very good image quality, sleek design, focus quite slow

Hello There,
after I had some time with the pencake and the two old Sigma primes busy needed for different applications (animal parks, etc) simply more focal length forth. The decision to SEL18-200le was taken fairly quickly. The camera is black ... because the old 18200er falls ever gone, even if the image quality would be better, what can be read in various forums. I myself can not confirm nor deny! The new Power Zoom also falls flat Weil's "very expensive" and another power-hungry would. The Tamron had the only real alternative ... but without firmware support on hybrid focus makes little sense.

I ordered the lens at Sony's online store and everything went as usual fix. The lens comes with Streulichblende, back cover, various manuals. What I find really bad from Sony, that provides for a lens in this price range do not bag it. This can be better at 100 Sigma lenses. I bought out of necessity a lens pouch of Hama. In these the 18200le reinpasst wonderful.

With lens attached, the camera is much more difficult and the focus is very far forward. You have to remember, this is the lens heavier than the camera up! Of course you can not compare with the slim pencake dimensions. With Streulichblende the kamere has a depth of about 17cm! Fully extended, we are at 24cm. Startled, I was at the beginning of the rigidity of the "zoom ring". This was really hard to use because it is so hard. Meanwhile, I have either gotten used to it, or it has become a little easier.
The lens can be locked in the initial position (18mm), so that it can not be extended. Otherwise, the lock is not properly latched. The Streulichblende snapped clean and tight in the end position. Of course, the panel interferes with flash, but since only a frontal flash. Once you work out the flash upward, as in the NEX6 possible one has a nice indirect lighting and no shadows in the photo. But one must also say that this lens is not really made for indoor use.

The lens has printed the following focal lengths: (in brackets are the maximum aperture that is possible)
-18mm (3.5)
-35mm (4.5)
-50mm (5.6)
-70mm (5.6)
-100mm (6.3)
-200mm (6.3)

In the telephoto end should therefore already be present sunshine ;-)

For image quality:
I'm very satisfied! In the wide-angle lens so distorted less the 1650s at the same focal length. In general, I would give the 18200le the pencake of the priority to picture quality. In Telebereicht the picture quality is as safe no longer be classified as very good, but I'm satisfied. Hide the lens does not need to secure. But that's a matter of opinion. For printing small A4 you will hardly see a difference. Generally this is probably whining at a high level.

From the processing I am very confident. Nothing rattles, no sharp Did or errors in the paint. The lens snaps cleanly and is detected immediately.
I have the objective beginning in May 2013 and bought as firmware version 02 was installed. Thus, the hybrid autofocus should be used. Whether this is really the case is difficult to judge. The option is enabled in the menu. Also, I have the impression that this is the focus on a small focal length range comparable soon as the pencake. In telephoto but I had to ask more driving problems at all sharp. Sometimes the image is blurry, you realize that the camera does its best but there is nothing to focus on. Then the camera will take a kind of reset the image ... in short everything is black and is overexposed and shortly after that the picture is very quick sharp. I think here there are software-maken. Let's see what future Firmewareupdates bring there ... As I said I had this problem so far only in the telephoto range, where it is already difficult to ansich focusing. At this point I would like to say that was installed on the camera, the most recent Firmewareupdaten shortly after receiving the lens.
As read in other reviews, you can not run the firmware update of the lens itself. But as the update service is free that is to get over.

Conclusion: When SEL18200le is a high-quality lens when it comes processing and image quality. The accessories to the lens could be better. Also there are still some problems with the focus determine. These seem to me but still teething problems in the software to be. This is but one reason currently deduct a star!
I would buy the lens again!

Update: the situation described with the screen redraw is a connection problem and is primarily at the camera. By the time I had this phenomenon with any lens. I had the camera returned for company Geissler and who loudly repair bill a "technical cleaning" (which may mean Anyway this ...) performed. Anyway, this lens now works smoothly. Of course it is difficult to focus in the telephoto range due to the low light intensity, but this works now quite reliable.

mfg
Dean