Sony SEL55F18Z.AE 55mm f/1.8 ZA Lens - Black

Product Information

This lens has a dust-, freeze- and weather-sealed physical construction that's sealed in nine different places and is capable of operating in environments as cold as -10°C. The front element features a fluorine coating to help repel dust, dirt, and moisture. For those who are more budget conscious there is a direct competitor in the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 lens. The FE 50mm f/1.8 costs just one-fourth of the FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA and shares the same max aperture. While they are both f/1.8 lenses, the Zeiss branded lens is considerably sharper than the Sony FE 50 f/1.8 when they are both used wide open. This is especially noticeable in the periphery of the frame where the FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA is much better. The gap between the two closes at f/2.8 but the edge clearly remains with the more expensive lens. The FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA is also much better built and features a much better focusing system. Overall, the two lenses aren’t genuinely comparable, with the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 providing a solid budget-oriented performance while the FE 55mm f/1.8 remains a professional grade option. ILCE-7M3 + Zeiss Sonnar T* FE 55mm F1.8 ZA @ 55mm, ISO 250, 1/2000, f/1.8 The scale of Sony's achievement here becomes clear when comparing the FE 55mm F1.8 directly to the Zeiss Otus 55mm F1.4, which lays a strong claim to being the best lens for which we have test data. The Otus still just about comes out on top - it measures as slightly sharper wide open - but it's unlikely any difference will be particularly visible in real-world photography. The Otus also just about wins out on chromatic aberration and distortion, but overall the Sony can certainly wear its Zeiss badge with pride. Having four different options isn’t surprising given the broad appeal of the 50mm focal length across a range of different photographic disciplines including portraiture, fashion, documentary, architectural and travel photography. The Sony FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA lens is situated in the middle of the lineup, sitting above the entry-level FE 50mm f/1.8 and below the faster, bigger and more expensive FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA lens. The Fujifilm GF 55mm F1.7 R WR lens has a traditional aperture ring on the lens barrel which allows you to set the aperture in 1/3 steps, complete with full aperture markings. The aperture is also shown in the viewfinder or on the LCD screen as you change it.

The FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA lens features a linear autofocus motor that focuses internally and makes very little noise. Overall, focus speeds are good but an important aspect to consider when judging a lens focusing ability is that the camera body plays an integral role in the quality of the autofocus and because of this, it is essential to match your lenses with high-quality bodies that can deliver good focusing performance. I was able to test the FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA lens alongside the very good Sony Alpha A7III body whose focusing capabilities make the most of the lens. ILCE-7M3 + Zeiss Sonnar T* FE 55mm F1.8 ZA @ 55mm, ISO 400, 1/3200, f/1.8 With the FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA featuring the Zeiss brand logo on its lens barrel and a price tag to match (being three times more expensive than the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8), I expected the lens to produce very sharp images and to do so without the need to stop down from its native aperture. Thankfully, the lens doesn’t disappoint with a very strong performance right from the get-go at f/1.8 where sharpness and contrast are on a high level. At this aperture, sharpness in the center of the frame is very good with the corners showing a good if an unimpressive level of sharpness. Dramatic improvements can be seen at f/2 and especially so at f/2.8, with the lens now extremely sharp over most of the image frame with the corners improving gradually improving as you stop down. In the center of the frame, you the lens is jaw-droppingly sharp from f/2.8 until f/5.6 where it starts to feel the effects of diffraction. The corners reach peak sharpness at the f/5.6 settings where the performance is truly outstanding. Overall, the FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA is extremely sharp with a truly outstanding performance that rivals the best 50mm wide aperture lenses on the market. Distortion is extremely low, with just a little barrel-type visible if you look closely. This will also be corrected automatically by the camera when shooting JPEG.

