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matthewm
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18-105 f/4 G Lens - Impressions


Hello all,
I have been using the Zeiss 24/1.8 and 55/1.8 with my A6000 for a while and while I love both of those lenses, I work in communications photographing events, etc. for the city where I live and my job requires a little more flexibility and I sometimes needed something a bit longer or wider or more flexible for whatever reason. Doing a little research, I decided the 16-70 wouldn\'t give me enough difference over the 55 on the long end. Enter the 18-105 f/4.

My initial impressions opening up the lens were that, while fairly large (but smaller than I expected), it felt very well made. The zoom and focus rings are smooth and well-damped. The build is excellent and feels hefty in the hand. It mounts securely and, despite the large size, it balances quite well on my A6000.

The focusing is extremely quick and completely silent and I love the fact that the lens does not extend when zooming, nor does the front of the lens rotate during focusing so using the lens with a circular polarizer, etc. shouldn\'t present any issues.

The zoom rocker is awesome for video and ensures smooth, consistent zooming throughout the range. And since the A6000 doesn\'t shoot \"RAW\" video, the camera corrects for the distortion issues that show up in some of the higher-end Super 35 / APS-C models (pros complain about the shift in distortion from wide to pincushion quite a bit, but on the A6000 takes care of this easily as would the 6300 and 6500).

It comes with a lens hood, which is sturdy and well made and the whole thing feels really, really good. Very much deserving of the \"G\" moniker.

My initial impressions of image quality just shooting around the yard and house are very, very good. Typically, these types of lenses are very much a jack of all trades, master of none in that they do everything fairly well, but don\'t do any one thing particularly well, which was my concern with what is essentially a 6x optical zoom with optical stabilization and an internal zooming/focusing mechanism. It\'s just a lot to ask in a lens this size, especially given it maintains a constant aperture of f/4.

All-in-all, for the amount I spent on this lens used from the boards, I\'m more than happy. I\'d be equally as happy had I paid full price for it. In my opinion, it\'s one of the best sort of all-around lenses available for any system hands-down. Not sure how Sony did it, but it\'s a winner in my book. Is it as sharp as my 24 or 55? Probably not. But it does a hell of a lot more for the same or less money. And that\'s a big deal to me.

Here are a few images from around the yard, etc. with some 100% crops to go with them. Hope this helps some of you guys out if you\'re on the fence about a great walk-around lens for the A6X00 bodies.

Best,
Matthew




Oct 13, 2016 at 07:15 PM





  Previous versions of matthewm's message #13764391 « 18-105 f/4 G Lens - Impressions »

 




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