VJS
Everyone seems to be a sceptic until they try the lens for themselves. A little history: I was using Canon L glass with a Metabones adapter for my Sony A7RII before since there werent any good zoom options prior to this lens. I was fairly satisfied with that setup, that was until I got this lens. It is a WOW lens for me, and Im enjoying my A7RII much more these days. Here are the exceptional qualities of this lens based on my short experience with it so far: - At its best, it is as sharp as the 55mm f1.8 Zeiss prime lens, and it stays very sharp throughout the focus range. By far the sharpest zoom lens Ive ever used. I can pixel peep all day at the RAW images this lens produces with the A7RII and find excellent detail and sharp lines everywhere I look (so long as I didnt fudge the focus). Its a croppers dream lens. - Very nice round bokeh - not ultra creamy smooth, but definitely not noisy or jittery. - Balances well on the A7RII. It feels much better than my previous setup. No fear holding it up by the camera body. - Focuses 2-3x quicker than the Canon/Metabones setup. No flakey focus hunting either. - It makes beautiful photos. Excellent IQ. - Image stabilization for me has been beautiful. It doesnt feel as jerky as some of my other lenses, and is definitely much better than the Metabones/Canon lens setup. - Construction is solid. The buttons and switches feel good and are positioned well. The hood locks into place and feels like it can take a beating. - Constant focus distance is very nice when zooming in on your subject. And here are some nits - nothing worth knocking off a star for: - Some light fringing and chromatic aberration in very high-contrast scenes when shooting RAW, easy to fix post processing. - The zoom ring is just a tiny bit too tight for my use, making it a difficult to turn with 2 fingers. Zooming while taking video without a mount isnt pretty. Im hoping the ring loosens up after some use, though I dont have to worry at all about lens creep. - I do wish the tripod mount was a bit larger. Im used to the big tripod mounts on Canon zoom lenses, which make those lenses more comfortable hand-held, and more comfortable as a carry handle. I may look for a foam handle in the future. - For its size, it is a heavy lens. Thats a lot of glass to stuff in that small body.
