Skip to main content
DEAL WATCH: Keurig K-Express | 22% off $69.99

Keurig has changed the face of coffee, and snagging one of these for less than $70 is a solid deal. Read Review

BUY NOW
  • Who's It For?

  • Look and Feel

  • Image Quality

  • Conclusion

  • Sharpness

  • Distortion

  • Chromatic Aberration

  • Bokeh

  • Who's It For?
  • Look and Feel
  • Image Quality
  • Conclusion
  • Sharpness
  • Distortion
  • Chromatic Aberration
  • Bokeh

Pros

  • Bright f/1.8 aperture

  • Outstanding optical quality

  • Compact size

Cons

  • Not weather-sealed

That’s changed over the last couple years, thanks to the introduction of lenses like the Sony E 35mm f/1.8 OSS (MSRP $449.99). This wide-aperture normal prime lens is compact, well-built, sharp, and (best of all) affordable. And unlike most fast primes, goes the extra mile by offering optical image stabilization.

It’s not the best lens in Sony’s lineup, but if you bought into the promise of Sony’s superb mirrorless cameras, this is the kind of lens that will repay your faith.

Who's It For?

Like most normal primes, the 35mm f/1.8 OSS is a general-purpose lens that provides an angle of view very similar to what your eyes see. That means that while it's not a perfect fit for everything, it's usable for all kinds of photography, from street shooting to travel and portraits.

The f/1.8 maximum aperture is a big boost when you're shooting in dim conditions, letting in lots of light and helping isolate your subject from the background. This isn't a purpose-built portrait lens, but it can certainly be used like one, crisply rendering faces over creamy-smooth blurs of light and color.

The wide f/1.8 maximum aperture and optical image stabilization make the 35mm f/1.8 a solid choice for low-light shooting.

The wide f/1.8 maximum aperture and optical image stabilization make the 35mm f/1.8 a solid choice for low-light shooting.

Perhaps the best thing about this is lens is how compact it is. Sony has made a big deal about how small its E-mount cameras are, and this the 35mm f/1.8 is the perfect complement. Its potent combination of size, flexibility, and performance makes it an ideal travel lens, especially if you want something that won't hurt your neck after a long day of shooting.

One important note: This lens was designed to be used with Sony’s APS-C mirrorless cameras, like the older NEX-5T and new Sony A6000.

On these cameras, it behaves like a 52.5mm lens would on a full-frame camera. Confusingly, it will behave that way even on a full-frame E-mount camera (like the Sony A7 II), since the image circle wasn't designed to cover the larger full-frame sensor and the camera will engage its automatic crop mode. If you have a full-frame "FE" Sony camera and want a true 35mm field of view that covers the entire sensor, consider the Sonnar T* FE 35mm F2.8 ZA.

Look and Feel

While Sony was a little late to the party when it came to beefing up its lens selection, this one and the very similar 50mm f/1.8 OSS have made a solid first impression. They're inexpensive, but they don't feel cheap. The bodies are all metal, which feels much more robust than the plastic used in many (often more expensive) prime lenses from other systems.

The lens features an extremely minimalist design, with the focus-by-wire ring serving as the only physical control.

The lens features an extremely minimalist design, with the focus-by-wire ring serving as the only physical control.

They're also exceedingly minimalist in design, which means there’s not much to talk about with regard to this lens's looks and operation. The only physical control is the ribbed focus ring, which has a decent throw but a fairly loose/imprecise feel. Like most modern autofocus lenses, it uses a focus-by-wire system. This can make subtle focus adjustments difficult, but you can lean on focus peaking and focus magnification with most Sony cameras.

The included petal-style lens hood cuts down on unwanted lens flare.

The included petal-style lens hood cuts down on unwanted lens flare.

Everything else is controlled from the camera, including focus mode and the operation of the in-lens optical stabilization system (OSS). This isn't a huge deal, but it means diving into the menu every time you need to make an adjustment instead of just flicking a switch.

