The Sony SEL1670Z has been introduced to the market for some time. It is one of the few Sony native APS-C standard zoom lenses.
The little Zeiss blue badge indicates that this lens is designed to give a high-quality optical performance with the Zeiss T* coating, one Advanced Aspherical element, and one Extra-low Dispersion element.
In short, the Sony SEL2470Z is a Zeiss constant aperture zoom lens with dust and moisture resistance for the Sony E-mount full-frame cameras. The lens comes with a “matched” price tag (SGD 1,599).
Sony had introduced three full-range zoom lenses into its E-mount camera system. They are the SEL18200, SEL18200LE, and the SELP18200. The SEL18200 is the largest and heaviest among the other two brothers, and it comes with a silver chrome body. The SEL18200LE is the lighter edition of the SEL18200, which is smaller and lighter and comes in a black body. Both of them use a mechanical zoom ring, while the SELP18200 uses the power zoom, which comes in a black body.
SEL18200LE
The lens that we are going to review today is the SEL18200LE. Due to the full focal length coverage by the SEL18200LE, this review is extremely long. Please be patient and ready to go through the rest of this post to see how does this lens perform 😉 I provided a summary at the top of each testing section if you want to get the result at a glance.
Bokeh! A special optical effect that almost every photographer is pursuing. It is pronounced as “boh-kay”, which originated from Japanese that means something blurry. In the photography world, Bokeh is defined as how the lens renders the out-of-focus region. The Bokeh can be the background with a circular out-of-focus effect or smooth blur out-of-focus rendering background. There is some debating for the definition, but we treat both of them as Bokeh here.
Circular Bokeh Effect
Smooth Bokeh Rendering
Bokeh is always one of the key difference between the interchangeable lens camera (ILC) and compact camera because it is challenging to get this smooth-rendered background from the compact camera. However, some people are using ILC but do not get the Bokeh effect as well. So we will have a look at what is essential to get the Bokeh in our shots.
Zoom lens usually consists of one focus ring and one zoom ring, and the focal length indicator as shown above.
We discussed the reasons to own a prime lens in the last post – 5 Reasons to Own a Prime Lens, but that does not mean we should always use prime lens. Today I’m going to tell you why we should get a zoom lens as well.
1. Convenience
Would you like to bring along your whole prime lens collection that covering 24 mm to 200mm (5 to 7 lenses) when traveling? Or do you prefer to travel in a lightweight and enjoy your trip? If that is the case, a lens like 24-105mm standard zoom or 18-200 mm full-range zoom is the ideal choice. Of course, I assumed you did not take the constant F2.8 cannon-size zoom into account.
So which lens should you buy? How to choose a proper lens for yourself?
1. Kit Lens
Kit lens, a standard zoom lens that comes with purchasing your new camera at a very low price. It covers the standard zoom range from 28mm to 70 mm in 35mm equivalent for normal daily usage. If you are new to photography, a standard kit lens is enough for you to learn all the necessary skills for photography.