comments:
I'm not a professional, but an enthusiastic amateur and avid traveler. I've brought this lens to Africa, Europe, the South Pacific Islands and throughout the U.S. I love it. Only pause would be that I've heard concerns about QC, and maybe I got lucky, but this lens has been rock-solid (knocking on wood). I've found the autofocus and manual focus to both work quickly and accurately for my purposes, including for skittish wildlife on safari. It is heavy, but the versatility has been fantastic. There is some zoom creep, but honestly my lens has been pretty tight - it certainly doesn't go from 35-150 when I turn it over unless I'm shaking it strongly - and the lock switch works well when carrying the lens. The wide aperture has opened up low light shooting and farther ranges. For my purposes (again, not a professional, so FWIW), the quality of the glass and images has been excellent. Any flaws are probably beyond my expertise to correct (or really notice). I've blown up wildlife photos to 30+ inches and they are crisp. It's also been a lot of fun for some light astrophotography or night shooting. I've also found the build to be robust. I've carried it in a Lowepro Fastpack on the back of safari vehicles, alpine hikes, trunk of cars, etc. and it's held up. If you can't tell, I've become a big fan of this lens - especially at the Samyang price point. I generally carry three lenses for my A7cII when I travel (Tamron 20-40mm; Samyang 35-150; Tamron 50-400). Photo below from a recent trip to South Africa. Sun had just set and sky was smoky vibrant.