FS5: Sony FS5 - Sony SELP18105G problem

Danilo Del Tufo

Danilo Del Tufo

Well-known member
Hi guys, someone tested the FS5 lens, the Sony 18-105, you can watch there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGsUnHur3WU
It shows a problem during zoom at center of the frame, a sort of pulsating image that expands and contracts rhythmically.
Anyone else has noticed this problem? It seems that it's in every lenses (it's not a defective lens) and when it's enabled the lens correction in the menu.
 
Yep, it does it on my lens too.

I never use it for live zooming, it's way too unpredictable (like the focusing), that's probably why I haven't noticed it before.
 
epicdream said:
Yep, it does it on my lens too. I never use it for live zooming, it's way too unpredictable (like the focusing), that's probably why I haven't noticed it before.
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Hi Neill, do you know if the FS7's SELP28135G lens kit, has the same problem? I was thinking to buy the Sony FS7 Kit lens and use with FS5, what do you think about it?
 
Danilo Del Tufo said:
Hi Neill, do you know if the FS7's SELP28135G lens kit, has the same problem? I was thinking to buy the Sony FS7 Kit lens and use with FS5, what do you think about it?
Click to expand...

The lens correction file is likely just a lookup table of correction value against zoom position and the camera is interpolating between the data points. The 18105 is an abysmal lens and can only be used with lens correction activated because the distortion is so heavy. I suspect that other lenses exhibit the same effect while zooming although in a much less obvious way because their distortion is nowhere near as bad.

The 28135 is slow and very expensive for what it is, personally, I'd get myself a metabones and go with a Canon or Nikon f2.8 which covered the required zoom range. I couldn't imagine trying to operate an FS5 with the 28135 on it.

However, you could try and get a Sony Zeiss 1670 f4 which is a far better lens than the 18105 and doesn't require lens correction, it's actually quite good 18-70 but it is F4 and is ridiculously expensive new so pick one up used. It's small and light and I think would be a nice fit for the FS5 as a general run around lens as it's very nearly parfocal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m4s2ziCeX8
 
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Nirv said:
However, you could try and get a Sony Zeiss 1670 f4 which is a far better lens than the 18105 and doesn't require lens correction, it's actually quite good 18-70 but it is F4 and is ridiculously expensive new so pick one up used. It's small and light and I think would be a nice fit for the FS5 as a general run around lens as it's very nearly parfocal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m4s2ziCeX8
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I second the suggestion about the 16-70z. I had to sell the 16-200 kit lens with the FS700 and needed sth as a "don't have time to change lenses" tool. AF is a little slow, compared to the 18-200. I heard there is a wide spread in quality of this lens but mine is pretty sharp. I also use it for photo with the a6000.
 
Nirv said:
However, you could try and get a Sony Zeiss 1670 f4 which is a far better lens than the 18105 and doesn't require lens correction, it's actually quite good 18-70 but it is F4 and is ridiculously expensive new so pick one up used. It's small and light and I think would be a nice fit for the FS5 as a general run around lens as it's very nearly parfocal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m4s2ziCeX8
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But the Zeiss lens can be also used with the Zoom Rocker on FS5's Smart Grip? Thanks
 
There was a post on SonyAlphaRumours about a firmware update to the 18-105, but the link only lead to a Japanese site so I couldn't figure much out ;)
 
epicdream said:
I never use it for live zooming
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I guess that could be why I've never noticed it - I just use the zoom ring to quickly re-frame. I've never used the power zoom feature, as I no longer live in the 1980s... sigh... those were the days...

The 18-105 is just one of those lenses that is a necessary evil for some of us - I find 24mm on the wide end not quite enough, let alone 28. As a range, 18-105 works perfectly for me most of the time on the FS7 S35 sensor - it's just the Sony implementation of it falls short of what they seem to have achieved with the 28-135.
 
The Sony 18-105 lens inherently has an extreme pin cushion distortion as you zoom to 105. Sony cameras have built-in auto correction for this for JPEG stills and video capture such as with AVCHD and XAVC. Note that older Sony cameras such as the FS700 does not have built-in correction for this particular lens.

Note that the pin cushion gets more severe as you go from 18 to 105. So the camera that is correcting for this needs to know the rate in which the zoom moves from one extreme to the other and it needs know the algorithm for the distortion.

So I am guessing the correction algorithm used in the FS5 is faulty and needs updating.

Here is a video review of this effect at 1:03 using the FS100/FS700:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhupRnX-HDU

Here is a photo review of the lens and the pin cushion effect:
https://www.ephotozine.com/article/sony-e-18-105mm-f-4-pz-g-oss-lens-review-24056
 
Clermond said:
New firmware
http://esupport.sony.com/US/p/model-home.pl?mdl=SELP18105G&LOC=3#/downloadTab
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File Description
This utility updates the lens system software to version 02 to provide the function to set a zoom rotatory direction using a menu displayed on the screen of the camera.
IMPORTANT: The lens must be attached to an E-mount body camera to perform this update.
Note: The NEX-5, NEX-3, NEX-C3, NEX-VG10, and PXW-FS7 model cameras cannot be used for this update.
 
ectobuilder said:
So I am guessing the correction algorithm used in the FS5 is faulty and needs updating.
Click to expand...

I'm not convinced the FS5 is at fault. I rather doubt the Sony Engineers who developed the lens correction system ever anticipated their system would have to correct for such a horrid lens.

Potential buyers of the FS5 should send Sony a message and buy the body only.
 
Danilo Del Tufo said:
Hi guys, someone tested the FS5 lens, the Sony 18-105, you can watch there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGsUnHur3WU
It shows a problem during zoom at center of the frame, a sort of pulsating image that expands and contracts rhythmically.
Anyone else has noticed this problem? It seems that it's in every lenses (it's not a defective lens) and when it's enabled the lens correction in the menu.
Click to expand...

I suspect that test was shot on an older camera without any firmware updates to either the camera or lens. That test was not shot on a FS5.

ectobuilder said:
Note that older Sony cameras such as the FS700 does not have built-in correction for this particular lens.
Click to expand...

Yes it does, it was fixed with the V3.10 firmware.

http://www.sony.co.uk/pro/support/software/SET_BPE-SS-1070/10
 
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