Product Reviews

I've had this lens for a number of years firstly with my a6500 and now with an a6700. It is very good between 24 and 55mm and good outside those focal lengths. Stopping down improves the image quality at the edges of needed. The A6700 seems to get more from the lens, maybe because of the better sensor.

I bought it a few weeks ago and never regret my investment. I made a special test: shooting a small worm that is only a few millimeters long and hanging on a thread. The image shows the worm clearly. I can even see the thread. This is really a nice lens.

Ideal walk round' lens for every day use. Good range and better quality than expected

Having been in the photographic retail trade (now retired) I know of the reputation for quality Zeiss has. I also have a Sony RX10 MKIV which has a Zeiss lens and is super sharp, so I was expecting a lot from the 16-70 Tessar on my newly purchased Sony A6600 and it has lived up to my expectations. Incredibly sharp all all focal lengths edge to edge, great colour reproduction, very light and compact. Highly recommended.

I bought this lens a month ago.. Its a good lens for travel purpose. The pictures in my opinion are not as sharp compared to other lens in the market.

I bought this lens to replace the Zeiss A Frame lens and expected it to be the best there is. I wasn't disappointed.

I use this lens on an A6500. Together they provide a lightweight system that is comfortable to carry around all day. The lens focuses quickly and produces edge to edge sharpness at all but extreme settings.Even wide open edge sharpness is only a little softer and perfectly acceptable.

Bought this a few months ago to use as a day to day lens as I needed more flexibility than my 50 1.8 and better quality glass than my 16-50 kit lens. IT.HAS.NOT.LEFT.MY.CAMERA! I use it for everything from landscapes to portraits and everything in between. I have used it on several pro shoots and continue to be impressed. For the price there are no better lenses that offer such quality and flexibility. It has its limitations in very low light scenarios (it is f4 wide open) but with careful planning and set up these can be overcome. You will not be disappointed with this lens.

Having just purchased an Alpha 6400 body I bought this lens using the Welcome to Alpha promotion. I have only used it for a few shots so far. It is a reasonably lightweight and easy to operate lens with very effective OSS - I have obtained acceptably sharp results hand held at 1/5th second exposure. The constant f4 maximum aperture is a nice feature.

I bought my A6000 camera a few weeks ago. It came with the 16-50mm kit lens which did not impress me. This lens, however is a different story. It produces very sharp images with great colour rendering, handles well with great build quality. It also benefits from OSS and is an excellent lens for the A6000. I am very happy with it.

Purchased a month ago. Lens is ok nothing special. Quite a expensive for what you get.

Lived up to the great expectations promised by previous reviewers.

Love it for street photography and as general lens

Liked size and range of focal length. Must be very careful using in high Humidity and dusty environments. Very expensive - paying for ZEISS design...Must use Capture One Software to get full photo clarity and color repro. Needed a macro capability like Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS Lens. Wish I would have bought this lens for my APS-C camera.. More Bang for Buck with a much sharper lens....

Bought this to upgrade on my current lenses. Although I have not used it that much since purchase, the limited amount of pics I have taken have been fantastic - I am still getting used to the lens, but feel confident in saying for an amateur like myself it has increased my pic taking capabilities.

I bought this lens according to the reviews I've read on the internet. Although those reviews aren't excellent, they are generally above average. I thought it's worth a try. The lens is well constrected. Unfortunately, the good part of the lens stops there. To my disappointment, the quality of the pictures I get from this lens is less then average. The colors are very washed out. I use this lens with the A6300 that's been converted to infrared. The hot spot is very strong. The focus is good, though not excellent, in the center area, but very poor at the corner where the fringing and distortion is very strong. All and all, I am very disappointed. I can't recommend this lens to anyone.

It would be better if it is 10mm to 70mm instead of 16mm to 70mm. Sometimes the picture quality is blur (not very clear). It should be sold cheaper prices instead of expensive prices

This product gives great functionality for an everyday walk around lens! This is the only lens I own and I am not looking to purchase another lens any time soon! The focal range gives you a lot of options for different styles of photography.

Feels good to use Excellent results so far, obviously extended use will be needed

Tested the shot on a calendar poster and found the wordings with obvious blurring font on the right end side compared with left end side. Seems like not consistent image quality on both left and right side.

This lens isn't known for its sharpness, and often gets bad reviews by those who are slaves to fashion and tests that have no real world relevance. It's not soft; it's just not razor sharp. People focus on razor sharpness because it's unnatural...we don't notice such details with our own eyes, day to day, and so it gives us a sense of the exotic. But if you're focusing on skin pores, you're not really looking at the picture are you? Pictures from this lens draw your eye to the subject instead, and the luxury of light and colour surrounding it. The micro-contrast and smooth colour gradients give a wonderful sense of depth. Its representation of light and colour is natural in a way that other zoom lenses for APS-C E-Mount can't match, and can render a scene more real than razor sharpness ever will.

