Photoclubalpha

It is coming up for 2 years since I took the plunge and decided to buy the Sony A100 with two kit lenses. As my experience has grown I have become more critical of the quality of my photographs as a consequence I recently upgraded the 18-70 zoom to the 16-80CZ and have noticed a significant improvement. The images are considerably sharper and there is much less CA.

I am now looking to upgrade the 70-300mm (I have never really been happy with its sharpness and it also suffers from a great deal of CA) but the question is which lens should I choose to replace it. Since joining the group a month or two back I have been reading the items on the subject of zoom lenses but following recent posts I am now totally confused as to which lens I should consider and am looking for some ideas. The 70-300G ssm was the front runner but it is a big lens in all respects and how on earth do you use filters especially a polarising filter with that enormous lens hood in place.

I will be grateful for any feedback.

My answer to this problem (large lens hood) is to not use the hood at all. I have found the 70-300SSM to be incredibly resistant to flare, and now don't bother to take the hood with me at all. The 70-300SSM is, however, quite a bulky lens, but in comparison to the 80-200 f2.8 I used to carry in it's place, I just don't notice this fact! As an alternative, David K has had found the Tamron lens to be an able performer, but never having used it myself could not recommend it. I have found the image quality of the 70-300SSM to be very good, not quite upto my 80-200 at the same focal lengths, but more then adequate on an A700.

Philip

My advice would be to stick to the Sony 70~300 G SSM. Enjoy the pictures here: http://upload.a-system.net/photo/list/lens_id/52

Many thanks for your feedback.

It looks like it will be the Sony 70-300.