taking my CZ 16-80 and my Sony 55-200 instead of my Sony 18-250, and your tests reinforce this decision, Bossel. I will probably also take my Tamron 11-18. The new Tokina 11-16 is tempting with its constant f2.8 maximum aperture, but I'm not sure how much I would use the lens wide open--and I suspect I can find other uses in Italy for its $599US purchase price.

Have a nice trip, Bossel. My wife and I can hardly wait for September to arrive.

Andy