Review on Sony SAL18135 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 Zoom Lens" - Enhanced SEO: Sony SAL18135 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 Zoom Lens by Rebecca Inman

Got this over Christmas when Sony and Revain were offering this lens for $200 in addition to buying the A57 camera with the included lens. I'm so glad I did. The extra money was well spent. I can make this comparison because I spent a lot of time playing around with the kit lens at my local camera shop (I brought my own memory card and took a lot of pictures at the shop and then went home and checked them out). I was happy with the kit lens camera but not thrilled. So I did a little research. I found out pretty quickly that this lens gets much better reviews and also offers more zoom range. I think it's very well made and large, and overall a good fit for the camera. Taken together, the camera and lens seem a perfect match. Incidentally, I also bought a Sony 50mm f/1.8 Prime lens (a real steal at $150) which I think is a very good complement to this lens because it's both brighter (ie for low light shooting without a flash) and also slightly brighter is sharper than this zoom lens at 50mm. So if I had to do it all over again I would have no hesitation in spending the extra money to buy this 18-135mm lens instead of the kit lens. I decided to buy the A57 over the A37 and A65 because I felt the 57 had the best feature set at the best price (ie best overall value at $750). This zoom lens really helps the A57 to show its capabilities. Buy one!