Sony Alpha SEL1855 E-mount 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS Lens (Silver) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This lens is the standard kit zoom lens sold with Sony NEX cameras. It's the incredibly common zoom range of 18-55mm, and so is unremarkable in that respect, and why I gave that attribute only 3 stars. There are many, many things good about this lens and only a few little issues I take with it. But those really are nitpicking.
OPTICAL QUALITY:
Pro: Incredible optical quality. There are few kit lenses that I enjoy using. Most I replace with something better as soon as I can. This is not the case with this lens. It's sharp with very little chromatic aberration, and has vignetting handles very well. There's absolutely negligible light fall-off at the corners and edges. It scores a highly impressive, especially for a kit lens, 2950 LW/PH center and 2200 LW/PH border and extreme at f/7.1. LW/PH is line widths per picture height, and is a measure of sharpness. Most kit lenses never go above 2000 LW/PH, and even some lower-end primes can't hit that. This is a lens I wouldn't trade out.
Con: Mild distortions. At 18mm there is some slightly significant barrel distortion (-3.98%), meaning that the pictures at that setting will appear to bulge almost unnoticeably outwards. This is ABSOLUTELY NORMAL for every 18-55mm lens. It's nothing to worry about. Once you go past 18mm, there are no distortions at all.
BUILD QUALITY:
Pro: Very high quality magnesium alloy build. For those of you who don't know about metallic chemistry, magnesium, when alloyed with small percentages of aluminum and zinc, is a very hard and lightweight metal; similar to titanium in it's properties. This is a lens made to last. It also looks very nice compared to the plastic lenses most companies are cranking out. The lens is also very small for it's class.
Con: A tad bit too small. Again this is just nitpicking but when using the NEX (or any DSLR really) and adjusting the lens, if you have medium to large hands then the lens is slightly too short to hold well. This is easily corrected simply by adding the lens hood, and after that's done it's really a joy ergonomically.
EVERYTHING ELSE:
Pro: Autofocus. Most people are leery of contrast detection autofocus, but Sony has mastered it with this lens. For the most part, CDAF is done in-camera though. However, with the lens and the camera, the autofocus is very fast and completely silent, even in movie mode.
Pro: Zoom and focus rings. These are very wide and comfortably ridged, and a joy to use. They're damped, meaning that it's almost a fluid motion turning them. This is only slightly better than most lenses, however I felt it was worth mentioning.
Pro: Cheap filters and caps. If you want to get polarizing filters or UV protectors or lens caps, the thread is 49mm. This is one of the much more common filter threads. Amazon currently has Tamron 49mm filters at under 10 dollars.

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The Sony SEL1855 Interchangeable Alpha E-mount Lens is for Sony Alpha NEX Cameras. The Sony SEL1855 Interchangeable Alpha E-mount Lens is extremely Lightweight. Plus, this lens has Auto and Manual Focusing as well as Silent Autofocusing / Internal Motor. Order the Sony SEL1855 Interchangeable Alpha E-mount Lens today!

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