Is a USD 600 camera worthy of a USD 5400 lens? – Resolution (NEX-5N with Leica glass versus kit zoom)

Disclaimer 1: Please don’t flame with comments on how little value such comparisons have, please feel free to ignore if you don’t value this information. I don’t claim to have done a very scientific test, so please feel free to make you own comparison and help share more and more accurate information.

Disclaimer 2: I have no commercial relationships with Sony nor Leica whatsoever except purchasing too much of their stuff.

The purpose of this little shootout is to see how different Leica lenses perform on a NEX-5N through a Voigtlander adapter compared to kit zoom E 18-55/3,4-5,6.

Summary and conclusions

This small comparison has confirmed me of the value of using money on lenses. The Leica WATE on 18mm is surprisingly much sharper than the inexpensive Sone E kit zoom at same focal length. Actually the Leica is better at edge sharpness fully open (f/4.0) than the Sony at its optimum (around f/8), and approximately the same sharpness of the least resolution part of Leica as the highest resolution of the Sony (edge sharpness at Leica/4.0 = centre sharpness of Sony/8.0).

Please also remember that this comparison is resolution only, and that bokeh, distortion, flare and ghost have not been compared. Yet.

Introduction

This is a short tryout of a Leica WATE used on 18mm (16-18-21mm f/4.0 Tri Elmar-M Aspherical) and the standard kit zoom E 18-55/3,5-5,6 lenses on a NEX-5N. Please note that this is only a comparison of resolution (under certain given conditions).

All these “tests” were done mounting NEX_5N on solid tripod. Leica lenses were mounted through Voigtlander adapter. During photo shootout it was clouded with rather soft light, but the landscape was high on contrast.  The camera position was changed between corner and centre photos to keep the same part of motive for comparison.

All photos were focused manually. All photos were taken in RAW and imported in LR 3.4. Processing was limited as much as possible, and no sharpening was done in processing nor in export.

One might ask if there is any point of purchasing a USD 5400 lens at all, but this is outside this short discussion.  But one should consider that lenses of this price and quality actually increases its value.

A note on handling is the big difference between handling the lenses during shootout. The manual Leica lenses were extremely more easy and quicker to handle than the Sony E focus and aperture by wire.

Please see 100% crops: