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

Comment

True Rating is 3.5 stars as Amazon does not allow for 1/2 star increments: Rating zoom lens really depends on ones expectations - I completely understand (and accept) that zooms will very rarely (practically never) match the image quality of a reputable prime. However, the biggest benefit of a zoom lens is their flexibility and versatility to be used in various shooting situations. With that said, my rating of 3.5 stars is simply the average of these two areas. I did not want to make this review more complex than it needs to be so I weighed each area the same --- I highly encourage you to make your own determinations of importance. From a *pure* image quality standpoint, I would score this lens as 3 stars. Sharpness at center is good but sharpness at the edges and corners is soft throughout the aperture and zoom range. In my experience, the best overall IQ across the entire photo was when aperture was set between f/5.6 and f/8. Bokeh was OK and I do wish it was better, but again, I did not expect this lens to perform like a prime. Honestly, if your photos are going to live their lives on a monitor screen then the image quality of this lens is way more than acceptable. Printing photos will be a different story but I am not sure what the largest size is before these image limitations can seen. From a flexibility/versatility perspective, I would score this lens as 4 stars. Built-in OSS helps immensely when creating videos, shooting at the telephoto end, and/or hand-held shooting with a slow shutter speed. The lens is very light primarily due to Sonys extensive use of plastic. However, construction and build feel is solid. The a6000 camera + this lens is significantly lighter than my previous (and much loved) Nikon D90 + comparable focal length telephoto lens. I (specifically my back and shoulders) could tell a huge difference during outdoor day trips. Zoom function is done via manually turning the focus ring as this is not a "power zoom" lens. The subtraction of 1 star is because the lens tends to hunt in low-light AF situations such as low-light golden hour time frames and indoor scenes. You will have to manually focus to obtain the required sharpness --- Focus-peaking and magnification functions on the a6000 camera made this quite simple...but it is still an additional step and it is impractical during action photography. Overall, I am quite happy with my purchase of this lens. It is definitely not perfect but I am more willing to live with its shortcomings due to its size benefits. There is nothing comparable in Sonys e-mount lineup that matches the low-price, telephoto capabilities and AF functionality in a tidy size package.

Show more

Comment

I bought this lens to accompany my recently purchased Sony A6000 camera. Works perfectly. 55 to 210 is a range that I principally as a wildlife photographer find incredibly useful. And whilst a Sony mirrorless camera wont be replacing my full dslr for animals anytime soon, this lens works really well, and the zoom range picks up where the 16-50 kit-type lens for the A6000 stops. Very light, nice texture on the zoom ring; I purchased my lens lightly used, and it does expand and contract really easily. I dont think the weight of the lens, its elements, or the hood (which is also satisfactory) would really cause it to travel and slip out of the set range, a lock to keep the lens in at least the 55mm spot wouldnt go unappreciated - but thats likely just me and my paranoia :/ In short; good lens for the money. Not a phenomenal one; the f4.5 - 6.3 range isnt ideal, but for what youll pay, its very adequate. Its light enough to not be out of place on a camera as small and equally lightweight as an A6000, but not enough to feel precarious. Would greatly recommend to any hobbyist or prosumer in the market. The number of Sony lenses are still growing, but this is a good entry in the lineup, and covers the seminal 70-200 range every camera should be able to reach out to.

Show more

Comment

So I bought an A6300 after selling my A6000 and I bought a couple Sigma Contemporary lens (16mm and 30mm) along with the 50mm Sony and liked all those lens but man the Sigma 16mm is so big it defeated the purpose of the smaller footprint that e-mount brings to the table. I sold the 16mm. Great sharp photos, but not any better than a 12mm Oly mounted on my main camera, a Panasonic gx8. So much bigger though. Anyway, I read so many bad reviews of this particular lens I put off and put off buying it. But then I bought one for a hundred bucks. Handheld is the only way I shoot and I love this lens on the A6300. Popped shutter priority as the setting, extended it all the way out, shot the moon. Shooting hand held through a window, extended straight out, I got this pic of an angry Robin. Now Im thinking about investing in another Sony low budget lens or two. This 55-210 compliments the sharp 50mm Sony Prime really well. I highly recommend getting a cheap used 55-210. For my type of shooting I love it.

Show more

Comment

If you are using this on a sony a7 series camera there is a SUPER ANNOYING vignette as I found out too late. Originally I had a budget for a short film shoot and we had very little money for the longer lens but it was required. We were in disbelief when we saw the listing and thought it was too good to be true. IT WAS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE! No where on the listing were we made aware there is a MASSIVE VIGNETTE on the image because apparently this lens isnt for full frame sensors like the a7 series uses. The "in your face" vignette gets EVEN WORSE when you zoom all the way in and EVEN WORSE STILL when you go to take full frame photos. When we got the lens in and tried it out we wanted SO BADLY to send it back. but our deadline was up, the budget had no more room for anything better, and my colleague had to actually shake me to calm me down because I was so angry. We tried everywhere on the internet to find a solution other than cropping in post. The lowlight is fine but wayyyy too soft to use in anything other than outside daylight. image stabilization is fine but nothing to write home about. Overcast lighting is pretty meh and only really usable at noon but the image is still wayyyyyyyyy too soft. Auto focus is TRASH and could not focus on anything for more than a half a second no matter what we tried. But now we are pretty much stuck with it for our shoot. we will need to crop everything we film while using this lens, eating into our post flexibility. 3 crucial scenes have to be shot at night indoors, practice with these scenes has already shown us the final result isnt looking promising. Several shots we knew we would need the auto focus since, we are a very run-and-gun production crew, now will have to use manual focus and PRAY we dont eat too much more into out time and money budget getting the shots we need, as we have very little time to get them and will need to get them pretty much in the first couple of takes, which adds more headache to the migraine this lens has given us for only having it two days total. Lesson learned I suppose. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Next time we will do our research and hopefully we will be able to get our money back at least one way or another with this lens once production ends so we can shop for something better. I guess my biggest reason for getting so worked up is the website lens tester feature told us that this lens would work with our camera, but never warned us about the vingette.

