Sony E 55-210mm F4.5-6.3 Lens for Sony E-Mount Cameras (Black)

Great, affordable way to fill your telephoto niche.
I bought this lens in anticipation of a 3 month trip to East Africa and it performed beautifully. The build quality is very good, it held up for a 3,000 mile motorcycle journey and a handful of rainstorms, bumps, and drops. Though relatively large compared to the camera, it’s still much smaller and more portable than DSLR lenses of similar focal lengths so it maintains the compact benefits of the mirrorless system. The small camera body looks a bit ridiculous, especially when the zoom is fully extended and the lens hood is on, but the weight and balance is very comfortable in the hand.Not an expert on performance but this lens was an enormous step up from the kit lens for wildlife photography and (to a lesser degree) portrait shots. Clarity is very good in most cases, though performance diminishes in low light. A wider aperture would be nice, but for the price I can’t complain. The 55mm minumum focal distance limits the versatility of the lens (especially at f4.5 since a wider aperture would make it much more well suited for portraits) more than would be the case on say, an 18-200. But I obviously knew that before purchase.Overall, this lens does exactly what I bought it for and does it very well. I can’t recommend it enough for someone looking to take advantage of alpha series’ interchangeable lens system and step into focal lengths not provided by the kit lens.

Excellent reach, but fuzzy
Would recommend using this lens in combination with a stabilized body or on a tripod. Even though the lens technically has OSS built in, at the far end of the telephoto ranges the shake on an a6100, even standing still, is enough to blur the image. However, the reach on it is outstanding and is perfect for sporting/spectator events in good lighting. The lens is NOT the sharpest, which is expected for a budget telephoto, so I would either not expect to have very large prints with this unless you’re enhancing the image with AI. But I would recommend it for someone trying to figure out if long-distance photography is important to them, or if it only makes up a small portion of their activity. Would probably not recommend it for professional work.

Excellent Lens
Exactly as described

Really great lens fits perfect on my husbands camera would recommend

A nice zoom lens.With body made of Mag-Alloy, silent AF motor AND built-in Image Stabilisation (IS). On top of everything, this lens has “Focus Tracking Compatibility” with E-mount Cameras, which is of GREAT help, when shooting moving objects (in decent light) at the 210mm end. The kit SELP16-50 lens and this lens are more than adequate if you are upgrading to APS-C Sensor based Camera and want to shoot much more interesting photos than your P&S or Bridge Camera.For a reach of 210mm (315mm Full Frame equivalent), this is the cheapest Native Lens. The SEL70200G is massive and sells for around Rs 1 Lac.Certain adapted Zoom Lenses are much better Optically, cost around Rs 5000, but, without the Stabilisation, difficult to have crisp shots above 135mm when used hand-held and in low light. Normally for 210mm, you need to choose 1/210 seconds shutter speed without IS. With IS,I can slow down to 1/50 seconds, at 210mm. With Stationary objects, hand-held shots are possible even at 1/20 seconds (if I remember to choose ISO 3200, hold my breath, use focus peaking and X9.6 magnification), even with illumination from JUST ONE 36W Tube Light.I generally prefer adapted wide angle primes at 28mm and the E-mount 35mm. So this lens is not frequently used, but, is always in the Camera Bag, because of its compact size and low weight. THAT, is the key-point for this Zoom Lens. Just buy it.For those planning to buy Adapted Zoom Lenses:1. Buying an used and fully manual Zoom lens will be cheap but will get you lot of frustrating images above 150mm, if lighting conditions are bad and you shoot hand-held. But, it will be a fun tool to learn Photography. Seriously.2. I originally considered “Auto Focus Canon EF-NEX adapter plus Canon EF 70-300mm IS Lens OR Canon EF-S 55-250mm”. As per DXO site, performance wise, the EF 70-300mm IS Lens is very close to Canon “L” variant ! If you do not mind the size and weight, go get it along with the adapter. But, mostly the lens will be kept at home, I guess. And, the Canon EF-S 55-250 leads by a thin margin optically. The Sony wins due to faster AF, Compact Size and Focus Tracking.If you have a Sony APS-C sensor based E-Mount Camera, and you do NOT have a “Canon EF-S 55-250 lens”, do not think too much and get this lens.