Introduction Over the years, we have seen quite a few Chinese players, but most of them are still on the exotic side of things – except Viltrox. And since last year, they seem to be in full attack mode in the medium to high-end market. Especially the Viltrox AF 75mm f/1.2 XF Pro and AF 16mm f/1.8 FE surprised us with a combination of great quality at an affordable price. And the Viltrox AF 27mm f/1.2 XF Pro just made it into our lab. As the name implies, it is for the Fujifilm X mount, but other mounts will follow shortly.…
Author: Klaus
Introduction Samyang has been a lens manufacturer for quite a while but only recently released their first zoom lens – the Samyang AF 24-70mm f/2.8 FE. And Samyang wouldn’t be Samyang if they didn’t undercut the competition by quite a margin. The lens has an MSRP of just $999, but you can get it for as low as $800US/750EUR if you shop around. Quite a steal – on paper, at least. That’s a third of Sony’s own offering here and a couple of hundred bucks less than the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DN DG ART. The price tag alone is no…
Introduction Having multiple lens grades to choose from is great from a consumer perspective. Sony knows this as well and is offering no less than three of them (GM, G & consumer). However, Sony isn’t alone with this, even within the E-mount ecosystem. Sigma is doing something similar with their ART, SPORTS and Contemporary lineup. Interestingly, they even offer different variations of the same lens TYPE here and there.They’ve got the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN ART alongside the Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Contemporary – that’s quite a unique approach to all this. And today, we’ll have a look…
Introduction Canon may not have a Pentaxian-level love affair with pancake lenses, but they still have a history here. During the EF mount era, they had an EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM as well as an EF 40mm f/2.8 STM.And they continued their journey with the (sort-of pancake) RF 16mm f/2.8 STM in 2022. Fortunately, they didn’t stop here, so let’s welcome the new Canon RF 28mm f/2.8 STM. There are probably two kinds of people on the planet – those who hate them because they tend to be fairly slow by modern prime lens standards, and those who love them…
Introduction In an era in which long tele zoom lenses are reaching 600mm, the 100-400mm class may almost feel dated, but it still exists. For a good reason, actually. Sony’s own 200-600mm G is certainly the more attractive choice when reach is everything, but such lenses are heavy, big and 200mm at the short end makes them unsuitable for mainstream use. Conversely, the 100mm setting of a 100-400mm lens is usable for some landscape and even basic portrait photography – although the speed isn’t all that hot. Still, it is simply a more versatile lens. Unlike its longer cousin, it’s…
Introduction Many of us know the problem – sometimes wide and fast just isn’t wide and fast enough. And then there’s the other problem – the wider and faster you go, the more you are entering stratospheric price levels. However, there might be a solution to these problems – meet the Viltrox AF 16mm f/1.8 FE, available in Sony E-mount and, soon, in Nikon Z-mount. Yes, there are wider and faster lenses, but the Viltrox lens keeps a nice balance by offering a little extra without going downright bonkers. And it does so without breaking your bank account at just…
Introduction At the time Canon announced the Canon RF 600mm f/11 IS STM and RF 800mm f/11 IS STM, the photo community was a little confused. While (all-manual) slow, long tele tele prime lenses have been around for decades, these were mostly confined to more or less obscure third-party manufacturers. e.g. The oldies among you may remember the T-mount Samyang/Vivitar/Exakta 500mm f/8 from the 1970s and 80s, but with the emergence of 500/600mm zoom lenses, these vanished into history.So why a modern 600/800mm f/11? There are a couple of reasons, of course. The most obvious one is costs. Canon R-mount…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published May 2023 Introduction Most of us start photography with an affordable camera kit. This will be sufficient for a while, but eventually, you want to up your game and move towards faster lenses. You can, of course, add some prime lenses, but most will probably upgrade their standard zoom lens first. If you stick to the OEM manufacturer, this can get pretty expensive, but there’s also a nice middle ground occupied by third-party manufacturers. And one of the APS-C format alternatives in Sony-E mount (and Fujifilm X-mount) is the Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8 Di III-A VC…
by Klaus Schroiff, published May 2023 Introduction For decades, full-format standard zoom lenses have been confined to the 24-XX or 28-XXmm range. This only changed very recently in 2020 when Panasonic released their Lumix S 20-60mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. The Panasonic lens was quite an innovation because conventional standard zoom lenses are already hard to design, and a 20-60mm is on an even higher complexity level while remaining quite affordable. It took Sony no less than 3 years to come up with their own interpretation of the topic – the Sony FE 20-70mm f/4 G. Unlike the Panasonic lens, it is…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published April 2023 Introduction Fast 85mm f/1.4 lenses are hot commodities, but the OEM options tend to be on the expensive side. However, at least Sony users are not without options – and the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART is one of them. It’s actually Sigma’s 2nd 85mm f/1.4 lens in E-mount. The first one was merely a somewhat optimized DLSR lens – whereas the “DN” has been designed specifically for mirrorless cameras. During the late DSLR era, Sigma was known for offering very good but also huge & heavy lenses. This isn’t really true anymore.…