Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS Alpha E-Mount Retractable Zoom Lens

I bought this lens with the A6000 camera body at a very competitive price, along side the obviously more expensive Sony SELP18105G f4 fixed aperture lens. I like the super-compact proportions of the lens which allow the camera+lens to be stashed in a very small camera bag [at an exceptionally low carry weight] and cover all-the-bases for everyday use. It's a great add-on to the A6000 camera body without the bulk of the 18-105mm lens. There's some chatter from the zoom/focus motor. However, if you can get past that [and combine it with Sony's affordable Lens Correction App] it's an all round winner....!

I am using the Sony 16-50mm f/3.5 on a Sony a7 iii.I came across this lens used for $ and took a chance on it. I wanted a small lens for traveling. What a gem this lens has proven to be!Image sharpness is excellent all the down to f/16 before diffraction sets in. This lens even performs well under overcast skies and when my subject is in shadows. I get great sharpness at throughout the focal range. Similarly, exposure, contrast, and color saturation are also excellent with little or no post production editing needed. In fact, colors are truer to reality than my other, more expensive Sony lenses that often need a boost in saturation.There’s no obvious chromatic shift. I had to blow my images up by 7X to see bluing on dead tree limbs, an increase so large I ... MoreI am using the Sony 16-50mm f/3.5 on a Sony a7 iii.I came across this lens used for $ and took a chance on it. I wanted a small lens for traveling. What a gem this lens has proven to be!Image sharpness is excellent all the down to f/16 before diffraction sets in. This lens even performs well under overcast skies and when my subject is in shadows. I get great sharpness at throughout the focal range. Similarly, exposure, contrast, and color saturation are also excellent with little or no post production editing needed. In fact, colors are truer to reality than my other, more expensive Sony lenses that often need a boost in saturation.There’s no obvious chromatic shift. I had to blow my images up by 7X to see bluing on dead tree limbs, an increase so large I would never do so otherwise. If you’re so inclined to point your camera at the sun, you’ll produce small but intense streaks or circles of colorBarrel distortion and vignetting in JEP’s are brilliantly adjusted by the in-camera software.Nighttime photography is especially important to me. Images are sharp, with good definition on illuminated objects. Lettering and other edges are sharp. At f/11, I got nice starbursts on single bulb lights and brilliant starbursts at f/16. As expected, other sources of light, such as double bulb lights and neon lights tend to “blow out” a bit with long exposures, but this is true of all lenses.Zooming - I prefer using the lens barrel to zoom in and out. The power zoom is good but the lever is at on the side of the barrel. I wish that it was higher up on the lens barrel, at 12:00 o’clock, where my index finger naturally falls. At least a few times, I have accidently changed the focal length.Someone pointed out that there’s a question of quality control with this lens. If so, I was a lucky one to get a good copy. It’s the only lens that I have been using for the past four months to do street photography, parades, general photography, and night photography.Every so often I bump into a lens that may not be in the mainstream, but which punches well above its price point. I add the Sony 16-50mm lens to this special group.

It's a tiny, light, and fun lens. However in close inspection and in use, it proves to be rather sharp, reliable, and utterly effective at most things an average person does with a walk-around camera. The 16-50 range is fine and with the sharpness it has in the center, it can be cropped either in Sony camera's in-camera digital zoom beyond 50, or it can simply be cropped in software. It outperforms a lot of much larger and heavier kit-lens range glass too. It just works each time, and focus is fast and reliable too, when used with a modern A series. It is a APS-C lens but it does what it is designed for, very well. It does distort the image slightly at extreme ranges, but not enough to be bothersome unless one is looking closely at the results for flaws. My only ... MoreIt's a tiny, light, and fun lens. However in close inspection and in use, it proves to be rather sharp, reliable, and utterly effective at most things an average person does with a walk-around camera. The 16-50 range is fine and with the sharpness it has in the center, it can be cropped either in Sony camera's in-camera digital zoom beyond 50, or it can simply be cropped in software. It outperforms a lot of much larger and heavier kit-lens range glass too. It just works each time, and focus is fast and reliable too, when used with a modern A series. It is a APS-C lens but it does what it is designed for, very well. It does distort the image slightly at extreme ranges, but not enough to be bothersome unless one is looking closely at the results for flaws. My only peeve is that the lens does increase the power-up time for Sony A series camera, as it extends the barrel for shooting. But that is totally forgivable as it compacts to half the size when powered off, especially as a daily carry around or travel. At $300 new MSRP it is a questionable purchase for many, as for a little more, there are much more specialized lenses in the $500 range. But with a kit purchase, it is much more reasonable with it being less than $200 over the price of camera body only price. Also inthe used market these are a dime a dozen at $150 for a very decent barely used condition lens. It probably won't be your art lens to do something specific, but for everything other than those tasks, it certainly does a lot of great photography. Especially for something that is nearly as compact as a body cap! The photo of a A7 with a LA-EA4 Adapter and Minolta 28-135 vs a NEX6 with 16-50 kit. This pancake 16-50 does 95% of what this bigger combination does. At 1/4th the price, and less than 1/3 of the weight and size. So when it is mission-critical, I have the big rig, but if I am just traveling around town or around the world, I think hard and walk off with the smaller setup most of the time, and for a great reason.