The Fujinon XF16-55mm f2.8 is as good as it gets for an X-mount standard zoom

When it comes to handling chromatic aberrations the Sony FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA turns in a mixed result. On one hand, lateral chromatic aberration is very well controlled with very little of it showing at f/1.8 and almost none showing two stops down. Unfortunately, the lens exhibits a significant amount of bokeh fringing (color fringing in front of and behind the focused area) with this especially prominent with the lens used wide open at f/1.8. The fringing remains quite noticeable until the lens is stopped down to f/4 where things improve markedly. By f/5.6 the lens exhibits only a small amount of fringing. This is certainly one of the FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA’s biggest optical weaknesses though it isn’t all that difficult to correct in post-processing. ILCE-7M3 + Zeiss Sonnar T* FE 55mm F1.8 ZA @ 55mm, ISO 125, 1/320, f/1.8 10) Comparisons Measuring just 64.4mmx70.5mm, the FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA is a very small and lightweight lens which perfectly captures the original intent of compactness of Sony’s mirrorless camera system. In use, the lens makes for a perfect companion to the Sony A7 series of cameras and is a joy to use during extended shooting sessions as you rarely feel you’re even carrying a camera with you. At the front of the lens is a non-rotating 49mm filter thread, surrounded by a bayonet mount for the lens hood supplied with the lens. The petal shaped hood is well made and attaches firmly. It’s quite large and nearly doubles the overall length of the lens but does a great job of protecting the front element. The 55mm f/1.8 has three aspherical elements, but its internal design is otherwise quite simple, helping to make for such a small lens. Focusing is usefully internal and manual focusing is possible when set via the camera body. Full-time manual focus override is available at any time simply by rotating the focus ring, if specified in the menu system, or you can set the focusing switch on the camera body to M, C or S.

Take complete creative control of your images with PIXMA and imagePROGRAF PRO professional photo printers. The 55mm focal length gives an angle of view of 52.9° degrees, which is equivalent to a focal length of 44mm on a 35mm full-frame sensor camera. Chromatic Aberrations With a maximum diameter of 94.7mm, a length of 99.3mm and a weight of 780g / 1.72 lb, the Fujifilm GF 55mm F1.7 R WR is relatively compact and lightweight considering the very fast maximum aperture of f/1.7 that it offers. The lens exhibits a strong amount of vignetting, with light falloff reaching around 2.5 stops with the lens used wide open at f/1.8. One stop down, things greatly improve with there now being about 1.5 stops of corner shading. By f/5.6, this number further improves with the lens exhibiting less than one stop of darkening in the corners. ILCE-7M3 + Zeiss Sonnar T* FE 55mm F1.8 ZA @ 55mm, ISO 250, 1/500, f/1.8 8) Flaring When shooting in AF-S single shot mode, the camera needs to de-focus the lens before focusing on the subject which leads to a noticeable slowdown. Nevertheless, overall focus speed is good enough for most uses and accuracy is superb for static subjects including good accuracy in low-light conditions.Our sample images indicate that to be the case, with very little barrel or pincushion distortion visible. Macro And here is an image at f/1.8, followed by center, mid-frame, and corner crops: ILCE-7M3 + Zeiss Sonnar T* FE 55mm F1.8 ZA @ 55mm, ISO 1000, 1/160, f/1.8 f/1.8, center crop f/1.8, mid-frame crop f/1.8, corner crop 5) Vibration Reduction As with all of the the other GF lenses that we've previously reviewed, the build quality of the Fujifilm GF 55mm F1.7 R WR is excellent. The lens is dust, freeze and moisture resistant and it features a metal bayonet. A soft cloth bag, front and rear lens caps, and a large plastic petal-shaped lens hood are supplied as standard in the box. Focal Range The FE 55mm F1.8 can also be used on Sony's APS-C E-mount bodies, on which it will behave like a classic short telephoto 'portrait' lens. However most users of these cameras will probably find the Sony E 50mm F1.8 OSS to be a better choice, as it's much cheaper and includes optical image stabilisation, while offering decent optical quality too. Headline features

Here is the kind of sharpness you can expect at f/1.8: ILCE-7M3 + Zeiss Sonnar T* FE 55mm F1.8 ZA (SEL55F18Z) @ 55mm, ISO 250, 1/1600, f/2.2 f/1.8, center crop f/1.8, corner cropWith a standard focal length of 44mm (35mm equivalent), we wouldn't expect this lens to have too many problems with distortion. Chromatic aberration is pretty low. There'll be some green/magenta fringing visible towards the extreme corners of the frame if you look closely, but it's unlikely to be hugely objectionable. It will be automatically corrected in the camera's JPEGs, too. Optically the Fujifilm GF 55mm F1.7 R WR lens is comprised of 14 elements in 10 groups including two ED elements and two aspherical elements and it accepts 77mm filters via metal threads.