Sony DT 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 SAM II Lens

For a kit lens, the Sony performs quite well - fairly sharp wide open at 18mm, reaching its best performance when stopped down to Æ’/5.6 or Æ’/8. As kit lenses go it's fairly standard.

The old 18-55 SAM kit lens was a very good performer, I tested this Mk 2 on a A37 and its even better with new SD glass and reduced flare problems. The image quality is superb, and colours that only Sony seem to get right.

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  Superb image quality and very neat and compact

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  Rather poor and cheap plastic construction, but no worse than others brands

I purchased a brand new Sony SLT A58 complete with this lens. After realising that the other lenses offered by sony as kit sets included a lens hood as standard I found that the lens itself is fine but to my dismay a decent ("flower" or shaped) reversible lens hood which fastens to the bayonet...

This came with my A58 three lens pack, it is quick to focus and superior to the DT 18-70, and the DT 18-55 SAM I. The results are great with no noticeable low points. In times of low light it is inferior to my DT 50 prime lens but that is tone expected!

I purchased this to replace an earlier version of the same lens (SAM 18-55) because the zoom used to stick and it could not be used for video. A basic design fault that was well known!! This one was soft due to condensation build up. After a couple of days it cleared and is now OK.

Bought it along with an A58 to use on my A55 (and was going to keep a long zoom on the A58 body), unfortunately my A55 suddenly stopped working, will not take photos although very occasionally it comes to life and shows the parameters display, shows focus points, but no shutter release and no view...