[stoppingdown]

"At the long end the image corners are soft but then how often do you require sharp corners at this setting "

 

Well, if you do landscape, it's important.

 

I understand the reason for which this lens is popular. Let's also recall that it's cheaper than the SEL1670Z. But, in the end, I'm happy I went with the latter, even though we know it's somewhat disappointing. The test by PZ is welcome, because it's possible to compare both lenses on the same methodology. In the past I saw comparisons based on images, and I could see that basically the two lenses are overapping - the wild sample variations probably can also change things. But I didn't like the idea of "losing" hundreds of pixels for the interpolation, as Klaus described. I'm not against IQ fixes in post-processing, it's a legitimate trade-off. For this lens, they went just too far. Since Sony advertises this lens mostly for videomakers, that interpolation might be fine for them.

 

At the end of the day, since these are the only APS-C lenses in this range, I think Sigma could be able to create some interesting competition here.