The Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* E 16-70mm F4 ZA OSS ($999.99) is a compact zoom lens for Sony E-mount cameras. It's designed for use with APS-C models like the Alpha 5000, but will also work (at a lower resolution) with the full-frame Alpha 7 and 7R($629.99 at Amazon). It's a 4.4x zoom that covers a 24-105mm (35mm equivalent) field of view, with a maximum f/4 aperture throughout. It's one of the better zooms that we've seen for mirrorless cameras, but doesn't quite match the edge-to-edge sharpness and f/2.8 aperture that Olympus achieved with its Editors' Choice winning M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f2.8 PRO($849.00 at Amazon) zoom for the competing Micro Four Thirds system.

The lens($998.00 at Amazon) measures 3 by 2.6 inches (HD), weighs 10.9 ounces, and supports 55mm front filters; all-in-all it's an impressively compact package when you consider its zoom range and aperture. The lens barrel is metal and a reversible hood is included. Despite utilizing a telescoping design that extends a bit when zoomed, it feels quite sturdy; there's no give or wobble to the barrel when extended. Both the large zoom ring and narrower manual focus ring have a ribbed, textured surface that offers quite a bit of grip when adjusting the lens. There are no switches on the lens—it does have optical stabilization, so if you want to disable that you'll have to dive into a camera menu to do so.

I used Imatest to check the sharpness and distortion characteristics when paired with the 20-megapixel Alpha 5000($549.95 at Amazon). At 16mm f/4 it does much better than the center-weighted 1,800 lines per picture height score that we use to define an image as sharp; it manages 2,475 lines there, and maintains its sharpness through all but the outer edges of the frame (1,538 lines). Stopping down to f/5.6 bumps the center and edge scores (2,529 and 1,674 lines respectively), and at f/8 the edges top 1,800 lines. There's some barrel distortion here, about 1.7 percent. It's noticeable, but pretty easy to correct with minimal changes to your frame in Lightroom or another workflow application.

At 23mm the sharpness holds up, even at f/4 (2,366 lines), but the edges are a bit softer—1,382 lines at f/4 and 1,523 lines at f/8. If you have in-focus details at the outer parts of the frame you'll notice some softness, but for most shots it won't be a major concern. The edge sharpness story remains the same through 70mm. This focal length is where we see almost zero distortion.

When zoomed to 35mm the distortion switches to pincushion, which causes straight lines to curve inward instead of outward. There's only 1.2 percent (a figure match through the rest of the zoom range), which will be noticeable in some shots, but is very easy to correct. The center-weighted sharpness at f/4 is 2,239 lines and at f/5.6 it's 2,437 lines. At 53mm f/4 the lens shows 2,198 lines, improving as you stop down until it peaks at 2,480 lines at f/8.

The weakest performance is at 70mm; the lens shows 1,951 lines using the center-weighted score. The mid-parts of the frame—the area between the center third and the outer edges—are a tad soft at 1,733 lines. Stopping down to f/5.6 bumps the overall score to 2,246 lines with all but the outer edges topping 2,000 lines.

The Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* E 16-70mm F4 ZA OSS isn't the flat-out best zoom we've seen for a mirrorless camera, but it's certainly the best one available for owners of the NEX-7($656.86 at Amazon) and other APS-C Sony E-mount cameras. There's a little bit of distortion, and some softness at edges and corners of the frame, but overall it's an optic that I wouldn't hesitate to shoot at its maximum aperture at any focal length. It's quite compact given its zoom range, and sturdily built. Many Sony shooters who are willing to spend $1,000 on a lens have undoubtedly upgraded to a full-frame mirrorless Alpha model, but shooters who prefer the telephoto advantage and larger depth of field that go hand-in-hand with an APS-C sensor can look to this lens as a long overdue premium option for the E-mount system. We didn't quite like it enough to call it Editors' Choice (the Olympus PRO zoom for Micro Four Thirds is just a bit better, albeit with a shorter zoom range), but it didn't fall too short of that mark.

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