Sony 35mm f/1.8 OSS First Impressions

After having used Nikkor AI lenses for a long time with his [shoplink 8454]Sony Nex7 (price & specs)[/shoplink], photographer Matthew Durr decided to get an E-mount lens and bought a [shoplink 6422]Sony 35mm f/1.8 OSS[/shoplink]. He writes:

So far, I’m liking what I’m seeing. Wide-open, there’s a bit of softness, but it doesn’t detract from images at normal viewing sizes in any way. Focus seems to be mostly consistent: using flexible spot at the center, focus is usually spot-on. […] For focus speed, I’d say it’s about twice as fast as the time it takes for me to find focus manually with my Nikkors (on static objects). […]

What I am loving without a doubt on the 35mm f/1.8 is the OSS. Not only does it help give another few stops of shutter speed advantage in low light and make handheld video smooth as silk (which I already knew it would do), but it makes composing photographs surprisingly easier! Framing can be much tighter when using the 35mm f/1.8; small movements which would translate to a jerk in the liveview with a non-OSS lens move the picture around very slowly with this lens. It’s a subtle, but nice touch to keep from needing to crop and rotate a bit in post-processing.

There are sample images and more in Matthew Durr’s first impressions review.

Sony Nex7 price check: [shopcountry 8454]

Sony 35mm f/1.8 OSS price check: [shopcountry 6422]