Sony DT 16-105 mm f/3.5-5.6
8. Vignetting
At 16 mm its performance is weak. At maximum relative aperture in the frame corners we lose as much as 46% of light (-1.78 EV) – it’s even worse than in the case of the Zeiss. On stopping down to f/4.0 the situation improves a bit because the vignetting level decreases to 40%. By f/5.6 we already have 25% and by f/8.0 – just 18%. Only by f/11 though, when vignetting reaches 13% we can practically talk about getting rid of the problem for good.
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Fortunately at longer focal lengths the Sony lens’s performance is better than the Zeiss’s. At 30 mm and relative aperture f/4.5 the light fall-off in the frame corners amounts to 22% (-0.72 EV) so its level can be called reasonable. Using the f/5.6 aperture makes the problem decrease to 17% and using f/8.0 – to 12%.
Very similar results we get at 50 mm. There the vignetting is also 22% at 50 mm focal length. By f/5.6 it decreases to 20% and by f/8.0 – to 12%.
A bit more problems occur at 70 mm focal length. There by f/5.6 the brightness loss in the frame corners reaches the level of 27% (-0.93 EV), and by f/8.0 it decreases to the value of 20%. Only by f/11, though, we can talk about eliminating the problem completely (11%).
At 105 mm and f/5.6 the vignetting amounts to 25% (-0.84 EV). At f/8.0 it decreases to 17% and by f/11 – to 10%.
Can the Sony 16-105 mm be seriously criticized in this category? On the one hand certainly it can – no photographer likes when a lens somehow loses above 40% of light. On the other hand if you wanted to design a lens with such parameters without any vignetting problems, the device would be several times heavier, bigger and, of course, a lot more expensive. Once again it is a good thing to check what the rivals present in this class. We are going to compare the tested lens to a Nikkor 18-135, which at the shortest focal length had the vignetting of 40% so a bit less than in the case of the Sony, in the middle of the range showed a similar level of vignetting but at the longest focal length reached 50% of sheer catastrophe. It is clearly seen that the Sony shouldn’t be ashamed of its performance when compared with its competitors especially that it offers a noticeably wider angles of view, where it is easier to have problems with vignetting.
