Author: Klaus

by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2021 Introduction Following our review of the Tamron 35mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M1:2, let’s go a little wider with the Tamron 24mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M1:2 – thus a moderate ultra-wide angle lens with typical applications such as street photography or landscapes. Other than its optical design and name, it is basically indistinguishable from its two in-house cousins (with the third one being the 20mm f/2.8). And at least regarding its pricing that’s a good thing. At around 250 USD/EUR, it is among the most affordable prime lenses on the market.For this amount…

by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2021 Introduction In our last part of our Tamron prime lens review mini-series, we’ll have a look at the Tamron 20mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M1:2 – probably the most interesting of the triple. It sits outside the coverage of standard zoom lenses and for photographers on a budget it can be a first step into the true ultra-wide segment. This doesn’t mean that there is much of a physical difference compared to its more moderate cousins (24mm f/2.8 and 35mm f/2.8). As mentioned already in the previous review, you’ll be hard-pressed to distinguish between…

by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2021 Introduction Driven by their recent flood of AF lenses, Samyang has been rushing into the mainstream of third-party lens manufacturers. One of their first AF lenses was the AF 85mm f/1.4 EF back in mid-2018 but with the tide turning towards mirrorless cameras, they released the Samyang AF 85mm f/1.4 FE one year later. While you may guess that the latter is just a mount-adapted version, it is in fact a completely new design. Relative to the specs, the pricing is pretty hot at around 550USD/EUR. Compare this to OEM lenses with similar on-paper…

Introduction With full format mirrorless cameras replacing APS-C format, it is inevitable to see a rise in offerings of entry-level lenses. As so often, market leader Sony was the first with a full-format “kit zoom” lens (Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS) for mirrorless cameras. However, alongside the release of the EOS RP, Canon finally countered this with its own Canon RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 STM IS. At the time of the announcement, the lens was greeted with some skepticism due to its very slow max aperture of f/7.1 at 105mm. And yes, it’s a bit debatable whether having the slowest lenses…

by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2021 Introduction It seems that comparatively slow-speed “budget” prime lenses are all the rage these days. A few years ago, Samyang was probably the one starting the segment with a number of affordable (semi-)pancake lenses. This was followed by Sigma with a more premium approach. In late 2019, Tamron entered the scene with three identical-looking primes – a 20mm f/2.8, 24mm f/2.8, and a 35mm f/2.8. Traditionally, Tamron is more of a mid-tier player but the gang of 3 is clearly budget-oriented. We’ll review them all in the next few weeks and let’s start with…

Introduction Sony’s APS-C system has been a 2nd class citizen during the last few years. New native APS-C format lenses are rare, and the lineup is rather limited compared to e.g. Fuji.To be fair – Sony users can always use full-format E-mount lenses anyway so the situation isn’t really dire. However, even when ignoring the potentially higher costs, full-format lenses aren’t feasible when it comes to standard zoom lenses. E-mount has not been without options in this respect, albeit a high-quality lens was not provided until late 2019 – namely the Sony E 16-55mm f/2.8 G. In terms of specs,…

by Klaus Schroiff, published June 2021 Introduction There is an almost mad amount of 35mm full format lenses available in Sony E-mount. As of the time of this review, we can count no less than 13x 35mm lenses with an AF motor, 15x when including 40mm variants plus several more with manual focusing only. Makes you wonder whether there’s a different one for every buyer? Jokes aside, it just shows that the lens class is obviously popular enough to sustain such a variety. Of course, Sony has a bunch of these lenses in their lineup as well. One of them…

Introduction There is always a lens that is the bottom feeder in the lineup and within the range of prime lenses. This is usually a nifty-fifty. In R-mount, we are talking about the Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM which is, by far, the most affordable prime lens offered by Canon at least. It can be yours for as little as $200USD/230EUR.The build quality of this tiny lens is good but it’s obvious that it doesn’t target professional users. There is no weather-sealing and an inner lens tube extends when focusing towards closer distances. The tube retracts automatically when switching off…