I decided to get this lens in spite of some less-than-favorable reviews, and I'm glad I did. Performance is superb for a 5X standard zoom. It covers everything from across-the-frame sharpness in landscape shots at the wide end to excellent subject isolation at f/4 at the telephoto end, all with great Zeiss colors and micro-contrast.

This Sony Vario-Tessar E16-70mm f/4 lens is great for both landscape and street photography. The compact size makes it very convenient to carry around and less obvious when prowling on the streets. The coated lens gave a rich color on my photos. Unfortunately, due to the small file size uploaded here, the resolution is not as good as the original photo taken.

I bought this lens over a month ago to replace the kit lens supplied with my Sony a6300. Am absolutely thrilled with it as photos are much sharper and the zoom gives me greater versatility for taking pictures. It was very expensive but I can't see any need for another lens in the 16-70mm range.

The images are trademark Zeiss quality ! Renders Skies, landscapes etc very nicely. Amazing Micro contrast! Very light and zoom equivalent to 24 - 105 for full frame ! Stays on my A6500 all the time ! Can get a decent bokeh at 70mm f4 for potraits !

Starting with positives, build quality is superb, the look and feel of using this lens is fantastic. The zeiss colour is great too. However the optics on this are very poor. Edge sharpness is very bad wide open and barely passable stopped down. It is actually outperformed by the kit lens in a number of situations. For the price this is a very disappointing lens which I don’t expect to be keeping for long

I bought this lens with A6500, which can provide a good quality pics and SUPER high speedy auto-focus. Easy for me to take pics for my kids.

Bought this a few months ago. Forgot to register it. Really like the versatility, but had noticed that the zoom ring stuck, between 50-70mm. Thought it might loosen up after a while. Ended up sending in for repair. They replaced the Optical Block Assembly, whatever that is. Great all around tense!

Bought yesterday to complement A6300 Camera and my Hobby.

Had the lens only a few weeks but I would recommend it, quality is very good, small in size and picture quality excellent.

The photo shot by the lens is very good. Sharp and vibrant

Great lens to travel around with on the sony a6000 compact and sharp across the board

I bought this a month ago along with an A6500 cameea. So far very impressed. Only criticism so far is the lack if a lock.

Bought about more than a month ago to take shots in an auditorium. Color reproduction is good and sharp. Street photos in the day was bright and clear. The zoom range is also user friendly range, only regret is I pondered TOO LONG before buying. My passion for photography is back!

I bought this lens three months ago.It has performed superbly well.The only draw back is an absence of a macro setting.This is an odd omission on a £700+ lens, this is the only reason why i am not awarding it 5 stars.

This lens has two things going for it: it covers a useful range and it is compact and light weight. Unfortunately the copy of the lens I have does not produce sharp images. I have other Sony/Zeiss lenses which are outstanding in image quality, but not this one. Given it's price and Zeiss badge, I would not recommend it. I can not in good faith sale this lens to someone else and it will be awhile before I can command the resources to replace it - but it will be replaced.

I bought this lens to pair with a Sony a6500 for travel. I wanted something with quality glass that covered wide angle to short telephoto and this lens covers it perfectly. I am getting beautiful results through out the zoom and aperture range. I have been using it for about a month now and could not be happier with my choice.

I have only had the camera & lens for about 2 weeks, but I am just learning to use it, however this lens has a great zoom range, perfect for keeping on the camera as a standard lens. The fact it is f4 through its zoom length means it is ideal for low light photography. It is pin sharp right to the edge& the telephoto end is great for distance shots & even half way is perfect for portraits.

My taste in photography is wide and after ditching my life-long camera manufacturer in favour of Sony, I needed a lens for my new a6500 which would give me options for Landscape, Street, and above all, Portrait photography. One of my big asks was for a lens which isn’t too big as on holiday I want to carry it around all day in a coat pocket or small bag. I also needed a lens which can focus quickly and accurately in order to take great pictures of my grandchildren, particularly as my current compact camera (not Sony) fails miserably as it is so slow - by the time I have pressed the shutter the children are out the door! I've only had the a6500 and this lens for less than a couple of weeks but I've already taken hundreds of pictures, all so far indoors and mainly of the grandchildren. The results are extremely pleasing. The lens copes with multiple shots well, and the images are very sharp. Only yesterday I was reviewing some shots and was amazed as to how much I can crop without any degradation of image quality. The 16-70mm zoom range is very good too and is just about right for my needs as it goes from a 35mm full frame equivalent of 24mm at the wide end to a portrait pleasing 105mm at the other. Finally, colour rendition is very good and my pictures look very pleasing. Although it isn’t a cheap lens, I chose to buy it in favour of the kit lens often sold with the a6500. I am very pleased I did and I know that moving to Sony has been a good decision.

Not had it long, but the balance and feel on my A6000 is great and the telephoto action is very smooth and quiet. Results to date just what I expected. Look forward to putting t through its paces

Bought the lens not long ago. Good lens to pair with my A6000. Practical and handyfor travel.

