Sony DT 55-300mm F4.5-5.6 SAM A-mount lens review by balacau
 balacau#11930 date: Jul-29-2014 | |
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| sharpness: 5 color: 5 build: 4 distortion: 5 flare control: 5 overall: 4.8 | tested on:
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| ownership: | I own this lens |
| compared to: | Sony SAL75300 75-300mm kit zoom lens Tamron 18-270mm PZD hyperzoom Sony 16-105mm zoom |
| price paid: | £250 (new) |
| positive: | Compact & lightweight design Effective lens hood which can be reverse-mounted for storage Damped zoom action, seems to be more resistent to lens creep Focal range (55-300) Snappy AF in good light. |
| negative: | Noisy SAM motor (why not SAM II?) Hunts a fair bit in low light conditions & can have issues locking onto a moving target APS-C only; this may be an issue for some, but not so for me |
| comment: | I've been looking to upgrade from my original SAL75300 75-300mm kit zoom lens for some time. After much reading, viewing reviews and looking at example pictures I finally decided on ordering the SAL-55300 through Amazon. I snapped this up at a pretty good price and the lens arrived a full day ahead of schedule which was a great start! This lens certainly has an edge in build quality over the previous SAL75300. It feels heavier, tougher and the quality is also much improved. I dare say its even better than the 16-105 although that lens is also considerably older too. In terms of weight, this lens is just over half of the weight of either Sony's 70300G or Tamron's 70-300 USD lenses but still packs quite a punch. Recently I've been playing around with the on-camera HDR and have been using this lens for some of that. The optical quality produced is great, even shot at wide open. I have not yet noticed any softness at either 55 or 300mm but I don't tend to pixel peep that much. I guess you can't read a review about this lens without hearing about its SAM in-lens motor. Well its true, it is pretty loud really, certainly louder than the SAM primes like 35mm or the F1.8 Easy Choice lenses. While I'm not one that shoots video, this may well be offputting to some. Perhaps the SAM II motor would have made it a little quieter & faster to focus? While the AF is snappy on stationary subjects and objects moving towards or away from the camera, it has trouble locking onto subjects moving across its field of view. I have not noticed this being the case with the Sony 16-105 however. Flare control is uncannily good! So far I do not have any filters for this lens but when I have caught the sun in the frame, it tends to produce a straight vertical line effect rather than the blobs that I'm used to seeing with some lenses. In sunrise/sunset scanarios, I have noticed far less flaring from this lens which really impressed me; hence the 5* rating. I have to say that so far at least, I'm very happy with the lens and what its produced thus far. Its a little bit of an awkward focal range for me but I'm doubling it up with the 16-105 at the moment! Its only major flaw is locking onto sideways moving subjects but just perhaps I can get around that with technique. |
; 20MPrating summary
- total reviews: 18
- sharpness: 4.67
- color: 4.50
- build: 4.11
- distortion: 4.67
- flare control: 4.50
- overall: 4.49