Sony DT 11-18mm intro

The DT 11-18mm is the widest angle Sony zoom for Alpha DSLRs. Offering an equivalent range of 16.5-27mm, it delivers ultra-wide to standard wide-angle coverage and is compatible with both cropped-frame Alpha DSLRs and the earlier Konica Minolta Dynax / Maxxum 5D and 7D bodies.

Indeed despite being announced as a new Sony product during the Alpha launch of July 2006, the DT 11-18mm, like many Sony lenses, is actually a rebranded and slightly modified version of an existing Konica Minolta model. In this case, it’s based on the Konica Minolta DT 11-18mm, which was one of three digital-only DT models announced with the Konica Minolta Dynax / Maxxum 5D back in July 2005.

The DT 11-18mm offers a range which is ideal for capturing big landscape views and large buildings both inside and out. It’s also ideal for situations when you literally can’t step back any further, and can be used for very dramatic effects. And since the Alpha bodies feature built-in stabilisation, you’ll also enjoy anti-shake facilities with the DT 11-18mm. This allows you to use relatively long exposures to blur subjects in motion while still in a handheld environment.

The DT 11-18mm may only offer a relatively modest 1.63x optical zoom ratio, but its range perfectly complements the kit 18-70mm zoom, while only having a small amount of overlap with lenses which start at 16mm.

In this review we’ll put the Sony DT 11-18mm zoom through its paces and see how it complements the standard DT 18-70mm kit lens. Along with full tests across its focal range, we’ve directly compared results of the DT 11-18mm against the DT 18-70mm when both are set to 18mm to reveal which is the preferred choice at this popular focal length. As always we’ll also demonstrate the build quality, coverage and features in our Sony DT 11-18mm video tour. So read on to find out if this is the ideal ultra-wide solution for Alpha DSLRs.

Testing notes

The DT 11-18mm was tested using an Alpha A100 body using its factory default settings – unless otherwise stated. The lens had a serial number of 1804026.