Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Technical Details
- Brand Name: Sony
- Model: SEL1855
- Lens Type: zoom
- Maximum focal length: 55.00 millimeters
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Product Description
Designed to match your ? NEX camera , the SEL1855 standard zoom lens is lightweight and features smooth and silent Auto Focus operation, while offering a versatile, all-purpose range for beautiful shots. In 35mm equivalent, this zoom lens (18-55mm focal length, f/3.5-5.6 maximum aperture) covers wide-angle 27mm to 82.5mm midrange, which is ideal for capturing close-up portraits to expansive landscapes.
Available Warranties for This Item
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
43 of 45 people found the following review helpful
By P. J. Conlon
This lens is the standard kit zoom lens sold with Sony NEX cameras. It's the incredibly common zoom range of 18-55mm, and so is unremarkable in that respect, and why I gave that attribute only 3 stars. There are many, many things good about this lens and only a few little issues I take with it. But those really are nitpicking.
OPTICAL QUALITY:
Pro: Incredible optical quality. There are few kit lenses that I enjoy using. Most I replace with something better as soon as I can. This is not the case with this lens. It's sharp with very little chromatic aberration, and has vignetting handles very well. There's absolutely negligible light fall-off at the corners and edges. It scores a highly impressive, especially for a kit lens, 2950 LW/PH center and 2200 LW/PH border and extreme at f/7.1. LW/PH is line widths per picture height, and is a measure of sharpness. Most kit lenses never go above 2000 LW/PH, and even some lower-end primes can't hit that. This is a lens I wouldn't trade out.
Con: Mild distortions. At 18mm there is some slightly significant barrel distortion (-3.98%), meaning that the pictures at that setting will appear to bulge almost unnoticeably outwards. This is ABSOLUTELY NORMAL for every 18-55mm lens. It's nothing to worry about. Once you go past 18mm, there are no distortions at all.
BUILD QUALITY:
Pro: Very high quality magnesium alloy build. For those of you who don't know about metallic chemistry, magnesium, when alloyed with small percentages of aluminum and zinc, is a very hard and lightweight metal; similar to titanium in it's properties. This is a lens made to last. It also looks very nice compared to the plastic lenses most companies are cranking out. The lens is also very small for it's class.
Con: A tad bit too small. Again this is just nitpicking but when using the NEX (or any DSLR really) and adjusting the lens, if you have medium to large hands then the lens is slightly too short to hold well. This is easily corrected simply by adding the lens hood, and after that's done it's really a joy ergonomically.
EVERYTHING ELSE:
Pro: Autofocus. Most people are leery of contrast detection autofocus, but Sony has mastered it with this lens. For the most part, CDAF is done in-camera though. However, with the lens and the camera, the autofocus is very fast and completely silent, even in movie mode.
Pro: Zoom and focus rings. These are very wide and comfortably ridged, and a joy to use. They're damped, meaning that it's almost a fluid motion turning them. This is only slightly better than most lenses, however I felt it was worth mentioning.
Pro: Cheap filters and caps. If you want to get polarizing filters or UV protectors or lens caps, the thread is 49mm. This is one of the much more common filter threads. Amazon currently has Tamron 49mm filters at under 10 dollars.
OPTICAL QUALITY:
Pro: Incredible optical quality. There are few kit lenses that I enjoy using. Most I replace with something better as soon as I can. This is not the case with this lens. It's sharp with very little chromatic aberration, and has vignetting handles very well. There's absolutely negligible light fall-off at the corners and edges. It scores a highly impressive, especially for a kit lens, 2950 LW/PH center and 2200 LW/PH border and extreme at f/7.1. LW/PH is line widths per picture height, and is a measure of sharpness. Most kit lenses never go above 2000 LW/PH, and even some lower-end primes can't hit that. This is a lens I wouldn't trade out.
Con: Mild distortions. At 18mm there is some slightly significant barrel distortion (-3.98%), meaning that the pictures at that setting will appear to bulge almost unnoticeably outwards. This is ABSOLUTELY NORMAL for every 18-55mm lens. It's nothing to worry about. Once you go past 18mm, there are no distortions at all.
BUILD QUALITY:
Pro: Very high quality magnesium alloy build. For those of you who don't know about metallic chemistry, magnesium, when alloyed with small percentages of aluminum and zinc, is a very hard and lightweight metal; similar to titanium in it's properties. This is a lens made to last. It also looks very nice compared to the plastic lenses most companies are cranking out. The lens is also very small for it's class.