{{ photo_gallery name="tour" }}

Image Quality

The Sony 35mm f/1.8 OSS is designed to be a catch-all prime lens—an alternative to your kit lens when low-light performance, superior sharpness, and enhanced bokeh are called for. In our lab tests, it proved itself up to the task. While not exemplary at every aperture, this is a lens that's free of optical defects and sharp throughout most of the aperture range.

In terms of pure sharpness, it excels from f/5.6 to f/8. It does well enough from f/1.8 through f/4—which is where you'll probably find yourself when you're shooting in dim light—but it's much sharper in the center at these settings than it is toward the edges of the frame.

EXIF: 35mm, ISO 100, 1/200, f/1.8
Credit: Reviewed.com / TJ Donegan

EXIF: 35mm, ISO 100, 1/200, f/1.8

Creatively, the Sony 35mm f/1.8 OSS is capable of a broad variety of shots. The crop factor that applies on APS-C cameras gives you a "normal" field of view that closely approximates what the human eye sees, making it an ideal fit for documentary shooting, street photography, and casual portraiture.

The shallow depth of field effect you can get at f/1.8, especially when focusing up close, creates some super-smooth backgrounds. And combined with onboard optical image stabilization, the unusually wide aperture also gives you plenty of usability in poor light.

EXIF: 35mm, ISO 100, 1/200, f/1.8
Credit: Reviewed.com / TJ Donegan

EXIF: 35mm, ISO 100, 1/200, f/1.8

Below you can see sample photos taken with the Sony 35mm f/1.8 OSS mounted on a Sony A6000. Click the link below each photo to download the full-resolution image.

{{ photo_gallery name="Samples" }}

Conclusion

When you’re first buying into a lens system, whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned vet, you should look for an inexpensive prime lens. The kit zooms that come with most interchangeable lens cameras these days usually suffer from compromises in their optical designs, and don’t do these cameras justice. Primes are a perfect salve, offering superb sharpness and creative possibilities cheap zooms can't match.

The 49mm filter ring keeps things nice and compact.

The 49mm filter ring keeps things nice and compact.

The 35mm f/1.8 OSS is a perfect example. It’s great in low light, provides superb resolution for the price, and packs optical image stabilization that gives it a leg up on similar lenses in other systems. Best of all it’s tiny, so it won't weigh you down over a long day of shooting, or throw your tiny mirrorless camera off-balance.

The biggest issue we have with the Sony 35mm f/1.8 OSS is its extreme minimalism. Unlike similar lenses from Canon and Nikon, all of its controls are relegated to the camera body. Worse, the focus-by-wire system is a bit chintzy, making it hard to focus manually. It's not a deal-breaker—particularly with the inclusion of focus peaking and magnification—but Sony's implementation is particularly frustrating for MF aficionados.

Gripes aside, the Sony 35mm f/1.8 is a fantastic all-around lens that provides great value to photographers of all skill levels.

At $450 (or $400 or lower on sale), it’s a bit pricier than the similar Sony 50mm f/1.8 OSS, but the more flexible 35mm focal length is a better choice for general-purpose photography. Gripes aside, it's a fantastic all-around lens that provides great value to photographers of all skill levels. When evaluating any lens, we focus on four key areas: sharpness, distortion, chromatic aberration, and bokeh. A perfect lens would render the finest details accurately, wouldn’t distort straight lines or produce ugly fringing around high-contrast subjects, and would create smooth out-of-focus areas.

The Sony E-mount 35mm f/1.8 OSS is, like many wide-aperture primes, free of major optical issues. Our testing revealed a lens that produces very sharp center results, respectable corner results stopped down, and very good bokeh while suffering from only minor chromatic aberration and geometric distortion.

Sharpness

A lens's sharpness is its ability to render the finest details in photographs. In testing a lens, we consider sharpness across the entire frame, from the center of your images out to the extreme corners, using an average that gives extra weight to center performance. We quantify sharpness using line widths per picture height (LW/PH) at a contrast of MTF50.

A heatmap of the Sony E 35mm f/1.8 OSS' lens sharpness across entire frame.
Credit: Reviewed.com / Chris Thomas

Stopped down to f/5.6, this is a great lens.

