Sony 55-200mm f/4-5.6 SAM DT Telephoto Zoom Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Cameras

This is perhaps one of the finest lenses produced by Sony for their Alpha mounts. The lens is light weight with exceptional sharpness. Center and edge to edge. I was commenting to my wife that this is a much lighter weight lens than the Minolta Maxxum lenses made of all metal and glass elements that I used to use for film cameras. I was mentioning, that when metal lenses usually fell to the ground that the lens tube would be severally damaged and perhaps beyond repair. Just then my grandchild 10 months old picked up the lens and trew it to the ground. Since I purchased it used for $100 I thought of well there goes the lens. Much to my surprise I picked up the lens and there was absolutely no damage done. Placed it on the camera and began testing it against my Minolta Maxxum 35-105mm af lens.What I discovered surprised me to no end.At every equivalent focal lengths this new 55-200 mm lens was superior in everyway to my once favorite Minolta Maxxum 35-105mm lens.There is noticeably more contrast in 55-200MM. The photo jumps out at you in almost a 3d fashion.Center sharpness is absolutely incredible.Edge to Edge sharpness is not lacking in any way.It is lightweight.It is well balanced on my A57 camera.I love the plastic mount because it is lightweight. I know what your thinking about metal mounts however that may be an outdated concepts. As technology improves somethings get better. This is one of them.Another thing which you can test on your own and very simple to do. Try shooting your lenses with the protective filter on and then take off the filter to see if the filter has lowered the contrast of your photo. In my case I found that the loss of contrast was exceptionally noticeable . The filter which I used is Hoya HMC UV(c).I also wrote a review on the Sony 18-135mm lens. I have not changed my mind about this lens. I do not recommend it. compared to this lens 55-200mm, the 18-135mm is a real loser.I also purchased the sony 18-55 (version2) not much to mention. The quality of the 2 versions is the same as version 1, the only difference is version 1 is made in Japan and version 2 is made in Thailand.Overall I can honestly say that I am 100% with this purchase. For the money you are getting a real bang for your dollar.

When I first received this lens I was pretty disappointed when I saw it was made of plastic. Well, I put it on my Sony A700 and took some long range photos and was surprised at the clarity through the view finder. I reviewed the photos on my computer in Photoshop and was pleased with the sharpness of the photos. Maybe I misjudged this lens when I saw it was made of plastic! The photos I took of my Granddaughters birthday party, which was outside in an idle pasture, turned out great. I took close in and distant photos and everyone turned out great except for the few affected by user error with a little hand shaking. The zoom pulls distant objects in real close and only minor focus adjustments need to be made when using manual focus (very smooth). If you've ever used a Sony A700, you'll know they are rather heavy. This lens is so light it really makes the camera easier to use. Less front weight allows the user to get on target and focus a lot faster. I don't use auto focus very often, because I don't like the way it can blur or grain photos when going from close to far objects quickly. I used auto focus with this lens and the photos were crisp and clear. I may use auto focus a little more often with this lens. It focuses fast and transitions between near and distant objects quickly. This may be my best lens and I have eight nice Sony and Minolta lenses for my camera.I hope this helps you folks out. I am not a professional photographer, but I am a very good amateur with about 40 years experience.I would recommend this lens to anyone with a Sony Alpha! You won't be disappointed if you buy this lens, the Sony 55-200mm f/4-5.6 SAM DT Telephoto Zoom Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Cameras.

I just bought a Sony Alpha A65V camera body and based on the other recomendations here I decided to buy this lens for my telephoto lens and so far it works great! Got it today but by the time I got home from work the sun was pretty low in the sky so didn't have a lot of time to put it thru all the tests I had planned on. I took shots of the bare limbs of the trees in our backyard against the bright sourthwestern sky to check for chromatic distortion and didn't see any at 100% cropping and could barely make out a line of pixels along the edge of the branches that were greenish when I zoomed way in. My testing was done on RAW image files, not the compressed JPG format to get the best analysis of the image without compression artifacts.The lens focuses very fast and is pretty quiet when focusing. It will work great not only for zooming in on distant objects but at the 55mm setting it does great portrait photos. I'll post some photos over time of various lighting condtions and subjects.I think this is going to be my primary lens until I need to shoot landscapes or groups of people in tight quarters. The only thing that I personally would consider a "negative" is Sony should use this lens in their "kits" rather than the zoom lense they include (which is why I bought the body separately).

I'm finding it harder to locate Alpha A-mount lenses for my Sony SLT A55 camera. Sony is now moving toward the mirrorless cameras that are thinner and use a different E mount lens yet still use the Alpha designation. This is a great medium telephoto zoom. I have found it to be quick to focus, very sharp and has minimal chromatic distortion. It uses the same 55mm diameter filter as my other lenses. The lens is light but solidly built. I personally didn't find it "plasticy" as others have claimed. This is only for APS C frame cameras, it will vignette on a full frame camera. Good price for a high quality lens. Great bokeh(out of focus blur)My only negative is that the front element turns when it focuses. I can't use polarized or split density filters.80 - 300mm full frame equiv Good for sports, animal life and portrait photography.