Sony 35mm f/1.8
Stabilized E-Mount APS-C (2012-)
Sony E 35mm f/1.8 OSS (APS-C, 49mm filters, 5.4 oz./154g, 1'/0.3m close focus, $398 new or about $310 used if you know How to Win at eBay). bigger. I'd get mine at Adorama, at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield, or used at eBay.
This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken.
April 2019 Sony Sony Lenses Zeiss Nikon Canon Fuji LEICA All Reviews
Why Fixed Lenses Take Better Pictures
Sample Images
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Shot hand-held as Standard JPGs; no RAW or FINE JPGs or tripods were used or needed:
Canary Palm, 28 April 2019. Sony A6400, Sony 35mm f/1.8, f/11 at 1/60 at Auto ISO 400, Perfectly Clear. bigger or full-resolution or camera-original © file.
Lawn Furniture, 28 April 2019. Sony A6400, Sony 35mm f/1.8, f/4.5 at 1/320 at Auto ISO 100, Perfectly Clear. bigger or full-resolution or camera-original © file.
Introduction
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This Sony 35mm f/1.8 is a superlight and compact fast normal lens for Sony's E-mount APS-C cameras.
It's tiny, focuses fast and silently, works great in low light, it's sharp and it's reasonably priced and has image stabilization. What more could you want?
This 35mm lens sees the same angle of view on APS-C cameras as a 50mm lens sees on full frame.
This lens is is all plastic on the inside, with a metal mount and aluminum vanity cover on the outside, so it weighs next to nothing. You can take it everywhere and have it ready for anything, or just use it all the time as your only and/or normal lens.
I'd get my Sony 35mm f/1.8 at Adorama, at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield, or used at eBay.
Good
Fast f/1.8 aperture is four times more sensitive to light than an f/3.5 zoom.
Optical Steady Shot (OSS) Image Stabilization.
Fast and silent autofocusing.
Simple optical design make it very resistant to flare and ghosts.
Aluminum external trim.
Tiny.
Light.
Inexpensive.
Bad
Electronic focus ring, like most mirrorless lenses, has no direct mechanical connection to the optics. It only works when you have the camera set just right.
Offshored China; not made domestically in Japan.
Missing
No focus or depth-of-field scales.
No aperture ring.
Sony 35mm f/1.8. bigger.
Format
Top Sample Images Intro Format
I'd get my Sony 35mm f/1.8 at Adorama, at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield, or used at eBay.
This is an APS-C (cropped-sensor) lens and I'm testing it as such.
It also works on full-frame cameras, which automatically crop their sensors to APS-C.
Compatibility
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I'd get my Sony 35mm f/1.8 at Adorama, at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield, or used at eBay.
This is an APS-C (cropped-sensor) lens that works on all Sony E-mount cameras. This includes all the variations of NEX, A9-, A7-, A6xxx and A5xxx series cameras.
Full-frame cameras will automatically crop to APS-C.
It will not mount on any Sony A-mount DSLR or any Minolta MAXXUM 35mm SLR of any kind. Those use the old A mount which was actually the Minolta MAXXUM mount from 1987.
Specifications
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I'd get my Sony 35mm f/1.8 at Adorama, at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield, or used at eBay.
Name
Sony 35mm f/1.8. bigger.
Sony calls this the E 35mm F1.8:
E: E-mount.
Sony's model number is SEL35F18.
Optics
Sony E 35mm f/1.8 internal optical construction. Aspherical and ED elements. smaller.
8 elements in 6 groups.
The front and rear elements are concave (curve in), so don't worry: you're not missing part of your lens! The immortal LEICA SUMMICRON-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH FLE does the same thing for the same reason.
Two Aspherical elements.
One element of ED glass.
Internal focus.
Diaphragm
Sony 35mm f/1.8 (diaphragm not seen). bigger.
7 rounded blades.
Stops down to f/22.
Focal Length
35mm.
When used on APS-C, it sees the same angle of view as a 50mm lens sees when used on a full-frame camera.
See also Crop Factor.
Angle of View
44° diagonal on APS-C.
Autofocus
Internal focus.
No external movement as focused, so no air or dust is sucked in.
Close Focus
1 foot (0.3 meters).
Maximum Reproduction Ratio
1:6.7 (0.15×) life size.
Optical Stabilizer
Yes.
Filters
49mm filter thread.
Hood
Included ALC-SH112 hood. bigger.
ALC-SH112 plastic bayonet included.
Size
2.48" maximum diameter × 1.77" extension from flange.
63 mm maximum diameter × 45 mm extension from flange.
Weight
5.430 oz. (154.0g) actual measured weight.
Rated 5.4 oz (154g).
Included
Lens (SEL35F18).
