Sony’s ramp up of their full format E-mount lineup is in rapid progress. This time we’ll have a look at their first macro lens – the Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 G OSS macro. Like most modern macro lenses it is capable of focusing down to an object magnification of 1:1 although it also works perfectly fine as a general purpose tele lens, of course. It is a designated G-series lens. Back in the Minolta days, G stood for “Gold” but you don’t hear/read that anymore. However, Sony is continuing to use the G label for high performance lenses. Besides consumer…
Author: Klaus
Welcome to our first review based on the Sony A7R II (42 megapixels). Some of you may be surprised why we just don’t continue on the original Sony A7R (36 megapixels). However, as good as it was on paper, the original A7R was a deeply flawed camera. The rather extreme shutter vibrations made it very difficult to achieve reliable results. We’ll re-test all previously covered lenses on the A7R II but for a fresh start, let’s first have a look at the Zeiss Sonnar T* FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA. Just to mention the origin of the “Sonnar” portion in the…
Traditionally a professional zoom lens system is supposed to consist of a gang of three core lenses – an ultra-wide-, standard- and medium-tele lens with a max aperture of f/2.8. Over at Canon and Nikon there have been generations of these lenses already. However, Olympus is the very first mirrorless camera manufacturer that completed such a set. In this review we are going to have a look at the latest edition – the Olympus M.Zuiko 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO. In full format terms we are talking about a “14-28mm” lens here. Typical applications include landscape and architecture photography with a special…
At the time Olympus started the “classic” Four-Thirds system, they focused on professional grade lenses. However, this didn’t work out for a couple of reasons mostly on the camera side (although I was thrilled by the E-1). After moving to Micro-Four-Thirds, both Olympus as well as Panasonic stayed short of this segment for quite some time and preferred to concentrate on amateur products. While this strategy succeeded in terms of market share, it also represented a problem. The amateur segment is a low margin game. However, now that a healthy customer base has been established, it seems as if the…
The Sony’s strategy regarding thei APS-C format E-mount system (formerly NEX) may appear to be a bit odd but it’s nonetheless successful. Sony released about as many APS-C format cameras as corresponding lenses. Cameras are more attractive to talk about so the corresponding media coverage translated into visibility and a very decent market share – also because the cameras are really nice actually. However, the lens lineup … well … compared to other systems it just doesn’t cut it honestly speaking. There are or at least were very few lenses targeting enthusiasts. With the rise of Sony’s full format E…
During the introduction of the NEX system, Sony followed a rather erratic strategy regarding the introduction of new lenses. It seems as if they have learned quite a bit in the process because they are much more focused when it comes to the new FE mount. Following high-end standard- and tele-zoom lenses plus a few fast prime lenses, Sony has just released a new ultra-wide zoom lens – the Carl-Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS. Thus with this lens we’d say that the FE system has reached minimum viability in terms of completeness now. Technically the Zeiss lens…
There has been a revival of standard prime lenses in recent years and there’s also no shortage of them in the Micro-Four-Thirds system. The Panasonic/Leica Summilux 25mm f/1.4 ASPH comes into mind or the Voigtlander Nokton 25mm f/0.95. However, these are rather pricey lenses. In early 2014 Olympus released its first entry into this market segment – the Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.8. The lens follows the tradition of the M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 in being not overly expensive yet fast enough to make a difference compared to the fast zoom lenses of the system.Please note that while the maximum aperture of…
The Micro Four-Thirds system is a bit in a vulnerable position these days. They are receiving increasing heat from Fujifilm and Sony in the high end sector and due to the smaller sensor size this is probably going to be a difficult battle in terms image quality potential. From the bottom end, smartphones are at least attracting less ambitious users. Finding new value propositions is therefore key. Panasonic and Olympus are keeping a bit of an edge in certain aspects – namely AF speed and movie capabilities. However, at least Panasonic rediscovered an old advantage – system size and weight.…
So far Sony didn’t really bother to offer high quality tele lenses for the E-mount but with the introduction of the full format camera lineup, Sony seems to have changed direction towards the higher end of the market. Following the initial full-format Zeiss offerings, the new Sony FE 70-200mm f/4 G OSS is the first professional grade E-mount tele lens. Along with the new priorities, the pricing has also been lifted to new heights. At around 1500US$/EUR it is not a cheap lens for sure but, to be fair, this is in line with e.g. the Canon and Nikon (DSLR-based)…
One of the key elements of a system is the availability of – hopefully decent – standard zoom lenses. Sony released two of them straight from the start of its new full format mirrorless cameras. There’s, of course, a cheap kit lens but in this review we will have a closer look at the more interesting one – the Carl-Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS. As you may have guessed from the Zeiss brand name, you have to be prepared to invest quite a bit here (MSRP: 1200US$/EUR). However, compared to a DSLR counterpart like the Canon EF 24-70mm…