Terrific lens!
April 26, 2018
I've had this for a few weeks now and I am impressed. I have it on an A6500 body and while this is much larger than the camera I have no complaints as this is expected from a zoom lens with this range and capability.
An F4 constant would perfect this lens but would also drive up the cost so as it stands I'm happy with the variable aperture.
The optics and image quality are stellar for what you pay for this lens but be careful with low lighting situations as this lens can suffer a bit without a tripod (you'll still get the shot but don't have high hopes for the 100% crop). Sharpness seems constant and across the whole frame but to be honest i get such beautiful shots at low aperture and wonderful bokeh that i don't find myself stopping up very often much above F8.
I'm very happy with the feature set of focus limiter, AF/MF override, image stabilization which works really well in tandem with the in body OIS, and the manual focus lock (although I'd prefer a toggle switch as compared to holding the button down). The AF/MF switch is very handy due to other E-mount lenses relying on switching the focus in the camera body due to being an electronic focus (this can get old even if you have have it saved as a quick button).
My one complaint, and i don't know if this would be fixable anyways due to how much has to be crammed onto the lens body, is that the lens hood is so big that when its reversed over the lens body to be stored it covers the entire zoom ring when it's at 70mm (also the only time the zoom lock can be engaged). this can be very frustrating when you want to take the camera from not in use to zooming in quickly. think of hiking along and seeing an animal in the distance for example, you don't want to leave the lens zoomed out while walking but can't get at the zoom ring to zoom in. so you're left with having to find a place to stow the hood or awkwardly disconnecting the hood briefly to start the zoom and then reattaching it in storage mode. the only thing i could think of is a slightly more trim hood or a petal style which i don't think this lens would benefit from.
Overall though I highly recommend this lens for a reasonably compact zoom (smaller than the 70-200 F4 lens) with great image quality and mostly easy usability.... Read More
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