ALC-SH112 plastic bayonet hood.
ALC-F49S front and ALC-R1EM rear cap.
Announced
Early 2012.
Available since
12 September 2012.
Sony Model Number
SEL35F18.
Price, USA
April 2019
$398 new or about $310 used if you know How to Win at eBay
Performance
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Overall Autofocus Bokeh Distortion
Ergonomics Falloff Flare & Ghosts
Lateral Color Fringes Macro Mechanics
I'd get my Sony 35mm f/1.8 at Adorama, at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield, or used at eBay.
Overall
This weightless Sony 35mm f/1.8 focuses fast and takes great pictures in any light for a bargain price.
Autofocus
Autofocus is fast and silent.
Bokeh
Bokeh, the feel or quality of out-of-focus areas as opposed to how far out of focus they are, is pretty good.
Here's a photo from headshot distance wide-open at f/1.8:
Davis 6250 weather station, 28 April 2019. Sony A6400, Sony 35mm f/1.8 with 49mm Tiffen 0.9 three-stop ND filter at f/1.8 at 1/1,000 at Auto ISO 100. bigger or camera-original © file.
The green and red fringes you see around the weather station are caused by this lens' strong spherochromatism on slightly out-of-focus areas, which also helps smooth green backgrounds.
As with all lenses, if you want to throw the background as far out of focus as possible shoot wide open (f/1.8) and get as close as possible.
Distortion
There is an invisible bit of barrel distortion. Use a a correction factor of +0.50 in Photoshop's lens correction filter for critical use at 3 meters/10 feet, or turn on your camera's automatic correction, (usually at MENU > Camera 1 > Lens Comp. > Distortion Comp. > Auto) and it all goes away even for critical use.
This is excellent performance.
Ergonomics
Sony 35mm f/1.8. bigger.
There's an electronic focus ring and that's it.
It's all hard aluminum on the outside.
Falloff
Falloff is invisible with the camera's default correction ON (usually at MENU > Camera 1 > Lens Comp. > Shading Comp. > Auto).
I've greatly exaggerated it here by shooting pure gray and displaying it against more gray. It won't look this bad in actual photos::
Sony 35mm f/1.8 falloff at infinity, correction ON.
© 2019 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved. |
If you go out of your way to turn correction OFF then you can see some at f/1.8, and for actual photos (not tests of flat fields) it's gone by f/2.8:
Sony 35mm f/1.8 falloff at infinity, correction turned OFF.
© 2019 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved. |
Flare & Ghosts
It has a very simple optical design, so there are few air-to-glass surfaces to lead to reflections that cause flare and ghosts, thus this is a very flare-resistant lens.
The worst I've seen is one magenta blob between the light source and the center of the image, and this is only under extreme conditions as I show at Sunstars.
Lateral Color Fringes
There are no lateral color fringes as shot on Sony's cameras which usually correct for them anyway. This is excellent performance — but there is a boatload of spherochromatism, which are different kinds color fringes in a different dimension.
Macro Performance
It gets close, and it's very sharp at f/8:
Casio G-Shock Solar Atomic Watch at close-focus distance at f/8, 27 April 2019. bigger or camera-original © file.
1,200 × 900 pixel crop from above. bigger or camera-original © file.
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 3" (7.5cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same large magnification would be about 10 × 15" (25 × 38cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 6" (15cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 20 × 30" (50 × 75cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 12" (30cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same insanely high magnification would be about 40 × 60" (1 × 1.5 meters).
it's very soft at f/1.8, caused by lots of spherical aberration and spherochromatism at f/1.8:
Casio G-Shock Solar Atomic Watch at close-focus distance at f/8, 27 April 2019. bigger or camera-original © file.
Spherochromatism at f/1.8 causes the psychedelic orange and blue fringes on out-of-focus elements (which is most of the picture with any lens this close) that make it look like a 1960's newspaper's funny pages with really bad color alignment:
1,200 × 900 pixel crop from above. bigger or camera-original © file.
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 3" (7.5cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same large magnification would be about 10 × 15" (25 × 38cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 6" (15cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 20 × 30" (50 × 75cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 12" (30cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same insanely high magnification would be about 40 × 60" (1 × 1.5 meters).
Mechanical Quality
Sony 35mm f/1.8. bigger.
This Sony 35mm f/1.8 is all plastic on the inside, with a plastic filter ring but a metal mount and aluminum outer skin and manual focus ring.
Sharpness
Lens sharpness has nothing to do with picture sharpness; every lens made in the past 100 years is more than sharp enough to make super-sharp pictures if you know what you're doing. The only limitation to picture sharpness is your skill as a photographer. It's the least talented who spend the most time worrying about lens sharpness. Skilled photographers make great images with whatever camera is in their hands; I've made some of my best images of all time with an irreparably broken camera! Most pixels are thrown away before you see them, but camera makers don't want you to know that.
