Product Reviews

I purchased this lens new 7 years ago along with the Sony A580. Had to send the first one back due to severe pincushion effect. The second one is good except, as others have mentioned, the vignetting at 16mm is really bad. It takes a lot of work in Post to correct it. The build quality is questionable. Only lens I own that the barrel noticeably wobbles around the central axis and it has bad "Lens Creep" (fixed with a silicone band). Aside from these 2 problems, this is a very sharp lens with a great zoom range on APS-C bodies.

This is the bestperforming lens I have ever owned. Chromatic aberration is minimal over the useful zoom range. Would have given it 5 stars (and more) if it had a barrel lock to stop the zoom extending whilst not using the lens. A serious omission Sony - why, oh why!!!

Bought this lens a few weeks ago and weather has been pretty bad so only used a couple of times. Seems a lovely sharp and true colour lens so look forward to getting out and finding a bluebell wood to practice on.

The lens is far superior in sharpness throughout the range than the kit lens that came with my camera.

Excellent resolution, but unacceptable vignetting at 16mm f3.5. Images at all apertures display noticeable reduction in corner exposure. Although this can be reduced in image processing software, it should not be present in a lens of this quality.

I purchased this lens as an upgrade to my Sony 18-70 mm kit lens that came with my Alpha. I am very pleased with quality of pictures I am getting with it. The pictures are sharp at both ends of the zoom range and corner to corner at wide apertures. The colors are rendered a little cool, but nothing which cannot be corrected by post processing. There is a bit of barrel distortion at the 16 mm end, but unless one is taking pictures of brick walls at close range, it is not normally noticeable.

It's a good zoom lens. 16mm is certainly wider than 24mm. As a result, you get more in your shot. It's enough for establishing shots. If the aperture was 2.8, it would be a perfect lens. But the price would not be the same.

I have had this lens for about a year, and find it is the lens on the camera almost all the time.

After 3 years of very light use the manual focus stopped working, seems to be a common problem. Check dpreview forums to see what other people have to say. Make sure to buy extended warranty if you choose this lens.

I'm a complete novice and new to the DSLR world, but decided to splurge before going on vacation. I was hoping it would improve the likelihood that I'd take some better pictures. The lens did not disappoint. The images were crisp, I didn't notice distortion, or aberrations (terms that seem to be tossed around camera and lens review websites, but in all honesty, I don't know much about those things), and the images appeared bright and well defined.

Have owned this lens with an A700 and A580 and used it as my main walk around lens. I do mostly landscape photography and found the 16-80 mm range to be perfect. Image quality with the Zeiss glass is sharp across the entire image. I sold mine only because I upgraded to the A850 and this lens doesn't work on Full Frame.

This should be a mandatory upgrade from the kit lens that comes with the alpha cameras. Image quality is far superior, and the versatility takes you from wide-angle interiors and landscapes up to 80mm portraits and closeups. I do get some vignetting (darkening of the corners), when using the lens wide open, but stopping it down to around f8 eliminates the problem, which is only occasional.

I have owned this lens for an year and I am not planning to buy another one to replace it. After I have bought this lens, I was so shocked but the color and the realistic feeling of photos that it gives me. I think it is pretty hard to find some alternatives that fits sony camera for the price. But compare to those that fits Canon, Nikon, it is slight over priced because the dis-shape image in 2 extreme distance. Could be better on that. Everything else is very fine. Quite Light weight, quite durable. One more thing is that, the design could look more professional. If there is no Blue Zeiss label on it, I think no one will notice it is an expensive lens.

I'm a long time Minolta user and unconditional supporter (since 1971 : 3 SRT 101, 1 XG, 2 Maxuum 9000), and did enjoy a lot the five Sony Cybershot , so when Sony released its Alpha 700, I went for it with a SAL 1680 (SN 3823746),,,, and I did appreciate to be able to use again my 300 mm, macro lens, fish eye etc..., and despite its apparent weak/flimsy construction, I really enjoy also the sharpness of the Zeiss lens...... up to get a total freeze of the lens focus system (Murphy law helping, its on 1.25 ' distance !) when reaching 6722 pictures shouted,,,, (with certainly 85% of them with this terrific lens) ,,,So my opinion is now slightly different, and I'm facing a dilemma : should I go for an Alpha 900 to continue to use my 8+ Maxxum lenses at full frame quality.. not buying any new "cheap crafted" lens from Sony,,, or should I put everything on e-bay to go for a totally different system (hard to admit when spending my life promoting Minolta over Canon and Nikon).

