Sony camera owners have three versions of the 18-200mm all-in-one zoom to choose from. The de facto standard edition, and the first of the three to come to market, is the E 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OSS ($899.99). It uses the same optical formula as the others, and offers Active Stabilization to better steady video for shots involving camera movement. It's a good lens if you put an emphasis on zoom range above all else, but the E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS is a better overall performer.

Aesthetics Stuck in Time

The E 18-200mm has been in production for about a decade, and it shows. The industrial design is a product of its time. The optics are housed in a shiny silver barrel, but the control rings and telescoping barrel are black. The two-tone look is out of place on more recent Sony cameras, sold only in basic black.

Sony's updated version of the lens, the 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OSS LE, looks a little better on a new camera, and is also a little smaller. The original version comes in at 3.9 by 3.0 inches (HD) and 18.5 ounces, versus the 3.8 by 2.7 inches and 16.3 ounces for the LE. Both lenses telescope when zoomed in, just about doubling in length at the 200mm position.

The lenses uses the same optical formula, though. So, sample variation aside, they'll deliver identical image quality. The LE's stabilization system drops support for Sony's Active Shot, a bit of extra stabilization tuned for moving video shots, found here, but you probably won't miss it.

Sony includes the standard front and rear caps, as well as reversible petal-style lens hood. Front filters are supported in the 67mm thread size. There's no dust or splash protection, something Sony includes on its pro-grade optics and cameras.

Close-up focus is available to 11.8 inches, good enough for 1:2.9 life-size reproduction, and very good macro for a zoom. Autofocus is responsive and quiet.

There are two control rings, one for zoom and another to set focus when the camera is in manual mode. Both are rubberized, with ridges to improve grip. The barrel has indicators to let you know when you're set to 18, 35, 50, 70, 100, and 200mm, and there's a lock switch to stop the barrel from extending due to gravity.

In the Lab

We ran formal lab tests with the power zoom variation of the 18-200mm, the a6400 body, and Imatest software.

Despite covering a big zoom range, its optical performance is quite good. At 18mm f/3.5, its resolution is outstanding, close to 3,000 lines. Edges fall behind the center, but they're still solidly in the very good range (2,300 lines).

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Average resolution doesn't change much at f/5.6 and f/8, but we do see a big jump in edge clarity at the latter setting. It's the one you'll want to use for the most detail in landscape shots. There's a slight drop in contrast at f/11 and f/16, but both settings are very usable. You may want to stop down all the way to f/22 to get the best-looking sunstars from the lens, and while optical diffraction does soften details, they're not completely blurred (1,710 lines).

We see very similar results at the 50mm position, where f/5 is the brightest aperture available. There's a slight drop in wide-open contrast at 100mm f/5.6, but it's still very good (2,380 lines). It's excellent at f/8 (2,700 lines) and outstanding at f/11 (2,992 lines). We see the expected loss of resolution at f/16 (2,600 lines) and f/22 (1,735 lines), and you should take care not to stop down all the way to f/36 (800 lines) if you want decent results.

It's at 200mm where resolution loss is more apparent. The lens opens to f/6.3 and nets images that deliver detail that's just-okay for the a6400 (1,963 lines). Results are in our good range at f/8 (2,175 lines) and enter excellent territory at f/11 (2,450 lines). It falls off at smaller settings, as is expected.

If you leave in-camera corrections turned on, or apply Raw correction profiles when processing images, you won't have to worry about distortion. But if you turn them off you'll see a bit of barrel distortion at 18mm, and the pincushion effect when zoomed in. Neither is overwhelming, especially when you consider the long focal range.

Get the LE Instead

The Sony E 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OSS isn't a new lens, but remains a current entry in Sony's catalog. Its optical performance holds ups fairly well on 24MP APS-C cameras, even if its design grounds it in the early aughts. It covers a big zoom range, and while it loses a little bit of clarity when zoomed in, the convenience of 11.1x zoom power in a single lens means it's a reasonable compromise.

Still, you can get what's essentially the same lens in a better-looking housing that cuts down its size and weight for $50 less. If you want an 18-200mm for Sony, get the E 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OSS LE version instead if you're buying new, but be happy to know you won't lose anything if you find the older version at a bargain pre-owned price. Neither is quite as good a lens as Sony's smaller, less expensive E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS, our favorite starter zoom for the E-mount system.