Review on 📷 Sony SAL70300G Super Telephoto Zoom Lens: 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 SSM ED G-Series - Compact and Powerful by Brian Whitmore

As other reviewers have pointed out, this is a bright light lens. If you can't figure it out from the aperture, you probably aren't ready for this lens. It's really sharp, colors are excellent and focusing is as quick and quiet as Sony claims. All this and the quality you feel in its construction make it a real pleasure to use. It's plastic, yes, but it keeps the weight down and still feels very premium. I carefully compared this lens to the Minolta Maxxum 100-300 F4.5-5.6. In the best of conditions, it can be difficult to tell which lens captured which photo. But challenge the lens and the G lens will leave Maxxum far behind. Focusing is much faster on the G lens, edge resolution is much better, and the G lens's lightwave chromatic aberration control is ahead of the Maxxum. And pretty much every other lens I've ever used. The hood is really big. You're not tricky swinging your lens hood. I often use it without a hood. I store it with the lens hood on my head, of course, and you have to take the lens hood off to use the lens. The lens hood covers the focus ring and zoom ring. The focus ring is closest to the body, unlike most lenses I've used. It works well. One feature this lens needs and misses is zoom lock. If you wear this on your camera, gravity will cause the barrel to pop out when you point it down. It's a bit annoying, but I'm surprised the lens doesn't have a lock. I wish I could remove the retainer from my Tamron 17-50 (which has it but doesn't need it) and put it on this lens (which needs it but doesn't have it). Is this lens worth the money? You must decide this yourself. For me it was worth it. This lens consistently produces very high quality images and is a pleasure to use.