Thank you for your review. This is a great lens, when used with the A7RV and especially with the A6700. I used this lens with my A7RV when I traveled to Japan in spring 2023 together with the Tamron 20-40mm f2.8. The combo of the A7RV with 18-300mm(27-450mm equivalent) at 26MP was excellent. On the A7RV the pictures at 300mm appeared to be a little soft at f6.3. Since purchasing the A6700 with its new 26MP sensor all I can say is that I am very satisfied when used with the 18-300. Subjectively, I find that this new combo seems sharper and appears to have better colors than with the A7RV sensor. In the Fall of 2023 I Traveled to West Coast of the USA , including the Western national parks up to Yellowstone. The 18-300 was used exclusively with the A6700 and the 20-40 with the A7RV. The 18-300 was consistently sharp at the wider angles especially at f5.6. If you use F8.0 at 300mm (450mm equivalent) it’s also pretty sharp. It’s not close to the Sony 70-200 GM II but also a lot less expensive.

I'm about to get my first camera (a Fuji X-T5), and decided this will be my first lens. While the lens will be large and heavy, it'll be great for travel (my main use case) and I'll be able to make wisely pick my primes or brighter zooms after using the 18-300 for a few months and seeing what focal ranges I use the most. Thanks for your informative and unique reviews, Bob!

Personally I prefer to stop down the aperture when doing nature photography to pick up more of the object in focus, especially flowers, as you say though must be in sufficient light. Great review. Thank you Bob.