I just picked one up in Japan a couple of weeks ago. It is insane that you can buy a new copy for $975 at Bic camera. Despite owning 4 GM primes and the 70-200GMii, the 20G, 200-600G and lovely Samyang, Sigma and Zony primes, Sony G glass, my most used lens is the excellent 28-200.
I never found the 28-200 to be slow to focus for the travel photography that I do where the fastest AF-C activity involves AF-C tracking of a pedestrian for a street shot. That said, th 35-150 does acquire focus noticeably faster. I attemptwd to shoot some relatively faster snow monkeys coming at me in Yudanaka and had about a 50% hit rate. This combo does NOT AF at the level of the A9iii + native GM glass, nor did I expect it to.
I have taken a quick glance at the photos I shot in Japan with this lens and vignetting corrections for wide open shots with C1's corrections based on the manufacturer's profile seems look OK.
The weight is noticeably heavier than the 28-200, but I will often go out with the 35GM and 28-200 and the 35-150 gets me quite close to that two lens combo with much less awkwardness.
I bought it for a single lens event shooting solution, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it as a travel lens. I did a few full day walk arounds with it in Tokyo along with some indoor shooting for the cultural events in the evenings for my recent ski tour. If you don't mind the wide end not being wide and weight, this is a very fun travel lens.
Jan 22, 2026 at 03:44 PM
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