Sony SEL1655G Alpha 16-55mm F2.8 G Standard Zoom APS-C Lens

Despite all the good things about the Sigma 18-50 I tested both and it is true that the Sonly lens is bigger and less portable but the Sony lens quality is much better ... I took some pictures as a comparison and the Sony is much better in terms of detail and color rendition... cost much more but it is BETTER.This is a great lens for my A6700... I'm coming from a Canon 5D Mark IV and I'm absolutely surprised by the quality of the Sony APSC system which is much lighter and portable.. of course there is a price to pay especially in low light conditions but overall the system is great.

It is an expensive lens but the quality comes through! Excellent bokeh! Smooth operation! It is a well know and loved Sony lens!

I picked up this lens because I wanted a fast, general purpose zoom that was sharp for my APS-C Sony camera. I had owned the 16-50 3.5-5.6 kit lens since purchasing the a6300 2 years ago and wasn’t happy with its performance in photography. This lens performs far greater than the kit lens that I replaced it with. I have even tested this G lens at 30mm vs the Sigma 30mm 1.4 prime lens, and I have come to the conclusion that they are similar enough in sharpness that I cannot really tell the difference. I have used the lens for recording basketball and wrestling at my local high school as well as taking pictures of the players in action (see attached photos). The autofocus performed amazingly. It is way faster than any of the lenses that I own. The lens performs amazingly in every scenario I put it in. It has made the experience with my camera leaps and bounds better. It has a high price tag, but that is simply what you have to dish out to get the experience it gives. If one can budget for this lens, and is happy with what an APS-C sensor gives them, I say with great confidence, get it!

As a working photographer and just moving to using the Sony a6700 from my FF Nikon cameras for our portrait jobs I first ordered the Sigma 18-50 2.8. The Sigma is just ok it can be used and I have used it on some jobs but it is no match for all my Nikon z mount lens at all.So I ordered the Sony 16-55 and have used it now on a few jobs. The 16-55 is much better it matches the image quality and sharpness I am use to and can replace using my Nikon Z lens the 24-70 or 24-120 F4 lens we use.The 16-55 at 2.8 gives for the most part the same DOF as a Full frame F4 lens but you still get the advantages of it being 2.8 for shooting in Lower light and that is making a big difference we see all ready keeping the ISO lower as it gets darker out shooting into sunset.I will be keeping the Sigma 18-50 to use as a video use lens its so small and lite for gimbal use. I will be ordering the Tamron 17-70 as well soon as we need a two camera video setup with 2.8 lens so I will test it VS the Sony 16-55 as well. The Sigma louses sharpness on large group photos of people we do all the time like 12 to 30 people the faces dont have as much detail and sharpness but the Sony 16-55 is great for this.The only downside of the Sony 16-55 is the weight I love how lite the Sigma is on the a6700 but the Sony is almost the same weight as using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70 F4 lens only 6 oz different. But it dose give some extra reach over the 24-70..But the a6700 focus system is so much better then my Nikons it amazing - shooting is so easy and the face and eye tracking is fantastic I am using it all the time now. With my Nikons it is very bad I would never rely on it so I quit using it and shot all single point and single shot.I also like the button on the lens of the Sony. I have it set to image preview so I can press it and see the last shot image fast. Much faster than bending my thumb down to press the button.

I've been using a Sony a6300 for several years with prime lenses (16mm and 30mm) from Sigma as well as the Sony SELP16-50 kit lens. From the beginning, I've been on the lookout for a quality zoom that's sharper and brighter and more durable than the kit lens. In the meantime, I've been relying on the primes for both street and portrait photography. The new Sony 16-55G with its constant f/2.8 is on paper exactly what I needed, although it comes at a stomach churning price. I've been using it daily now for about three weeks and am overall quite satisfied. The Sony 16-55G is really solid and easy to use. The focusing is so fast you don't notice it. The images are sharp even at f/2.8, although it's not quite as sharp as my Sigma prime lenses, nor is the bokeh at f/2.8 as nice as what the Sigmas can do at f/1.4. The Sony 16-55G lens is relatively light given all the glass, but it still makes my a6300 camera front heavy. It feels really rugged compared to the little kit lens, which is easily damaged. (I've broken the zoom mechanism on two kit lenses in the past couple years from banging them against something.) Of course, you can buy almost 10 kit lenses for the price of this new Sony 16-55G. And the steep price of the Sony 16-55G might leave you second guessing. Do you really want to invest well over $1,000 in a lens for an APSC camera? I feel like I had no choice but to bite the bullet, but I'm still grappling with that question.

I wish I had bought this sooner and before a couple of other lenses that I bought as this lens now stays on my camera 95% of the time. This is really all I need outside of long range shots where a telephoto lens is needed. The bokeh on here is great as is the sharpness of images at all ranges of zoom. I love the manual ability to switch from AF to MF, and the manual focus ring is very smooth.The lens is not small, and definitely double up the bulk of my a6000, but other than that, a super adequate daily lens!

I had the Sigma 18-50 but it would lose track of subjects when recording videos, the sony does not have that problem