In our lab, the Sony 35mm f/1.8 OSS produced sharp center performance through almost the entire aperture range, including wide open at f/1.8 where it achieves about 1,600 lines. That figure improves to 1,800 lines at f/2 and over 1,950 lines by f/2.8. Peak center sharpness is between f/4 and f/8, where center sharpness is well above 2,000 lines.

By f/11, the lens is hitting the diffraction limit, which causes resolution to dip to 1,700 lines. By f/16 resolution is severely limited, barely topping 1,300 lines.

A heatmap of the Sony E 35mm f/1.8 OSS' lens sharpness across entire frame.
Credit: Reviewed.com / Chris Thomas

At maximum aperture, center sharpness is good, while the rest of the frame suffers.

Off-center, the performance isn't quite as impressive, but it follows a similar pattern. The midway region (50% from center) hits around 1,200 lines at f/1.8 and climbs to a peak of 1,875 lines at f/8 before running full-tilt into the diffraction limit.

Predictably, corner resolution starts much worse (around 975 lines at f/1.8) and doesn't crest 1,200 lines until f/2.8. By f/4, the corners begin to sharpen up, hitting 1,450 lines. They get much better from f/5.6 to f/8, hovering around 1,700 lines—a respectable result for a lens like this.

Distortion

We penalize lenses for distortion when they bend or warp images, causing normally straight lines to curve.

There are two primary types of distortion: When the center of the frame seems to bulge outward toward you, that’s barrel distortion. It's typically a result of the challenges inherent in designing wide-angle lenses. When the center of the image looks like it's being sucked in, that’s pincushion distortion. Pincushion is more common in telephoto lenses. A third, less common variety (mustache distortion) produces wavy lines.

The Sony 35mm f/1.8 OSS produces almost no distortion, regardless of aperture or focus distance. In all of our test shots the worst result we saw was 0.26% pincushion distortion, which is negligible.

Chromatic Aberration

Chromatic aberration refers to the various types of “fringing” that can appear around high contrast subjects in photos—like leaves set against a bright sky. The fringing is usually either green, blue, or magenta and while it’s relatively easy to remove the offensive color with software, it can also degrade image sharpness.

Luckily, the Sony 35mm f/1.8 OSS produces virtually no chromatic aberration in its photos. Though at f/1.8 you can spot some fringing in areas where your subject crosses the focus plane, it's mostly just high contrast objects near the edges of the frame that pose noticeable problems. These issues can be easily cleaned up in the photo editor of your choice.

Bokeh

Bokeh refers to the quality of the out of focus areas in a photo. It's important for a lens to render your subject with sharp details, but it's just as important that the background not distract from the focus of your shot.

While some lenses have bokeh that's prized for its unique characteristics, most simply aim to produce extremely smooth backgrounds. In particular, photographers prize lenses that can produce bokeh with circular highlights that are free of aspherical distortion (or “coma”).

EXIF: 35mm, ISO 100, 1/200, f/1.8
Credit: Reviewed.com / TJ Donegan

EXIF: 35mm, ISO 100, 1/200, f/1.8

You wouldn't expect a wide-normal prime to have great bokeh, but the Sony 35mm f/1.8 OSS does surprisingly well for itself. There's some slightly disconcerting interior texture to out-of-focus highlights, but these areas hold their circular shape quite well.

EXIF: 35mm, ISO 125, 1/60, f/1.8
Credit: Reviewed.com / TJ Donegan

EXIF: 35mm, ISO 125, 1/60, f/1.8

In the samples above you can see how well this come through in real-world photos. The bokeh is not quite on par with the best portrait lenses around, but most users should be pleasantly surprised by the bokeh they can get out of this tiny little lens.

Meet the tester

TJ Donegan

TJ Donegan

Former Director, Content Development

@TJDonegan

TJ is the former Director of Content Development at Reviewed. He is a Massachusetts native and has covered electronics, cameras, TVs, smartphones, parenting, and more for Reviewed. He is from the self-styled "Cranberry Capitol of the World," which is, in fact, a real thing.

See all of TJ Donegan's reviews

Checking our work.

Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.

Shoot us an email

Up next