Sony DT 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 SAM

Sony SAL18135/3.5-5.6 is a gem! Like many of Sony's in house SAL optics, this upper end consumer kit offering offers a lot of bang for the buck. My used sample was pristine and shoots beautiful images. AF is very quiet, zoom and manual focus are very smooth. The auto switching for AF to manual is a feature every lens should have. Build quality is as good as plastic can be which is essentially fragile in nature but adequate for consumer use with any care shown to it. Light weight, fairly compact and a competent performer in capturing images, this zoom is a cut above many models in IQ. Good center focus wide open with softish corners, the SAL18135 shapes up quickly once you start stopping down. Very good IQ throughout the focal range - not common on many zooms. Using f4/5.6 through f16 will produce great images. Diffraction comes into play around f11-16 and ruins images using the smallest apertures. All in all, buying this item on eBay for half the retail price, I scored a mint sample of a current product - shipped from Japan, where Sony builds their better optics.

Focus ring not working properly Will not work in full AF , so for my use shooting action not a lot of time to get the sharp fucus that I need my 18x200 is a better option & about the same weight, however it will be a very good portrait lens.

Optical zoom flexibility Good quality and reasonable image given the optical zoom range and aps-c compatibility. The focal length range works well for most routine applications.