Con: A tad bit too small. Again this is just nitpicking but when using the NEX (or any DSLR really) and adjusting the lens, if you have medium to large hands then the lens is slightly too short to hold well. This is easily corrected simply by adding the lens hood, and after that's done it's really a joy ergonomically.
EVERYTHING ELSE:
Pro: Autofocus. Most people are leery of contrast detection autofocus, but Sony has mastered it with this lens. For the most part, CDAF is done in-camera though. However, with the lens and the camera, the autofocus is very fast and completely silent, even in movie mode.
Pro: Zoom and focus rings. These are very wide and comfortably ridged, and a joy to use. They're damped, meaning that it's almost a fluid motion turning them. This is only slightly better than most lenses, however I felt it was worth mentioning.
Pro: Cheap filters and caps. If you want to get polarizing filters or UV protectors or lens caps, the thread is 49mm. This is one of the much more common filter threads. Amazon currently has Tamron 49mm filters at under 10 dollars.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By Bigyuyo
Amazon Verified Purchase
The lens is very light despite the size, very sharp image, focus and zoom handle is very comftable. Images are sharp as any othe rsony lens. The size is appropiate for the camera, I feared that it could be too long for a comfortable handling, but it's just perfectly designed.I recomend to buy a sleeve or a pouch or a case, because it doesn't come with it (I have bought other brand lenses for other cameras and they usually come with it). I'm very happy with my purchase as much i have been with my NEX camera, just love the whole package.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Marilee
Other reviews at Amazon for this lens are a bit mixed - with some raving and others criticizing the image quality from this lens. I think there is a bit of truth in both sides of this. There is a terrific set of comparisons between this lens and some competitors at photoheadonline that I think explain the discrepancies. Any zoom lens ends up being a compromise - as that review shows this zoom lens is generally pretty good, but can have poor performance in some situations (e.g. 50mm with wide open aperture and distant focus). As that review notes, this lens was designed to perform well in most situations - at 50mm it is good (not great) for portraits (closeups, where the large aperture helps defocus the background) and performs well at F/8 for distant shots (e.g. outdoor scenes). I got this lens with my NEX 5N and then got the 50mm F1.8. I think together they are a great combination. The zoom is great when there is a lot of ambient light (outdoor scenes), and the zoom allows you to tune the composition. The 50mm 1.8 is fantastic for portraits. I take about 75% of my photos with the 50mm 1.8 (pictures of people - the slightly narrow angle reduces perspective distortion and you get more spontaneous pictures when a camera is not in their face) and this zoom lens for all the environment shots. I think this is a really good combination. In sum, each lens has its limitations, and kit lenses are designed to be inexpensive. However, this lens performs well in its comfort zone.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
lens
i love it, and its perfect and it was brand new and i use it and take so much care of it. it was just what i needed
Published 1 day ago by Gaby Machado
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Lens
Picked it up for my VG10. Its a clean picture, and very smooth to operate. its very lightweight and easy to use.
Published 1 month ago by Rick Quitoriano
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great zoom lens
This lens works great with zooming and for video. It is probably the best all around lens I've used of the Sony Alpha lenses.
Published 3 months ago by A. Saucedo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great
Useful if you want to actually use your camera. Average-ish in quality, I prefer the other lenses I have but it is a good default lens.
Published 3 months ago by Chris Brown
2.0 out of 5 stars
Too large and heavy for nex and not very sharp
I got this as a kit lens with a c3 nex, but it is too large and heavy for the nex despite the nice metal exterior, and pictures are not very sharp at small and large focal lengths... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Chris
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Good
I have the black version that came with the NEX 7 and it's a fairly versatile lens. Sure got me started. Well built in metal yet not heavy. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Daniel Pires
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very crisp pictures
The pictures are quite crisp and the auto focus is quick enough. This lens is good considering the money paid for it. Eventually I will save some money and get a better lens. Read more
Published 5 months ago by R. Harper
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent!
After all the "kit lenses" I've had in my many years of photography, this one sits at the top of the heap. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Electrolex
3.0 out of 5 stars
Reasonable kit lens, mediocre image quality
I've been shooting with this lens for about a year now, and I finally feel like I have a handle on what works and what doesn't... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Joshua Wise
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Happy
AWESOME!!! Very, very pleased with everything about this. It came a week early and it was packaged nicely. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Liuy Jennings
