Sony kit E 16-50mm hazing???

[Ambrosio]

I bought a new Sony A5100 with kit lens on an ecommerce. I once paired this camera with other lens, then I noticed a vast difference between my kit lens and other lens. My kit lens appear to be so much hazy (if thats even a word) and less contrast compared to other lens. Here is the example i got using my kit lens and Meike 35mm f/1.7 using different exposure settings.

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Anyone know whats the problem with my kit lens? Because I always got clearer images using other lenses.

[Pieter]

The 16-50 kit lens is pretty mediocre so it'll always compare poorly to other lenses, especially fixed focal length (prime) lenses. What's more, the lighting conditions in your sample photos seem pretty dim, so if the photo is taken on auto settings the 16-50 will have a big disadvantage in terms of aperture fastness compared to an f/1.7 prime lens (resulting in high ISO noise and/or motion blur). Try the lens in good lighting conditions and your results may be better, but don't expect prime quality out of this lens.

[Phormula]

The kit lens is ... the kit lens.

Almost 100% of the times it is bought together with the body and if combined with an entry level body, it is the only lens that many users will buy and use. In the past it was covering the range between middle wideangle to middle telephoto, now kit lenses are a bit wider and less telephoto because this is the range of the casual shooter. The goal with a kit lens is to provide decent performance while keeping cost down. Comparison with more expensive lenses or even prime is unfair to a lens that has to be cheap by definition.

[XKAES]

Do you actually see any "haze" on the glass in your zoom lens????  If the glass is clear, then you don't have "haze".

I agree with most of what has been said, especially that you can't compare the results from a zoom lens (especially an inexpensive one) to those of a fixed focal length lens (especially an expensive one).  What you can do with an inexpensive zoom lens is adjust the camera settings to improve the results -- such as increasing the contrast, stopping down the lens, adjusting the exposure, using an appropriate lens shade, changing the sharpness setting, etc.  Inexpensive lenses can produce fine results if used within their limitations.  Expensive lenses are expensive because they have fewer limitations. 

Don't compare apples to oranges.  They are both good to eat, but they are different.

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Edited February 27 by XKAES

[Phormula]

Big thumb up to KAES!

Speaking of oranges, Galen Rowell used to climb mountains and take pictures with entry level Nikon film SRL equipment, for three main reasons: weight, size in backpacks and cost if a lens or a camera falls from a cliff. He was a real master in exploiting the hot spots of cheap plastic zooms.

Of course, for handheld interior pictures and low depth of field, expensive glass is needed.