Sony Vario-Tessar T E 16-70mm f/4 ZA OSS

Incredible Lens, even more incredible Seller I compared this to the Sony 16-55mm kit lens and the Sony 55-210mm zoom lens. All I can say is that there is NO comparison! The sharpness and realism is just incredible. With this lens, taken with the same zoom factor and lighting conditions, I took a picture of my cat's face. First I looked at the pictures taken with the Sony lenses and got scared because I thought "Did I just blow a big wad of money on a lens that surely could not do better than what I am seeing with my two Sony lenses?" I believed I was seeing all of the detail that could possibly exist. Then I looked at the pictures take with this ZEISS lens!! I was actually able to see the pores on my cat's nose! I could see the minute structures of my cat's iris. But even more importantly, the picture assumed almost a 3D realism to it. It looked as though I could reach into the photo and pet the cat. I kid you not. My wife even noticed the difference and told others about it. This is the best photographic investment I could have made. I thought about replacing my Sony NEX 5N with a new Sonly Alpha 6300, then I read some reviews by Ken Rockwell and his emphasis on purchasing the best lenses that you can afford rather than upgrading and purchasing the best camera you can afford (along with the standard kit lenses.) I am now a firm believer in excellent quality "glass" vs. an excellent quality camera. Thank you Mr. Rockwell for that excellent advice!

Awesome colors and contrast My example is great optically. No decentering issues. Really sharp at the center throughout the range. Sharpness tapers off pretty quickly away from center wide open. The macro performance impressed me, better than I expected. Stopping it down as far as f/16 and possibly even f/22 to increase the DOF at 70mm for macro still gave lots of great detail. I like the smoothness of the out of focus elements and notice an improvement in colors and contrast when compared to my other less expensive lenses. Awesome all around outdoor daytime lens. Don't expect F/4 to be good indoors unless the room is bright or your subject is near a window on a bright day. I'm using it with an a6000.

Good lens I use the lens on my A-6000 which I bought as a carry around camera, my older A-900 being just too bulky. The Zeiss lens takes good photos but not as sharp as I had hoped for. Frankly, the best images that I've taken with this camera were when using a $180 Sigma 30mm f2.8 but a zoom is for me a necessary function for a carry around camera. Packing several lenses works for a shoot but all the time. Maybe my Zeiss needs to be calibrated to my camera.