This lens is always super-sharp throughout most of the image, even in the laboratory wide-open at f/1.8. While it has a little less contrast at f/1.8, it's super-sharp and contrasty by f/2.8 throughout most of the image.
This made-in-China special is a little softer in the laboratory on the sides and in the corners wide open. It's not the Zeiss 35/2.8 which costs twice as much and is a stop slower, but also flawlessly sharp in the corners in the lab wide-open where no one cares. You won't see this lens' corner softness at f/1.8 in actual pictures, but you will if you shoot it in a lab where no good pictures are ever made anyway. The slight corner softness improves as stopped down even at f/2.8, and by f/4 to f/5.6 this lens is perfect in the corners, and that's where we usually shoot anyway.
MTF.
Spherochromatism
This 35/1.8 has a lot of spherochromatism.
Spherochromatism, also called "color bokeh" by laymen, is an advanced form of chromatic aberration in a different dimension than lateral color. It causes colored fringes on out-of-focus highlights, seen as green-cyan fringes on backgrounds and magenta-red fringes on foregrounds. Spherochromatism is common in fast lenses of moderate focal length when shooting contrasty items at full aperture.
It goes away as stopped down.
Casio G-Shock Solar Atomic Watch, 27 April 2019. Sony A6400, Sony 35mm f/1.8 at f/1.8. bigger or camera-original © file.
1,200 × 900 pixel crop from above. Sony A6400, Sony 35mm f/1.8 at f/1.8. bigger or camera-original © file.
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 3" (7.5cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same large magnification would be about 10 × 15" (25 × 38cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 6" (15cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same high magnification would be about 20 × 30" (50 × 75cm).
If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 12" (30cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 40 × 60" (1 × 1.5 meters).
Image Stabilization
Optical Image Stabilization (OIS, IS or VR (Vibration Reduction)) works well, giving me two to four stops of real-world improvement. We're all different, but I get 100% tripod-equivalent sharpness hand-held at 1/8 of a second most of the time.
"Percent Perfectly Sharp Shots" are the percentage of frames with 100% perfect tripod-equivalent sharpness I get when I'm shooting hand-held while standing with no support. Hand tremor is a random occurrence, so at marginal speeds some frames will be perfectly sharp while others will be in various stages of blur — all at the same shutter speed. This rates what percentage of shots are perfectly sharp, not how sharp all the frames are:
| % Perfectly Sharp Shots | 1 |
1/2 |
1/4 |
1/8 |
1/15 |
1/30 |
1/60 |
1/125 |
| OSS ON | 0 |
40 |
50 |
75 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| OSS OFF | 0 |
0 |
0 |
17 |
20 |
40 |
100 |
100 |
Sunstars
With a rounded 7-blade diaphragm this 35mm lens only makes sunstars on brilliant points of light at the smallest apertures, but they actually do look pretty good at f/16 and smaller.
Click any to enlarge:
Click any to enlarge.
Recommendations
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This tiny little lens is a jewel for use as a normal lens and for shooting in any kind of low light. With both stabilization and a fast aperture, you're prepared for anything.
For $400 you can't go wrong with this little lens. Anything close costs at least twice as much.
I'd get my Sony 35mm f/1.8 at Adorama, at Amazon, at B&H or at Crutchfield, or used at eBay.
I use a clear (UV) protective filter instead of a cap. I only use a cap when I throw this in a bag with other gear, otherwise I leave a clear protective filter on my lens at all times instead of a cap so I'm ready to shoot instantly.
The very best protective filter is the Multicoated Hoya HD 49mm which uses hardened glass and repels dirt and fingerprints.
For less money, the B＋W 49mm 010 is an excellent filter, as are the multicoated B＋W and the basic multicoated Hoya filters, but the Hoya HD is the toughest and the best.
Filters last a lifetime, so you may as well get the best. The Hoya HD stays cleaner than the others since it repels oil and dirt.
If you want to shoot at f/1.8 in direct sunlight, you'll want a 49mm Tiffen 0.9 three-stop ND filter unless your camera has shutter speeds of at least 1/8,000, otherwise you'll get overexposure.
This junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Sony does not seal its boxes in any way, so never buy at retail or any other source not on my personally approved list since you'll have no way of knowing if you're missing accessories, getting a defective, damaged, returned, store demo or used lens. I use the stores I do because they ship from secure remote warehouses where no one gets to touch your new lens before you do. Buy only from the approved sources I use myself for the best prices, service, return policies and selection.
Thanks for helping me help you!
Ken, Mrs. Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.
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