The Sony Alpha SEL-P1650 lens, shown fully extended on an NEX camera body for scale (camera not included)
Big sensor, small lens
Your NEX-Series camera is a marvel of innovation, giving you unprecedented portability in combination with the spectacular images of a large APS-C-sized sensor. That sensor size is usually only found in more expensive and bulky DSLRs. Up to now, lenses for NEX cameras have been a tad big as well, in order to serve up an image large enough to cover that sensor's surface.
The Sony Alpha SEL-P1650 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 retractable lens changes the equation, giving you the flexibility you might expect from a traditional 3X kit zoom lens — in a form that extends barely 3/16" out from the camera's front surface when fully retracted. It's lightweight as well, weighing in at a scant 4.1 ounces.
Of course, the fine optical performance you've come to expect from Sony is still in evidence. Images stay distortion and artifact-free across their zoom range. At the wide-angle end of that range, you can fit the whole poker night crowd, posing in the den, into one perfectly framed group photo; at the telephoto end, you'll have the magnification for nice candid portraits.