Just got this lens after doing a lot of research and I absolutely love it. I haven't been able to take pictures outdoors yet because of the weather, but pictures indoors have been terrific so far. Pictures come out sharp with awesome colors, the lens focuses really fast and its not too heavy. Only bad comment I have is that for the price, I wish it had a better zoom. Its a huge step up from the kit lens. Can't go wrong with this lens.

There has been much said about this lens being copy dependent, and I too ran into this. The 1st copy I received was defective regarding the optics being decentered which rendered out of focus areas on the left portion of the frame. The 2nd copy was superb across the frame and does EVERYTHING right, so be aware and test your lens to be sure. It is near instant to focus and is accurate as well. color and contrast are what command the price, and man it delivers like NO other. 3rd party lenses are going to be a compromise I assure you. This lens is the REAL deal (when you get a good one). It think it was worth going through the hassle having to send the 1st one back as it is just such a stunning lens now.

This is a terrific general-purpose zoom lens — all around, the best zoom lens I have ever owned. Focal range is just about ideal, weight is good, build is solid, and the image quality rivals that of my best primes. I've read some complaints about the lens's build quality but I think it's quite solid for a "modern" lens and given its price. Wish I'd picked this lens up sooner!

I recently picked up a 300K and immediately decided to upgrade the kit lens (sold it on Amazon for $75). After careful research it came down to this or the 16-105. I tried out both and the 16-80 won out for slightly better all round performance in all areas - sharpness, color, focus speed, weight and general feel. If you're a photo enthusiast who is just getting into DSLR photography and still uses the Auto settings on the camera, this is probably the 'one' lens to have on the alpha system. Clearly at this price sony has optimized it for performance while sacrificing some of the build quality that would have come with making it all metal (like the 24-70). However, I think the light weight and the build fits perfectly with the 300K. In fact the 300K + CZ 16-8 is probably the best performing DSLR at the price range on the planet right now!

I really tried to do my research before I made the leap for this lens. I read some good reviews, but also read some bad reviews on it. After finally buying it and using for my last 5 photo shoots (weddings and engagement), I am sold. I use this with my a700 and get crystal clear shots everytime. The colors it produces are vibrant and rich. It is a bit heavier than any other lens I've worked with, but it's also a lot mor sturdy and well built compared to other lenses. Very glad I purchased this lens.

This is a great general purpose lens. Since I picked it up it's rarely been off of my camera. The pictures are almost always sharp, and look pretty good even at wide-open apertures. It's a much better build quality than the kit lens, and is a good upgrade to the < $300 lenses offered by Sony. The optical quality is excellent. My only complaint is that the f/3.5 aperture is only available at the absolute widest zoom, and it gets up to f/4.5 pretty fast, but for a 5x zoom lens at this level of quality for $700, you can't beat it.

I fell in love with my first ZEISS lens on my SONY DCS-R1, so I had high expectations for this design as one of my first two lenses in my customized A700 kit. (The other is a SAL-70300G.) The contrasty image quality of this lens does not disappoint. I find the audible focusing system to be fast enough even without the SSM mechanism on my G lens. I have no qualms with the build quality, either. The lens continues to challenge me to explore and learn the creative intricacies of the A700's exposure metering system. Simply put as a Calculus problem, the SAL-1680Z solves for maximum image quality for the least amount of money for the owners of SONY DSLRs with APS-C sensors.

This was the first lens that I purchased as my camera came with a kit lens and it has proven to be a great upgrade compliment. This CZ made me notice the next level of photography as the imaging that it produced was very much so next level. The build quality is solid as is the performance and still its one of my favorite lenses next to the CZ FZ-135. This is definately next level for people starting out who want to move a big step up in image quality but with a word of warning it will make you want to get more CZ lenses.