by Klaus Schroiff, published December 2019 Introduction Every serious system is offering a holy trinity of the fast zoom lenses covering the ultra-wide, standard and medium-tele range … that’s with the exception of Micro-Four-Thirds. They got two sets of them. While Olympus is following the more traditional approach of providing f/2.8 lenses, Panasonic/Leica has relaxed the specs a bit by focusing on f/2.8-4 variants. Regarding the philosophy behind Micro-Four-Thirds, the latter makes sense because such variable aperture lenses are more compact. This also applies to the Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 50-200mm f/2.8-4 ASPH Power OIS with its weight of merely 655g…
Author: Klaus
by Klaus Schroiff, published December 2019 Introduction There are long lenses and REALLY long lenses – and the Leica DG Vario-Elmar 100-400mm f/4-6.3 ASPH Power OIS falls into the 2nd category. While the focal length range is nothing special on paper, it translates to “200-800mm” on full-format cameras. This illustrates one of the advantages of the Micro-Four-Thirds system – thanks to the 2x crop factor, Tele lenses can be extreme with comparatively little design efforts and they can be offered at a very reasonable price. These days the Leica lens can be yours for about 1400EUR/1500USD and there are fairly…
Introduction We have to admit that there was a rather embarrassing gap in our list of Sony E-mount lens reviews – the Zeiss Sonnar T* 24mm f/1.8 ZA. It has been around for ages and it’s probably what you’d call a lighthouse product in Sony’s APS-C lens lineup. Lighthouse products are not only special regarding their characteristics but also their price tag. The Zeiss lens is available for just under 1000EUR/USD which is probably beyond what most APS-C users would be willing to pay. So let’s see what you would get for your hard-earned bucks.The first thing that you’ll notice…
by Klaus Schroiff, published October 2019 Introduction Shallow depth-of-field photography is not at the center of the micro-four-thirds system due to the comparatively small sensor size. However, thatdoesn’t mean that it is beyond its capabilities. The somewhat exotic series of Voigtlander Nokton lenses (all f/0.95) showed that quite a while ago already. However, there are also more mainstream options both from Panasonic/Leica as well as Olympus. In the scope of the review, we’ll have a look at the Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.2 PRO. It also has a couple of in-house cousins of similar speed (17mm f/1.2, 25mm f/1.2). Unlike the…
by Klaus Schroiff, published October 2019 Introduction Sony has enjoyed quite a headstart compared to Canon R/Nikon Z but obviously they keep on pushing. Lately, they have focused more and more on the professional (=high-margin) market segment. Part of this push is also the Sony FE 24mm f/1.4 GM. Regarding the recent trend of super-sizing every new lens design, you may expect that this is just another monstrosity, but this is not the case here. Sony managed to pack the ultra-large aperture into a size that is more aligned with the original ideas around mirrorless systems. As such they already gain sympathy points…
by Klaus Schroiff, published September 2019 Introduction The Samyang AF 50mm f/1.4 FE (aka Rokinon) is one of the first third-party full format lenses that were released for Sony FE cameras – thus it’s about time for us to have a look whether it’s worth it. In a typical Samyang fashion, they are tackling the market from a value perspective. You can purchase the lens for as little as 500USD/EUR – which is a third of what you’d have to pay for Sony’s own Zeiss Planar T* FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA. To be honest though – that Zeiss lens has…
by Klaus Schroiff, published September 2019 Introduction While Sony E-mount lenses are nothing new for Sigma, it took them quite a while to design native full-format lenses – as opposed to the rather 2nd-class approach of converting some of their DSLR lenses. However, also thanks to their parallel activities around the L-mount alliance we can expect to see more interesting offerings. One of them is the Sigma 45mm f/2.8 DG DN Contemporary. Some may question the word “interesting” here given the slow speed for such a standard prime lens but it is actually quite unique in a couple of aspects.…
by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2019 Introduction It’s awesome … and it’s hell! There you go – the verdict is straight in the first sentence! 🙂 Most of you who have used fisheye lenses will probably agree that fisheye lenses are a love-hate relationship more so than with any other lens type. You love them because they deliver the unexpected and extreme and you hate them pretty much for the same reasons. And if you sell one because it fell into disuse, you will regret the decision a year later again – because, well, “that shot would be awesome with…
by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2019 Introduction One of the biggest controversials around mirrorless camera systems are the comparatively inflated lens prices. A contributing factor to this is surely the lack of competition from third-party manufacturers that are abundant in the DSLR world but not really established in the mirrorless arena – yet. While CaNikon are playing their usual proprietary game, Sony is a little more open – thus the mount(-protocol) can actually be licensed.The classic three independent manufacturers – Sigma, Tamron and Tokina – are now happily taking advantage of the opportunity and we are now seeing more affordable…
by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2019 Introduction Samyang (aka Rokinon) may not be a household name in the photographic world – yet – but the velocity of new product releases in recent years has been impressive. In fact, they are probably releasing more new lenses than both Tokina and Tamron – combined – albeit their sales volume and overall relevance remain a bit of mystery also because their lenses are sold under various brand names. Anyway, one of the recently released lenses is the Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE. In terms of specs, it competes directly against the Zeiss Distagon…