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Continuing our real-life performance tests with the SEL1855 kit lens, we fully zoomed it into 55mm, and shot this scene at all aperture settings using the NEX-5 body. As before, the NEX-5 was set to its lowest sensitivity, but this time to avoid any in-camera corrections, we shot in RAW mode and processed the files using the supplied Image Data Converter SR 3.2 using the default settings. The crops below are taken from the areas marked with the red rectangles and presented here at 100%.

What's also apparent below is the improvement when stopping down from f5.6 to f8. This greatly reduces the corner softness, while also delivering a crisper result in the centre of the image; this is particularly apparent in the branches of the trees by the shore of the lake. Stopping down further brings some minor improvements to the corners, but with a gradual softening of the overall image due to diffraction. So unless you're after a shallow depth-of-field effect, we'd recommend stopping down to f8 when using the kit lens at 55mm.

Ultimately while this page illustrates the SEL1855 is far from perfect, it still performs very respectably overall and can be recommended for buys of the NEX system. It's a classy standard option and we look forward to testing more E-mount lenses in the future. You can also see more real-life examples of it in action in our sample images gallery.

Now it's time to return to the NEX-5 body though to check out our Sony Alpha NEX-5 High ISO Noise results.

Sony SEL1855 18-55mm kit lens Corner sharpness at 55mm		Sony SEL1855 18-55mm kit lens Centre sharpness at 55mm
f5.6, 200 ISO		f5.6, 200 ISO
f8, 200 ISO		f8, 200 ISO