Introduction By now we know that Canon can produce superb L-class lenses but the photographic world isn’t just about high-end R-mount gear and it’s good that they’ve finally started to release some gear for the rest of us. One of the early examples is the Canon RF 85mm f/2 STM IS macro. Obviously, it’s a medium-tele prime lens but with a little twist this time. Traditionally such lenses are slightly faster at f/1.8 but Canon decided to sacrifice a little bit of speed for macro capabilities. Regarding its max object magnification, it’s not a true macro lens but this middle…

by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2021 Introduction Tamron has been an early adopter of the mirrorless concept so it’s not surprising that they are offering a vast number of corresponding lenses across most segments by now. One of them is the Tamron 17-28mm F/2.8 Di III RXD. Tamron is following an interesting philosophy with their fast f/2.8 zoom lenses. While Sony and Sigma (ART) are embracing high-performance priority, Tamron is going for compactness and low weight – which is certainly an attractive proposition for many buyers. And light-weight f/2.8 zoom lenses are an even rarer breed. Just to give you…

by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2021 Introduction The Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD is a member of Tamron’s own “holy trinity” of fast f/2.8 zoom lenses with the other ones being the recently reviewed 17-28mm f/2.8 and the 28-75mm f/2.8.These 3 lenses share a very similar philosophy – they are smaller, much more light-weight, and also more affordable than comparable lenses from other manufacturers. This is especially true for the 70-180mm f/2.8 which has a rather radical design comparable to the Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8 USM L IS with the Tamron lens going even further in some respects. At…

by Klaus Schroiff, published January 2021 Introduction Over the last few years, Laowa has created an arsenal of ultra-wide prime lenses across all relevant systems – and they are still looking for further niches in this segment. They just released the Laowa 10mm f/2 Zero-D MFT. Those who have followed their journey may be a bit surprised. After all, they are also offering a 7.5mm f/2 MFT and a 9mm f/2.8 which aren’t all that old either. However, not everybody needs an extreme wide-angle lens and a 10mm lens (“20mm” full-format) is easier to handle. Beyond the paper-specs are some…

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Introduction Canon has been THE dominant player in the super-telephoto arena for decades. There are many photos of sports events where you can see a myriad of white Canon L lenses in the press section. Besides lots of prime lenses, Canon has always offered moderately fast long tele-zoom lenses, with the most popular one being the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 USM L IS (II). However, during recent years this lens felt a bit conservative regarding a competition that moved on to 500mm and even 600mm at the long end. And for sports/wildlife photographers, nothing beats a long focal length but a…

by Klaus Schroiff, published November 2020 Introduction Fast standard zoom lenses are incredibly popular in the photographic community – yet the surrounding design challenges in this lens class are about as tough as they get. To date, we haven’t reviewed a single lens of this type that was truly outstanding (on high megapixel cameras). However, that doesn’t mean that they are trying. One of the latest contenders is the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN ART. Sigma wasn’t OVERLY successful with their previous attempts so let’s see whether there’s progress in the mirrorless world. The lens is available both in Sony…

Just two decades ago, 20mm lenses were rather exotic beings and about as extreme as it got in the ultra-wide angle segment. Today, it’s probably more appropriate to classify such lenses as “moderate” ultra-wide. However, this doesn’t mean that they aren’t desirable – on the contrary. You may argue that -say- a 14mm lens offers more thrill, but the wider you go, the more you emphasize the foreground whereas the background gets “pushed back”. In case you haven’t used such a lens – it’s not trivial to find many scenes that work really well with such a lens. This is…

by Klaus Schroiff, published September 2020 Introduction Super-tele zoom lenses have been around for many years in the DSLR world. Especially Sigma and Tamron have a long history of providing several different and also interesting designs up to xx-600mm. Interestingly, the OEMs never dared to go there to date. However, such lenses were not available for mirrorless systems … that is until the release of the Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS. You may think that such a lens from Sony is pretty much unaffordable – and for many users, it’ll be out of reach indeed – but it’s actually…

by Klaus Schroiff, published September 2020 Introduction Laowa has explored many extreme lens designs ever since they started in 2013. So far they have focused most of their efforts on either ultra-wide or macro lenses. With the inevitable demise of the DSLR segment, many of their latest lenses are now targeting the current sweet spot of the market, thus full-format mirrorless cameras. Just prior to the review, they released a set of 3 quite insane prime lenses – an all manual 9mm f/5.6 FF RL, an 11mm f/4.5 FF RL, and the Laowa 14mm f/4 FF RL Zero-D. The latter…

by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2020 Introduction Laowa has released a couple of very interesting lenses over the last years. Like many other Chinese players, they are focusing on rather extreme designs. Their 24mm f/14 2x Macro Probe is probably the most exotic one and quite famous in the video community by now. And regarding their more conventional macro lenses, we were very impressed by their recent 65mm f2.8 2x APO Ultra-Macro for APS-C mirrorless cameras as well as the 100mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO full-format lens. However, Laowa hasn’t forgotten about the Micro-Four-Thirds (MFT) community. So in this review, we are…

by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2020 Introduction During recent years, mirrorless lenses suffered from a disease – they got bigger and heavier. In fact, many mirrorless lenses are now more obese than their “former” DSLR counterparts despite all the marketing palaver promising the opposite. Of course, this happened for a reason. As a rule of thumbs in optical design, bigger and more complex is usually better – or it’s at least easier to achieve certain goals.While this was all cool for a while because there were simply too few mirrorless lenses available, most consumers are no longer demanding “any” lens…

