****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Overall this lens is a solid performer, and worth the money in my opinion although it is not perfect. Here are some of the main attributes of the lens:Mechanical/body: Very high quality metal with some plastics used, very smooth zoom and focus control with auto clutch. This lens is smoother than any of the Zeiss lenses in this regard, and has 3 focus hold buttons instead of the usual one. One really nice things about this lens is that the zoom is all internal so it does not extend to ridiculous lengths like most telephoto zooms; of course being an expensive lens it also doesn't rotate the front threads while focusing which messes up filter settings. I do hate the texture sony uses on the zoom/focus grip since it collects dirt really easy then looks ugly, even though it functions well enough as a gripping surface. The white paint used on this lens looks really nice, and better than the uglier off white of the canon L lenses, but it also makes stand out as an expensive lens which increases its chances of getting stolen. My biggest gripe however is with the lens hood: unlike the CZ lenses that have a nice metal petal shaped hood with plastic attachment ring, this hood is very cheap, flimsy plastic all around. It is felt lines though and has a nice slot to adjust a filter, but overall it is cheap in comparison the the build quality of other pro level lenses.Optical Quality: Overall this lens is very sharp above f2.8, where wide open it is a little softer but still produces good images. Unfortunately this reduced resolution can't be fixed in programs such as lightroom like its other faults can, such as mild distortion and vignetting. This lens also has a slight chromatic aberration issue, especially in the corners which doesn't improve by stopping down. Overall this is not a very big issue though since it is easily corrected by software and it is not bad relative to other lenses like the sony 75-300 beercan lenses. I have read reviews on the internet claiming this lens has subpar bokeh quality, but that isn't my experience since it seems to produce very nice, creamy out of focus areas. Ghosting and flare control seem about the same as other sony lenses which is not that great, oh well I guess you pay for all those lens elements. I haven't tested this lens for coma.Overall this is a great lens, but only if you need the fast focusing and extra stops provided by constant f2.8 aperture. If not, you would be much better off with either the 70-300G, which is 2 stops slower, but more compact, cheaper and has more reach. In this price range you can also buy the 70-400 which is an awesome lens as well, although 2 stops slower it is slightly cheaper and has double the focal length (but also has that atrocious silver finish and extends a lot during zoom).
