This lens got kicked in reviews when it came out, so I've been avoiding getting it for a long time (I don't use tele end often anyway). Finally, found one used for low enough that I couldn' t resist and bought it.
Perhaps due to low expectations, I am actually pretty happy with it. Given that it's a lowly kit lens, it is surprisingly sharp, very lightweight and portable, pretty good in object tracking, with decent colors, great contrast, and at least my copy doesn't seem to be getting noticeably worse at extreme ends. The stabilization also seems to work well.
I knew that this lens was slow at the long end (f6.3) so no surprises there; however, it's still pretty usable even in the lowish light, if you can live with some ISO noise.
About the only disappointment was the quality of bokeh. I've been spoiled by the excellent Canon 55-250 kit, by comparison Sony's kit produces harsher-looking small out of focus highlights (e.g. when there's light coming through distant tree branches). Otherwise, the bokeh is nice and smooth, but nothing special.
Overall, this is a good lens for it's intended purpose, i.e. a travel-friendly tele zoom.