Introduction Canon wouldn’t be Canon without their extremely fast prime lenses. And why bother with an f/1.4 aperture when you can also develop an f/1.2 lens, right? Meet the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2 USM L. Just from the high-level specs, you may think that it’s a new incarnation of the EF version but it’s actually a brand new design. Besides the “usual” aspherical and UD elements, it also incorporates Canon’s BR (Blue Spectrum Refractive) element for superior chromatic correction. We’ll see the effect of all this goodness later. One of the more unfortunate side effects of choosing f/1.2 over f/1.4…

by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2020 Introduction As of the time of this review, the Micro-Four-Thirds (MFT) world is in a bit of turmoil about the future of Olympus – and some odd YouTubers are questioning whether the system has still a place in the industry at all. It may then be the right time to remind those skeptics – once again – that the system has aspects that no other current system provides. That’s primarily a small package size and low weight. Now you may argue about “equivalency” here but fact remains that the sheer number of compact lenses…

by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2020 Introduction Manufacturers love to explore the extremes because that’s a way of differentiating their offerings from the competition. One end of these extremes is in the ultra-wide segment and the Samyang AF 14mm f/2.8 FE is one of the examples here. As of the time of this review, it’s still the widest autofocus prime lens for Sony FE cameras although there are zoom lenses that go even wider.There is another aspect that is distinguishing it – its price tag of just 500USD/EUR. Of course, this raises the question of what degree of performance you…

Introduction Sony has been pushing full-format E-mount lenses during recent years whereas dedicated APS-C lenses have been neglected. However, there have been two interesting releases in late 2019 at least – the E 16-55mm f/2.8 G and the E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS. In this review, we’ll have a look at the latter. You may argue that the Sony E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS is a bit of an odd addition to the lens lineup. After all, APS-C users can also mount the Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS or even the FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS. However, if you don’t plan…

Introduction Sigma seems to have hit a sweet spot with its “DC DN” trinity of fast APS-C/MFT format prime lenses (16mm f/1.4, 30mm f/1.4, 56mm f/1.4). This can’t come as a real surprise because neither Sony E, L-mount nor Canon EOS M are especially blessed with many APS-C format prime lenses. Although to be fair here – Sony/L-mount users can also take advantage of an extensive line of full format lenses albeit these tend to reside in a different price bracket. We reviewed the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary just a few weeks ago so let’s move on to…

Introduction A little while ago, we reviewed the Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.8 and we were impressed by the maturity of the product – despite being a newcomer in this market. But obviously, they didn’t want to stop there and their roadmap shows several lenses for release in 2020. One of them is the Viltrox AF 23mm f/1.4 XF which is now available in Fujifilm X and Sony E mount. It’s a native APS-C format lens equivalent to “35mm” in full-format terms or in other words – a moderate wide-angle lens. Now you may argue that the Fujifilm system doesn’t really require another…

Introduction In our previous review, we discussed the Viltrox AF 23mm f/1.4 XF, a good quality, affordable lens – and it has an in-house cousin, the Viltrox AF 33mm f/1.4 XF. If it wasn’t for the specs printed on the lens barrel, the two would be almost indistinguishable. However, their scope is, of course, different. While the 23mm f/1.4 is a moderate wide-angle prime lens, the 33mm f/1.4 is a standard lens. In terms of speed, it competes against the old Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R although the newer XF 35mm f/2 R WR is certainly also on its radar.…

Introduction Canon has upped the game compared to their DSLR lineup with pretty much every new lens they released for the EOS R system. They added an IS on the RF 24-70mm f/2.8, released an RF 28-70mm f/2 with a speed never seen before and made the RF 70-200mm f/2.8 shorter than any comparable lens in its class. And in the ultra-wide zoom segment? They are now offering the Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 USM L IS – a lens that is wider and adds an IS while still avoiding the bulb-like front element that we’ve seen in most other modern…

