Review by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2022 Introduction Autofocus lenses are still pretty rare beyond the mainstream players, but slowly and steadily, some of the Chinese players are taking the leap. Yongnuo was probably the first, followed by Viltrox, and now Meike has started offering AF lenses – their first shot in the mirrorless AF segment is the Meike AF 85mm f/1.8 STM in Sony E-mount. This medium-tele lens is compatible with both APS-C and Full Format Sony Alpha cameras. Priced at just $199, it undercuts the competition by a huge margin. This raises the question of what you can…
Author: Klaus
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2022 Introduction At the time Sony announced their set (11mm f/1.8, 15mm f/1.4G, 10-20mm f/4G) of new ultrawide APS-C lenses back in June (2022), it caused quite a stir in the Sony community. Given the fact that all the rage was about full-format gear in recent years, such a visible commitment to the format was certainly a relief. In this review, we’ll have a look at the lens that is probably the most interesting of the bunch – the Sony E 11mm f/1.8. Unlike its two cousins, it is both wide AND fast, and,…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2022 Introduction Meike has had quite a stampede of new lens releases lately. One of their most ambitious new designs is the new Meike 8mm f/2.8 MFT. You may think that this is another fish-eye, but it is, in fact, a fully correct ultra-wide lens equivalent to 16mm on full-format cameras.Priced at $399 USD, it is not a budget item anymore, but it’s also not your average optical construction either – consisting of no less than 17 elements, including two aspherical elements.So it seems that Meike wants to move up the food chain now.…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2022. Lens sample provided by Meike. Introduction Fish-eye lenses may not be the most popular lenses around, but they can, obviously, provide images with a unique character. A field-of-view of 190 degrees (diagonal) is quite something – and they can be lots of fun. For most photographers, they are just too exotic to spend much money on them, but you don’t have to – which is where the Meike 7.5mm f/2.8 Fisheye finds its place. At just $149, it’s about as affordable as it gets. The lens is available in most APS-C mounts as…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published June 2022 Introduction While Sony has been the undisputed leader in terms of the number of professional-grade mirrorless system lenses for many years, they are at least facing competition regarding the quality of individual lenses. Some of their 1st generation pro glass has been getting a bit long in the tooth. And one of these lenses was the Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM – not a bad lens by any standard but it has its weak spots. And thus Sony reacted with the new Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II. As you may notice, the…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published June 2022 Introduction Competition is always a good thing and preventing it is not overly consumer-friendly. Canon still created a closed system with the introduction of the RF mount – making it difficult for 3rd party manufacturers to supply alternatives.Non-Canon lenses with electronic coupling are non-existent after Samyang had to withdraw their initial offerings. Thus if you’d like to shop for a more affordable option, you either have to go for an EF adapter solution or a fully manual lens. One of the more interesting offerings in the latter category is the new Laowa 90mm…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published May 2022 Introduction Every once in a while, many of us are feeling an itch for something exotic – a super-tele maybe, an extreme macro lens, a fisheye lens … or an insane ultra-wide lens. And the Sony FE 14mm f/1.8 GM falls into the latter category. 14mm may sound harmless but it’s excessively wide really with a (fully corrected) field of view of 114 degrees. This can create LOTS of drama in your images. However, lenses this wide are also notoriously difficult to use because they emphasize the foreground and finding an interesting one…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published May 2022 Introduction No system is complete without macro lenses and while Canon has been offering the RF 85mm f/2 STM IS macro early, it isn’t really aligned to professional needs, at least.In order to serve this market, Canon finally released the Canon RF 100mm f/2.8 L USM IS macro. As professional-grade lenses go, the price for the entry ticket is on the high side at $1400/1500EUR – that’s more than double the amount you have to pay for the faster RF 85mm f/2. This raises the question of whether it’s really worth it ……
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published April 2022 Introduction The Canon RF 28-70mm f/2 USM L was one of the first lenses for the RF-mount cameras. You may also say that it was nothing short but a STATEMENT because it’s the world’s first full-format standard zoom lens with a constant max aperture of f/2. It supplements the RF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM L IS, so Canon users are blessed with two high-speed zoom lenses in this range class. The two lenses are fairly different so each one has its place with the RF 28-70mm f/2 USM L surely being the more exotic…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2022 Introduction There is a general notion that full-format is the way to go for shallow depth-of-field photography. Of course, there have been many attempts to defy the limitations of smaller formats with f/1.4 and f/1.2 lenses. However, even this isn’t enough for some smaller Chinese players. Notably, Laowa got serious about it with a set of f/0.95 “Argus”-branded lenses. Now, in all honesty – lenses around the f/1 mark tend to be relatively poor in terms of performance – or let’s call it “full of character,” as Youtubers describe it. The new Laowa…