I have finally got this into the site after finishing the Summer edition of Photoworld - up till 3 in the morning for several days on that! Now I can finally pay the bills which have been buried for three weeks, the red reminders always come before I have even had time to look at the originals - that's what magazine deadlines are like.

http://www.photoclubalpha.com/2008/07/2 ... -kit-lens/

David

This has been a very helpful article, but it is ultimately very Sony-centric. Could we ever expect a review/comparison including third party offerings? For instance, "Fast" standard zooms for APS-C, Sony 16-80 vs Sigma 17-70 vs Tamron 17-50. Of course, "super-zooms" becomes a much smaller party.

I only included those lenses you can buy as a kit. The Tamron and Sigma are not as far as I know being bundled with Sony cameras as kits, even by independent dealers. But I may have time to do that - or maybe someone else has got all three lenses that you mention.

The third-party kit lens business is a strange one. I know a company which is desperate to get rid of hundreds of 18-50mms because a camera maker just updated their own 18-55mm to be IS, and now no-one wants third party, non-stabilised kit lenses! You can probably guess who.

David

I wasn't aware that the 16-80 and 18-250 were packaged in kits...must be a Europe or UK only thing. The kits we were offered on these shores were 18-70, 16-105, and 18-200.

I managed to find a retailer offering the 18-70 as a no-cost upgrade over the a700 body only, and nobody around had the 16-105 kit.

The difficult one to get here has been the 16-105mm in a kit. All of the lenses have been packaged in kits one way or another, but not with every body. The least common is the 18-250mm as they had lots of 18-200mms to get rid of.

David