****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I bought this lens in anticipation of a 3 month trip to East Africa and it performed beautifully. The build quality is very good, it held up for a 3,000 mile motorcycle journey and a handful of rainstorms, bumps, and drops. Though relatively large compared to the camera, it's still much smaller and more portable than DSLR lenses of similar focal lengths so it maintains the compact benefits of the mirrorless system. The small camera body looks a bit ridiculous, especially when the zoom is fully extended and the lens hood is on, but the weight and balance is very comfortable in the hand.Not an expert on performance but this lens was an enormous step up from the kit lens for wildlife photography and (to a lesser degree) portrait shots. Clarity is very good in most cases, though performance diminishes in low light. A wider aperture would be nice, but for the price I can't complain. The 55mm minumum focal distance limits the versatility of the lens (especially at f4.5 since a wider aperture would make it much more well suited for portraits) more than would be the case on say, an 18-200. But I obviously knew that before purchase.Overall, this lens does exactly what I bought it for and does it very well. I can't recommend it enough for someone looking to take advantage of alpha series' interchangeable lens system and step into focal lengths not provided by the kit lens.
