When the Random Lens Generator came up with the Sony AF DT 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 SAM, I knew that this would likely end up being something of a disappointment, and ultimately this would prove to be more or less correct.

Until I decided to start this Random Lens project this lens had for some years sat in an old camera bag quite literally gathering dust – so unloved it was that I hadn’t even bothered to put lens caps on the front nor the rear. It was at least given these luxuries when it took it’s place on my lens shelf, somewhere right near the back out of sight and almost certainly out of reach for use – unless it’s lucky number came up.

In preparing for this piece I did some research as to how I came across acquiring this lens. I assumed that it came as a kit lens with one of my two DSLR cameras – either the A100, or the A700, but a Gmail search reveals that I actually won it in an Ebay auction for £36 back in January 2011. Now this is nearly fifteen years later reflection to justify this purchase and I can only assume that the only wide angle lens I owned prior to this was the Sony 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 which I am sure came as a kit lens. It was essentially unused – just 16 of the 42,627 edited shots in my personal archive come from this lens – and used on just one occasion (a short trip to Cornwall in 2010). This is not a very good lens, especially when at the time I would have been familiar with using much better glass like the Canon 16-35 f/2.8 at work. Given that my widest A Mount Minolta lens at the time would have been a 35 to something and the widest lens I had was a very poor Sigma 24mm prime lens, I guess I was in the market for a cheap wide angle zoom lens and as this has and presumably had better reviews on Dyxum.com than my existing zoom (It currently sits at a reasonablte 3.98 out of 5 with 3.68 awarded to the 18-70) I took a low risk punt on this kit lens.

Given that I only had around 130 edited shots using this lens it is fair to say that I didn’t really have much love for this lens. Most of those shots were of our kitchen renovation – where it’s 24mm full frame equivalent at its widest came in useful (Although not as useful as the 8mm Samyang fisheye lens that I also bought that year – which saw a lot more use) and its main use was when it came with us on a pre-Xmas family trip to Bruges, which showed my copy of the lens to be pretty sharp but very unexciting (It didn’t help that the entire weekend trip was shrouded in heavy cloud).

It saw no more use after that primarily because in June 2012 I bought the Sony A77 which came with the 16-50mm f/2.8 lens, which was immediately obvious to be a vastly superior lens to the previous kit lens zooms I owned. With over 3000 edited pictured using that lens it has turned out to be (comfortably) my most used lens in my collection currently and its very impressive score of 4.56 on Dyxum and generally very positive reviews makes it perhaps the best kit lens that Sony have ever offered on their range of cameras.

So back to the 18-55. The random generator paired it with the A6700 which is its natural home being an APS-C camera. It works with the Sony LA-EA5 adapter which allows A Mount lenses on E mount camera bodies. On picking up the lens everything says cheap about it. Very lightweight it may be (Lighter than the 18-70), but this is because it is almost entirely made out of plastic, including the lens mount. Once attached to the camera the AF does work, but in a hesitant and very, very slow manner – slower than any of my Minolta lenses that are twenty years or more older. The zoom ring is not particularly smooth or pleasing to use. It has a f/3.5 aperture at 16mm but this very quickly become an f/5.6 lens, which limits its use in low light.

After a few sample shots indoors, which at least proved the lens can focus and can focus reasonably closely, it’s first use was a quick trip to the local Asda, which means a short walk of just under a mile. It’s second use was a day later in the dark to do the school run (As I have done for the previous two lenses). And that was that. I just wasn’t inspired to use it any more. This is partly because I was pretty tired, virtually jetlagged after working on the Las Vegas Grand Prix, partly because it was pretty cold outside and I was forced to wear gloves, which I found a little tricky with the A6700 and my lack of familiarity with the buttons, and partly because (presumably) just as in 2011 when I bought the lens and went onto sue it infrequently, it just doesn’t excite me when using it.

I can conclude that it produces pictures that are reasonably sharp, but the pictures lack resolution and contrast is poor. It has no lens hood, so flaring is bad and shooting into the light is generally unpleasant. The flaring was so bad on the left hand side of the lens I was forced on one image to crop it out (The pictures of the bikes) and in the picture of the clock it almost looks like a film camera light leak, which I guess you could call charitably call character. At night the flaring from lights was smeary and again unpleasant – I was so uninspired to take pictures using this lens, the camera actually went back in the bag at halfway and didn’t come back out.

I don’t know why I still have this lens – its not one I have used for nearly fifteen years nor one I will likely use again unless it comes up again in the Random Lens Generator. If I was desperate for a zoom lens and had very little money and had an old A mount Sony camera or an adapter for E mount then at £22 or so second hand then perhaps I could recommend it. But for £100 I could get my 16-50 f/2.8 second hand and that is a lens that still holds up today as a very good zoom lens which would likely cost quite a bit more to get the equivalent of in EF mount until the Chinese manufacturers get the hang of making zoom lenses.

Not recommended!