Sharpness

Sharpness at 16mm

The sharpness tests for this review were carried out with the Sony E 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ OSS lens attached to a Sony NEX-6 camera body, which in turn was mounted on a sturdy tripod. The self-timer was activated to avoid any blurring from depressing the shutter release. Tonal and colour variances across the crops are due to changes in natural light during the session. The 100% crops represent about 1/400th of the total frame area.

The full frame at 16mm

At the 16mm zoom setting, the centre is commendably sharp wide open, but stopping down to f/5.6 brings further improvements. The f8 and f11 settings are also eminently usable. Diffraction takes its toll at f16 and especially at f22.

The borders are a different story altogether. They aren't very sharp to begin with and do not really sharpen up on stopping down, either. That being said, you'll need to print rather big – or view your shots on a 4K Ultra HD screen – to notice the softness along the borders.

Aperture	Centre Crop	Edge Crop
f/3.5
f/5.6
f/8
f/11
f/16
f/22