Over the past week or so I managed to take a sample few photos with the New Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS Lens (SEL200LE) and the Sony Nex-F3. The New Sony lens is remarkable similar to the Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III VC lens, although the actual glass elements are a little different per the specs. The Sony has two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass elements and four aspherical elements, while the Tamron has two LD elements, three Glass Molded Aspherical Lenses, one XR (Extra Refractive Index) glass, and one Hybrid Aspherical Lens.
LD and XR elements in the Tamron vs ED elements in the Sony? ED is better than LD, so assuming that these specs are accurate the Sony should be a tab bit better in some areas unless the Tamron XR glass does some magic 😉 Realistically it’s going to be pretty tuff to see the difference I think, but we shall see as I have some image I can compare for the full review when I publish that.
In any event, the SEL200LE is much lighter and smaller than the previous model, although that was originally designed for the Nex camcorder I read, and balanced better weight and size wise. On the actual Nex Cameras, it was very large though and really looked awkward.
New Sony 18-200mm (SEL18200LE)
Tamron 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III VC lens
High Res Sample Photos
Here’s a snapshot of my Nephew at 200mm and the separation from the background is pretty good! The 100% crop also looks pretty good, although not razor blade sharp like the 50mm f/1.8 OSS prime lens for example.
Be sure to Click on theses Photos for the actual 100% Crop which is ~1200px
Here’s another similar snapshot of my very good friend Doug. It’s from the same exact spot a few minutes difference in time. I converted this to BW as I felt it was a better shot, but I did not apply any sharpening!! Don’t worry, I have more “test” shots coming 😉
Moving on to some Architecture, check out the Washingtonville Middle School below.
Closing Remarks
So far the new Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS Lens is a pretty decent performer. Going from memory it’s a little better than the Tamron 18-200mm in the corners, especially with fringing. The OSS works really well and certainly makes it easier to hand hold using those long focal lengths and slower shutter speeds. This new version SEL18200LE is much lighter and smaller than the older version SEL18200, but the image quality is not quite as sharp or as contrasty in my opinion. You don’t get something for nothing usually 😉 I will do more comparison shots for the full review, but from what I got so far this lens falls between the Tamron 18-200mm and the old SOny 18-200mm as far as sharpness, and contrast is concerned.
Jay
