Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

It's funny that most of us here should list their qualifications in order to garner some authority when it comes to this lens, but I think that no matter what your level of photographic expertise is, it should be clear just from the fact that after many months there still aren't any used or refurbished lenses for sale at amazon, likely because no one wants to part with this lens. So, I bit the bullet and purchased one new after thoroughly researching why I should have this lens. The first thing I did was analyze all the pictures I've accumulated over the last couple of years with my Sony NEX-5n and various Sony lenses. It turned out that the majority was shot within the equivalent of 28-150mm range. I sold my Sony 18-55 and 55-210 with whose sharpness I wasn't happy, ignored the Zeiss 16-70 on the basis of price and after reading many reviews went for the 18-105/24-160mm equivalent Sony G. Well, come to papa! This baby has an unexpected creamy bokeh at f4, feels great in the hand, zooms smoothly, and the pictures are sharp. Perhaps not as sharp as a zoom at twice the price, but close enough, and with a little post sharpening on my Sony A6000 24mp files who's gonna see the difference? The build is nice, but all in all I now really enjoy going out and shoot, knowing that I'll come back with results. So, no five stars, because it's not perfect, but in my world five stars only go to things that are outrageously great. I'd say, for $600 you can't go wrong.