Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

Love this lens. Lost the original one and just had to replace it. Works smooth as silk, dependable and is very useful for many situations. All around great lens, especially at this price!

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

A good lens, compact and economical meets my needs.

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

I shoot in every conceivable light, from evenings in the rain to midday desert vistas to late afternoon long shadows to direct flash at long range; were it not for a sometimes lazy auto-focus in low light, I would call this a perfect adventurers lens. I adapt my shots and am still pretty happy with this lens.

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

Bought this lens because I needed some zoom (had been using a 50 mm lens). Lightweight, good range, can get those closeups but can pan out too.

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

I got this lens with my alpha 300 kit. It is just sufficient to get you start using your camera. Sharpness is clearly not there. Very basic lens, its meant to be an all purpose lens. If you want better quality pictures, i'd definitely suggest getting a better lens, like the DT 16-105, or the DT 16-80 zeiss, or even the DT 24-105. This lens is just for you to start messing around with your camera. The lens has a weak body, optically is made very cheap. However, it is a good kit lens, and gives you a much better focal length than their current 18-55 or any other manufacturer's kit lens in the same class.

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

I love this lens to photograph people in groups. I would take it to any party. The Quality of the pictures are superve. Easy to carry anywere, anytime. It is small and light weight, but powerfull for the porpuse it is intended to be used.___I haven't seen anything bad about this product...yet . I do regreat NOT having it before!!!

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

I have two of these: one came with my A100, the other with my A350. Serious tests show the newer one is better, with a slight decentering problem in the older lens, but there is nothing obvious between them in photos.
There is no doubt that there are far better lenses for one's Sony, but the 18-70mm range (27-105mm equivalent field of view) is darned useful and IQ is really very comparable to Canon and other kit lenses with less useful zoom ranges. In short, I've got 20+ lenses, but these still get used when I need a "point and shoot" lens that does both wide and telephoto.
This is not a lens that will show-off the resolution difference between 10MP and 14MP bodies. However, IQ overall is pretty good: e.g., good color and great flare resistance. IQ certainly isn't worse than the 18-200mm choices, which are more expensive and bigger.
In summary, this is a good lens to take with you when you can take only one. It isn't the best lens for any specific type of photograph, but is competent at all the most common types except low-light non-flash.

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

I got this lens as part of a used camera that already had it on. I'm believing that the person that sold me the Maxxum 7D thought this lens to be a sub-standard lens. I disagree as it's a good lens for what is worth: A beginners lens. It's no 100mm f2.8 Macro or Zeiss product, but, it can do the job. It's not my first choice yet it fills the gap for and easy to travel with lens and it can take the knocks the other lenses really couldn't take. It's adequate for what it does and I dig it for that.

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

I have more than one of these, thanks to Sony's insistence on including it with even the a700 for most retail packs. This lens was a Sony update of a bottom of the line kit lens Konica-Minolta design (it zooms in the opposite direction).

When zoomed to the wide angle 17mm, this lens really throws in a lot of sperical distortion. IE straight lines appear curved in the image. Outer corners of the image I just find to be awful.

I typically will not use this lens unless I can't find a body cap. Do yourself a favor and buy a similar "walkaround" lens from one of the reputable non-OEM manufacturers.

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

Onwed about sevent months,have testing a thousands
times,find out it just a basic lence,so nothing fancy about its ,made in china,the pictures coming out not clear much,get bad in the dark,autofocus hunt,you guy better save some bucks
to buy better lences likeSigma EX DG,Tamron ,you will see great result

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

Came with my Sony alpha 350 as a kit lens. Made in China, cheap, sharpness is simply not there. An embarrassment.

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

At first I thought it was a budget lens. After taking several pictures I founf that the pictures were sharp and very clear. A good buy for the money. So far I am very satisfied.

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

I have used this product in wide ranging situations, indoors and out, night and day, still life to action - and i can confidently say it is an average lens.

Those who have not managed to progress past the confines of the kit lens world will (and have done within these reviews) state it is a great lens. It is an average lens that does the job is is supposed to.

It is not fast at all, it has a fully plastic build, the focusing is appalling in low light and sharpness is poor in all but the most favourable of conditions (where CA will really start to annoy you if you intend to print in a large size)

This is a lens that should only be bought as part of a bundle when you buy the camera, in no way should you spend money to buy this lens if you are looking for a high quality product; it simply isn't designed to fit this demand and quite rightly is therefore priced very low.

Unfortunately I still have this lens attached to my camera and am saving every penny to get something better before i can start to get the quality I long for.

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

kit lens came with my a300x focus is on and off some times lens feels cheap have managed to get a 50% satisfactory shots but it really does not perform to the standerds i need am up-grading to a fixed focal 2.8 or better the a300 is awsome hoping a better lens will do the trick.own all 1.4 on my 35mm cameras should have known better.

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

This is the kit lens that came with the A300 and from the very first look at the photos I noticed that they were not as sharp and crisp as they should be considering the great reviews I had read about this lens.

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

this lense is an excellent one. i enjoy every minute of it.

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

I found this lens to feel very flimsy - like if I turned it a bit too strongly, it'd crack in half. It worked pretty well until recently. I didn't injure the lens or the camera, but I started hearing a "bad sound" when I zoomed with the lens. I also started noticing that the aperture blades were no longer symmetrical, one blade was clearly "Flapping about" and would move if I rotated the camera.

About a month after the problem started (for I continued to use it until I could afford a replacement) I could no longer zoom less than 24mm or so. If I tried to get to 18 it would jam pretty hard. It was at that point I gave up on it.

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

The Sony sal1870 is one of the best kit lenses available. It is light weight and very sharp. I have used it for family groups and made 17-22 prints with the A 100 with absolute clarity. My wife is taking the lens for her New A 700. Looks like I may have to buy another Sal1870.

Expertise: Professional Photog

Previous Equivalent Item Owned: Many Nikon lenses even a kit lens.

Items I Recommend: uv filter and pola filter

Comments about Sony SAL-1870 AF DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6(D) Autofocus Lens:

I believe this is one of the 2 kit lens options with theA100. As part of the kit, this lens only cost me an extra$50 or so and as such is highly recommended at this price. Build quality is so-so (it is very plastic and light weight)but doesn't seem to have any loose fitting parts. After Itook some pictures with this - I was very amazed at thequality. The sharpness was very good. I really liked thefact that it zooms out to 18mm. If you take pictures ofin-room shots (a room in a historical house for example),you need an 18mm or less to get most of the room in the shot(especially with a non-full-frame sensor DSLR like theA-100). I wish the lens had a better build quality - Iwould have given it higher ratings.

Problems Encountered: No problems as of yet.Not a problem, but just a note: If you use 2 filters(polarizer and UV for example) in the 18mm mode there may besignificant vignetting (black mask around the edges of yourphoto), unless you get the thin filters specificallydesigned for super wide-angle lenses. If you only use 1filter at a time, you don't need to get the thin filters.

Previous Equivalent Items Owned: Sigma 24-70EX DG, Sigma 70-300 DG APO, Phoenix 500mm mirror

Items I Recommend: filters for wide-angle lenses (see above)