This is one of Sony’s ‘DT’ lenses, which means that it’s designed for the cameras with the smaller APS-C sized sensors. This includes the A200, A300, A350 and A700, then, but not the full-frame A900.

With a focal range of 11-18mm, it’s equivalent to 17.5-28mm on a 35mm camera, so it picks up where the standard kit lens leaves off. With a minimum focal length of 11mm, this lens is about as wide as you can get without resorting to a fisheye, though the Tamron 10-24mm and Sigma 10-20mm do go slightly wider still.

The Sony’s zoom range might prove a little restrictive, though. The maximum focal length is only 1.6x longer than the shortest, where most super-wide-angle lenses have a 2x range or more (2.4x with the Tamron 10-24mm). It might not sound much, but it does make a difference. Using the Sony lens is more like using a fixed focal length lens than a zoom. Yes, you can zoom in and out to adjust the composition or to save changing your position, but not by much.

This does appear to bring some optical benefits, though, because there is very little barrel distortion at the minimum focal length compared to what you’d normally expect from this kind of zoom, and no significant distortion at all in the middle and top end of the zoom range. The zoom range may be restricted, then, but this lens has exceptionally good distortion control for its type, which makes it excellent for architectural pictures and interiors. It’s quite nice to be able to shoot landscapes with straight horizons for once, too.

It’s not all good news, though. Distortion might be almost eliminated, but there’s still plenty of chromatic aberration. This shows up strongly at the edges of the frame, where it tends to undermine the lens’s overall performance. Super-wide-angle lenses do suffer more than most from chromatic aberration, and the Sony’s not really any worse than its rivals, but it’s still a bit disappointing because this lens is rather good otherwise, and because it might be hoped that the restricted zoom range would have helped reduce aberrations.

The limited zoom range isn’t the only technical restriction. The maximum aperture is f4.5-5.6, which is a little slower than rival third-party lenses. In practice, though, it’s not that much of a handicap. There’s so much depth of field with super-wide-angle lenses that you don’t need to stop down much to get all you need anyway. There’s the thought that it might hamper you in low light, but then Sony DSLR bodies have integral anti-shake systems anyway.

The build quality and finish are both rather good. The zoom ring has a really nice, smooth, light action with no play or coarseness. The focusing isn’t so good, though this is a characteristic of the Sony DSLR system rather than this particular lens. On an A200 body, the autofocus is as noisy and coarse as it is with the standard 18-70mm kit lens. Switching to manual focus isn’t much better – the focus ring is big and clearly marked and accurate enough for good, precise adjustments, but it is mechanically noisy, sounding more like a hacksaw than a precision optical instrument. Again, this is a Sony trait, and it doesn’t make any difference to

Round the back is a metal mount (it’s only the cheapest kit lenses which use plastic) and at the front is a 77mm filter ring. The front element doesn’t rotate during focusing, which makes this lens ideal for square filter systems, though the extra-wide angle of view means that your existing holder may not be big enough.

A lens hood is included and it’s a good idea to use it, even though it does make the lens a little more bulky. If you don’t you risk lens flare from light sources just outside the frame or a general loss of contrast when shooting into the light.

Using a lens like this is a lot of fun, but it takes a while to properly understand its potential. The obvious benefit is that it lets you get more in the frame, but there is a little more to it than that. Super-wide-angle lenses do exaggerate perspectives quite markedly, producing much more strongly converging lines. They also allow you to get really close to objects in the foreground and exaggerate their size relative to the rest of the scene, to produce surreal and bizarre juxtapositions.

In that sense, then, this is a lens any Sony DSLR owner ought to consider adding to their kit. The only question is whether to go for this one or a third-party lens like the Tamron 10-24mm or Sigma 10-20mm. Obviously it’s nice to have the Sony brand on your lenses if you have a Sony camera, but here it’s a bit of a close call. The DT 11-18mm isn’t that expensive for an own-brand lens, but although its distortion control is excellent, it’s pretty average in other respects – notably chromatic aberration, zoom range and maximum aperture.

Final Verdict The Sony 11-18mm has a good feel, but while the distortion control is good the zoom range is restrictive and the colour fringing is annoying. OVERALL

Our lens reviewer, and technical expert, Rod is a veritable photographic encyclopaedia. His illustrious CV has seen him write for many mags, websites and journals.