The lower of the two images is not as sharp. I would have to see more to know for sure what the cause is, but I think this is just inherent in the lens design.

Although the settings used were the same, there are a lot of differences in the lens design. The key difference here is that at f/5.0 the 35mm is stopped down a full 3 stops from it's maximum aperture, whereas the 18-55 is almost wide open. This makes a big difference in the sharpness, because in general, a lens will be sharper when stopped down a bit. You might want to try finding the "sweet spot" of your 18-55 (I would guess around f/8) and see if you notice a difference.

The lower of the two images is not as sharp. I would have to see more to know for sure what the cause is, but I think this is just inherent in the lens design.

Although the settings used were the same, there are a lot of differences in the lens design. The key difference here is that at f/5.0 the 35mm is stopped down a full 3 stops from it's maximum aperture, whereas the 18-55 is almost wide open. This makes a big difference in the sharpness, because in general, a lens will be sharper when stopped down a bit. You might want to try finding the "sweet spot" of your 18-55 (I would guess around f/8) and see if you notice a difference.