Another New-to-Me Lens

When I picked up my primary Sony camera about ten years ago, it came with a basic "standard kit lens".  This wasn't a particularly good lens but it was lightweight so it got a little bit of use every now and then.  

This kit lens was a bit large to use all the time but it was the lightweight characteristic of it which offset the rather uncomfortable size and made up a little bit for a lack of sharpness.  It still was rather bulky for lightweight carry all day long, wasn't all that great for low light photos and the sharpness was lacking but, in good light, I would occasionally get some good shots with it though.  This photo, at right, is one of the good photos I captured with it.

I rarely used this lens because it was large enough to be uncomfortable to carry around all the time and, at best, it was a rather average performer, generally speaking.  If it performed well, I could overlook the larger size of this lens but I found I rarely used it.  I definitely did not want to use this lens for low light scenes or nighttime scenes so that really narrowed down my usage limits.

While cleaning it one day, the rear lens element broke loose and I couldn't fix it.  I contemplated buying a used copy of this lens (it was inexpensive due to lack of quality) but I just couldn't justify spending any money on another one of these lenses even if I found one for less than $200.  Instead, I made do with some prime lenses for many years which were far better but came with the limitations of not being able to zoom.  Quite often, however, I wished I had a good (not necessarily "great") standard zoom lens.  

During the pandemic, Sony released another new kit standard zoom lens that was far smaller than that lens I had.  The reviews showed that it was sharper than my old lens.  Still...  I held off purchasing one because, like my old broken lens, it wouldn't be a good choice for low light scenes or nighttime scenes.

I recently found a used Zeiss lens that is the same size as that kit lens I broke all those years ago.  Zeiss is known for quality so that is a plus.  This lens also has a slightly wider range than my old standard zoom lens and it is a faster lens.  By faster I mean it has a larger aperture which is beneficial in low light situations and I often find myself in low light scenes.  Now, I found this lens on the used market at a very good price and it was in excellent condition.  I decided it was time to finally get a better lens to replace the cheap kit lens I broke all those years ago.

The crazy thing is that the price on a new standard zoom kit lens (same model that I broke) is higher than what I paid for this used but excellent Zeiss lens and this Zeiss lens is worlds better in every respect.  I'm looking forward to putting this new-to-me lens to the test on a few outings.  

Now...  we just need to get out and about one day...