The 55-210mm E-mount lens is not for sale yet, but I saw it displayed at a local Best Buy store this week. With its silver and black half-metal construction, it looks rather handsome. It looks smaller than I envisioned it. It is less than 1/4" longer than the equivalent Samsung NX 50-200mm zoom; but about 1/4" smaller in diameter; and about 70g lighter. The decision to go for smaller diameter (and the same 49mm filter size as other E-mount lenses) is probably the reason the aperture range of 4.5 - 6.3 being 1/3 stop smaller than the typical of 4 - 5.6. But it does make the lens appear slimmer.
If you listen to all the anti-NEX people in various photography forums (who are often owners of m4/3 cameras ... and I can say that because I am also a m4/3 camera owner) then you would think all the Sony NEX lenses are MASSIVE!!! In reality, they Sony NEX lenses are some of the smallest lenses for APS-C image sensors. The reason the Sony lenses look large in product shots is because the NEX cameras are very small (smaller than "most" m4/3 cameras) so the lenses look unusually large in comparison to the tiny camera body ... but they are NOT huge lenses. I am on the fence about the new 55-210mm lens. It's the only native telephoto zoom (other than the 18-200mm) but it's aperture range is too slow it my opinion. I would love for Sony to make a 70-200mm f/2.8 (or even a f/2.8-3.5 lens similar to the Olympus 50-200mm 2.8-3.5). Unfortunately, I suspect most NEX owners would complain that such a lens would be too big.
I too am very interested in this lens. A good price and great option, too bad it does not go any lower f4.5.
