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This is the second best lens for Sony NEX users. The best is still the 24mm F/1.8 Zeiss by far and I'm not even including the upcoming Sony 35mm f/1.8 since I haven't tried it yet. In my book, the 10-18 F/4 takes the honors as 2nd best mostly because of its usability, the focal range it covers (I love ultra-wides), and the fixed aperture f/4 paired with optical stability, which works very well in affording you the extra stop or so for low light shooting. Optically, it's only mediocre, and not even as sharp as some other E-mount lenses like the Zeiss, the 50mm f/1.8, and the Sigma 30mm E-mount. But the value of a lens isn't always about sharpness. It's about what it does for you. The 10-18 F/4 is a nice effort by Sony because it finally gives NEX users a relatively compact, quality zoom, with respectable minimum focus distance, in a much needed focal range. It has solid construction and although it's mostly plastic on the outside, it's very high quality plastic. The zoom and focus rings are as smooth as it gets and are very well damped with Leica-like feel when you turn them. My example doesn't have zoom creep at all and there are no issues with build quality. A nice lens hood in included and can be mounted in reverse for storage. Unfortunately, no lens case or even a pouch is included (unlike the Zeiss 24) which is a disappointment considering the $850 price tag.
Regarding sharpness, I'm not saying this lens is soft but compared to Nikon's 16-35 F/4 and 14-24 F/2.8, it is. But that's very stiff competition and unfair is you look at the price delta. The SEL1018 has soft corners wide open but when stopped down a bit, it's plenty sharp enough. Only the most discerning pixel peepers will complain. The images I'm getting from these on an NEX-5R and NEX-6 at around f/8 are excellent. Color is great and bokeh is unremarkable which is par for the course with ultra-wides. Distortion is weird and non-linear and more prominent at 10mm. Not sure how easy this distortion is to fix since lens correction profiles for photoshop are not available yet at the time of this writing. It's not terrible as it's perfectly usable for landscapes, but may not be ideal for architecture much like the Nikon 16-35 f/4 isn't (though that lens is easily correctible with photoshop).
AF speed is quick by NEX standards, but that's because the focus travel is short, typical of ultra-wides. Focus-speed slows down quite a bit in low light, again typical of the NEX contrast-detect AF systems. On some photo forums, I've noticed that people have been complaining about why this lens, despite being new, is not currently compatible with Sony's new hybrid AF (phase detect AF) in the NEX-5R and NEX-6. While this is possibly an oversight by Sony that will hopefully be corrected with a lens firmware update, I don't consider it a big deal since I doubt having phase detect would help much on an ultra-wide zoom with a maximum aperture of f/4. It's already fairly quick using contrast-detect and the focus travel is short (so it's easy to get in focus), and perhaps Sony's phase detect only works well with faster lens like the Zeiss 24 and Sony 50 anyway.
At $850, I feel this lens is a bit overpriced. But beggars can't be choosers and as an NEX user, new quality lens are always welcome. Definitely recommend this lens to any NEX shooter as they will get lots of use from it.
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