Product Review

The Sony 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS Alpha E-mount Retractable Zoom Lens is a retractable zoom lens with a focal length range of 24-75mm in the 35mm format equivalency. It covers shooting lengths from true wide angle to standard portrait length and is a great day-to-day type lens, especially since its unique retractability keeps it very compact. When powered on, the lens expands, but in its off position the lens is only 1.2" (30mm) which will fit in your pocket. When expanded, it has a surprisingly large zoom range and access to its dual-function control ring for manual focus and zooming. Its Power Zoom capability in AF mode and Internal Stepping Motor provide, fast, smooth and quiet autofocus which is helpful when shooting video with this lens.
The lens is a Sony E-mount lens that is compatible not only with the NEX cameras but also with the NEX Handycam Camcorders. The built-in Optical SteadyShot image stabilization system reduces the effect of camera shake which is particularly problematic when tracking moving subjects in video or shooting photos in low-light. The OSS provides approximately 4-stops of shutter speed correction to help create blur-free images no matter the shooting conditions. Four Aspherical elements and one ED element correct for curved perspective at wide-angle lengths and chromatic aberration at telephoto lengths to provide sharp, high contrast imaging across the entire frame.