Show more

Comment

I am relatively new to the Sony Mirrorless camera lens series. Up until about a year ago I only used the Sony "point and shoot" cameras but I was looking for something new when I found my A6000 mirrorless camera but being a newbie I was not aware that 30x optical zoom is not the same as 55-210mm so that was a bit of a shock. My fault really for not researching properly. I have had no problems with this lens at all. In fact I think it takes better photos then the 20-55mm lens that came with my camera. I can look out my bedroom window and snap beautiful photos of the birds nest that is in my neighbors tree. It is a little large and pretty much impossible to just hang on my neck with the camera. I would go so far as to say that the camera does not feel quite as balanced but I imagine that is normal for such a large lens. I will continue to buy Sony lens in higher mm to hopefully catch the distance that my old camera had.

Show more

Comment

i cant believe the quality of the photos at maximum zoom with this, for the price I paid. Under three hundred, and its just phenomenal for this price. The downside is at max zoon, it can be difficult for the autofocus to work well, but that only impacted some of my photos depending on what the subject was and its surroundings. The lens doesnt add as much weight as I had expected. The full zoom extends the barrel about two more inches. It fits my NEX-3NL/B perfectly, quick on and off. Its fun again, since I havent used a 35mm camera since the early 90s. Ive been too used to simple point and click digital cameras. I have several, and one of them is very good, with a phenomenal zoom, but there are just some circumstances it doesnt perform as well as something a little more advanced. I had received the NEX-3NL/B from the Vine program, and was very glad I did, since it was a great first step back away from point and clicks. But I didnt want to spend a grand on a telephoto lens, since Ive been out of the hobby for so long, other than just taking some photos of my son as he grew. The fact that this lens worked natively without an adapter, and the autofocus and steady shot worked with it made it a quick and easy decision. Its nice not relying on the motors again for zoom, I can rotate it as quick as I need to get to the zoom factor Im looking for. I took it on a test spin in the park with my 9 year old. The day started bright and sunny and upper 80s, and a storm front was moving through so we went to upper 50s and windy and incredibly dark clouds within about 30 minutes. I was able to shoot near objects, far objects, and got some awesome pictures of the storm clouds and the incredibly white, high cumulonimbus clouds. With just a couple instances of focus difficulty with the autofocus at max zoom, it performed far, far better than I had expected. Having read some of the reviews here from people far more knowledgeable than I, I was ready for some disappointment. But I havent done advanced photography for almost 30 years, so Im probably far less critical than they are. For me, a slightly more advanced than "normal" user, I was very happy with this through the entire range. It did well in lower light as well. The fact that it lets you use it without feeling like youve got an anchor sticking out the front of your camera means less lens swapping than I had expected as well. I comfortably spent the time at the park using this at the lowest setting just fine, and never felt the need to swap to my shorter lens. For the price, its outstanding for people like me. If youre a pro, you wont be looking at this lens anyway, but for the rest of us, it works great. And since you cant touch it with anything else near this price point, it makes it an easy buy.

Show more

Comment

I bought this lens for my SONY a6300. I have been using it at the long end to photograph shore birds here on the Gulf of Mexico, including birds in flight, for which you need a lens and camera that can focus fast. This combo of the a6300 and this lens works great even handheld. It can fire off 8-9 shots per second even when shooting RAW. The lens has stabilization, making it easier to handhold and still get a sharp picture. I also used it recently at a fencing tournament and was able to get clear pictures of the actual moments that the touches were made with the blade. This is the lens I now keep on my camera, only switching to the 16-50mm kit lens when I need a wide-angle capability.

Show more

Comment

I know this is a cheaper lens, so I am reviewing this with that in mind. It is great for a quick fix that I needed it for until I can afford something better, but there are some major issues for the type of shooting I do that Ive noticed. The worst part is that the focus ring is indefinite. It takes 2-3 full rotations to fully go from one focus point to the next, which should only be an issue on bigger zoom lenses. And even then, Ive shot on bigger zoom lenses that only took 1.5 rotations. It is not good for "run and gun" shooting where you have to be on point with focus consistently. Also not good for non-tripod shooting. There ARE zoom lenses Ive used many times that are great for run and gun shooting, so its a lens issue rather than an improper use of equipment for the job. And Ive used cheap zoom lenses too that work, so not a price point issue either. My cheapest canon lens has been my favorite, because of the half-turn focus ring. (It only takes half a rotation to fully focus from one end to the other and its quick with little resistance) and that one is 18-135, so a similar range. Overall, definitely worth it if you need something quick and/or are saving for something nicer. The image quality is good. I also like how small and light it is. I travel and hike/boat/ATV/run for a lot of shoots, so size and weight are always factors.

Show more

Comment

I wish I could rate this 100 stars. Use it with my Sony a5100. I am new to "professional" photography/cameras. I love this camera and this lense is worth every penny!!!!

Show more

Comment

I am planning a trip to Petra, Israel and the Pyramids this year and wanted to make sure I had the best lenses. Research pointed to the Sony SELP18105G E PZ 18-105mm F4 G OSS being the best (affordable) travel lens for the Sony A#### series cameras. I found this lens to be much crisper with a much nicer boka. Ill keep testing but its not looking for the Sony SELP18105G E PZ 18-105mm F4 G OSS. I might as well be shooting through a point and shoot with that lens.

Show more