This is an expensive lens with many pretensions. It doesn't live up to them. There are mechanical problems in that the zoom ring is sticky in use but still slides out when carrying the camera. The stated zoom range is 16 to 70 mm but it isn't possible to use the 16 mm setting due to poor edge definition. This puts the range at 24 - 70 mm. This edge definition situation is not what would be expected from Carl Zeiss and puts the lens on a par with cheaper alternatives. I have now used it for around 1500 - 2000 images.

It is a very good lens for traveling. Easy to use. The OSS feature of the lens help me take some photos which cannot be taken by phones. However, it is very easy to get into the dust (inside, not just at surface). I bought it two months ago, but it has more than 4 dusts inside the frontier lens group. I have sent it to Sony service to clean.

Great lens with constant aperture. It's definitely better than my 1855 kit lens. Sharp and great build quality. Wish it has a wider aperture than 4 (would be 5 stars if it had f2.0), but with OSS, it can be shoot focused pictures at a low SS, so it compensates somewhat. Bokeh is good, but driveline not at the Sony 35f1.8 prime lens level (my favorite prime). Now looking for a good wide angle lens. And maybe a longer telephoto than 70mm to complete my lens for Sony APS-C.

Bought from the Sony Centre in Carlisle where I received excellent customer service and advice on the use of this lens. I have now had the lens for three weeks and I am very pleased with the sharpness of the photographs and the fast focusing of the lens. Although it is not a macro lens it does produce excellent close up pictures

Excellent build quality. Sharp lens from corner to corner and at 24mm to 105mm fov equivalent, it is versatile. Quality seems to degrade at 50-70mm, but the Zeiss colours are still there. Constant F4 aperture means it's not as good in low-light. Wished it was F2.8 instead. Vignetting is minor, compared to the SEL18105G and it's also more compact. Overall, its a great lens for travel and a good replacement for the kit lens.

Had this a few weeks now and it takes Sharp photos and I use it as my "walk Around" lens. All was ready to take a shot. Just wish it had Power Zoom with in the price of this lens.

I have only had this lens about 2 weeks but the pictures I have taken are so sharply focussed - almost unbelievable!

Excellent lens, build quality good, crippling price the only negative

Bought this a few weeks ago and used the lens under various conditions including low light and produced good quality photos (that I didn't think I could have done it myself).

Well-built. Camera is nicely balanced when fitted to my a6300. Optics is good... Pin-sharp pictures, accurate colors. OSS works well. Good value overall, for a ZEISS-stamped product.

I've owned Canon cameras and lenses for most of my career. This is the first Sony Lens I've ever owned... I must say how surprised I am at how this Lens is every bit made and functional as any of the top Canon lenses I own! Highly recommend this one for sure!!

I bought it a week ago, like it is Impact yet powerful. Focusing part need sometimes to get familiar for DSLR user, Low light performance is good, 16-70 zeiss lens is sharp but got no macro. Overall, I am satisfy with the camera.

I bought this with a6000 body in Jan'17. Pris: It offers a nice balance over the kit lens due to more zoom range, constant aperture across, Zeiss coating offers wide colour and higher IQ overall, sturdy build Q. Cons: slight barrel distortion (left and right edges), out of plane focus (at F4.0 and AFS & Wide focus area), casts a shadow on lower left corner (at 16mm) with built-in flash (longer lens barrel).

Bought this lens for portraits and am blown away by how easy it makes photography. Being new to the camera scene I wanted something that would make me better than I really am! It did just that.

Bought it and used it. It really have a sharp result. Have better color and contrast compare other lens (1650PZ). You may check in Photoshop not at your camera screen.

I bought this with a A6300 to replace a large DSLR that didn't shoot video. Since I was intending to use it more for video than stills the smoothness of the zoom was important but I found it was pretty graunchy, also the lens suffered from shocking chromatic aberration, and this from a lens with Zeiss glass? Surely not! After a couple of weeks I thought this simply can't be right and took it back to the dealer - who swapped it out immediately and cheerfully. The replacement has a silky smooth zoom and I have seen no aberration since, though I haven't been forensic about it yet! The fact that f4.0 is available throughout the zoom range is great for video, not massively fast for stills work and sometimes I would like to be able to get a shallower depth of field, but as a first lens for the camera I find it a very good compromise. (I use my previous camera's 35mm/f1.8 for critical fast or shallow images on an adapter mount). It is light, the zoom doesn't slide about when pointing the camera down (my previous camera's zoom did). I happily recommend it.

I use this lens on a A6000. This has become my go to lens with this camera. This produces images that are sharp at all levels from 16 mm to 70 mm. I am quite pleased with the quality. However, I feel that the color quality is significantly improved from the lens that came with the camera. The colors are so vivid.

Nice heft to it, feels like a serious piece of equipment. Beautiful Zeiss colors. No problem with center focus. This lens was factory inspected for those of you Leary of this lens because of bad center focus reports as I was.

Very good lens for travel. Compact, easy to use and excellent photo quality