Introduction There is one type of lens that finds its way into pretty much every press/wedding photographer’s camera bag – a 24-70mm f/2.8 which is why it has an especially well-petted place in all of the full format manufacturers’ lineups. Thanks to its flexible nature, it also finds many friends among enthusiasts although we’d usually argue that it’s a bit over the top for non-professional use really – and that’s not only because these are pricey lenses. More on this later.Given its importance, Canon was quick to release one for R-mount – namely the Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM L IS,…

by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2020 Introduction The Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.2 PRO is among the best lenses that we have ever tested here at OpticalLimits and it deserved a very rare 5* rating across the board. And it has two close cousins – the 25mm f/1.2 PRO, thus a standard lens, and the Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm f/1.2 PRO which we are going to discuss now. It’s the type of lens that is wide enough for catching scenery and moderate enough to keep things still within a “normal” perspective which explains the popularity of such a lens among street photographers.…

by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2020 Introduction It may seem a bit strange but these days full-format 28mm prime lenses are almost exotics. The unpopularity probably relates to the perception that such lenses aren’t wide enough for landscapes or architecture and too wide for everything else. Some manufacturers don’t even bother to offer one at all or the designs are as old as time itself – instead, all the rage is either about 24mm or 35mm primes. Anyway, at least Sony IS still offering a quite fast FE 28mm f/2. It’s also one of the more affordable Sony FE prime…

Introduction SIgma is maintaining a small set of three very fast prime lenses dedicated to APS-C and Micro-Four-Thirds mirrorless cameras – a 30mm f/1.4, a 56mm f/1.4 and the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary that we are going to discuss here. If you are familiar with Sigma’s naming convention, it may surprise you that it doesn’t belong to Sigma’s professional grade “ART” series albeit at least the large aperture seems to suggest otherwise. However, if anything there’s a positive side effect to the consumer-grade designation – the pricing is very moderate at less the 400EUR/USD. So mirrorless lenses can…

Introduction Let’s start 2020 with something different – the Viltrox PFU RBMH 85mm f/1.8 STM – and something new – our shift to a 26-megapixel test camera (X-T30). While most are probably familiar with the Fujifilm camera, the Viltrox lens may be a bit of an unknown factor for most. If you came across the Viltrox brand so far (if ever), it was probably about accessory items such as adapters or lighting solutions. However, since late 2018 they have been offering lenses as well. Now there are many new Chinese players out there these days and you may think that…

Introduction A while ago, we reviewed the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO and we were pretty impressed. Now, that’s a full format lens optimized for DSLRs but there’s a new kid around now – the Laowa 65mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO for APS-C format mirrorless cameras (Fujifilm, Sony, Canon EF-M). Being shorter in focal length and covering a smaller image circle, it is obviously a much more compact and light-weight lens. Unfortunately, we are still talking about a fully manual lens without AF nor any electronic coupling. If your primary use-case is macro photography, this is probably…

by Klaus Schroiff, published January 2020 Introduction In our previous review, we covered the Viltrox PFU RBMH 85mm f/1.8 STM (in Fujifilm X mount) and we were quite impressed by it. They are about to release more AF lenses in 2020 but they also have an ultra-wide prime lens in their lineup – the Viltrox PFU RBMH 20mm f/1.8 ASPH, an all-manual lens without electronic coupling, unfortunately. Generally, this shouldn’t be a huge deal with a 20mm lens and if needed you can use a magnified focus view on your camera for precise manual focusing. It is limiting the target…

Introduction Over the last couple of decades, we came to expect how a 70/80-200mm f/2.8 shall look like – these lenses are fairly big with a length around the 20cm mark, quite heavy (~1.5kg) and first and foremost – they have to have a constant physical size across the zoom range. Well, this time Canon had different ideas with their new Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8 USM L IS and the initial reaction within the community was a bit of a mixed bag. The new lens is about 27% more compact and lightweight and as such nicely aligned to the smaller…

Introduction The Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 STM IS macro was one of the first RF-mount lenses released back in 2018. You may argue that it is not among the most exciting lenses out there but it has a rare quality in today’s mirrorless world – it is affordable at around 500USD/550EUR and we have even seen special sales quite a bit below that. Of course, a low price tag alone doesn’t cut it yet. However, it is also very fast, and provides macro capabilities down to an object magnification of 1:2 plus image stabilization. So is it the steal that…

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…

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…

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 T* FE 35mm f/1.4 ZA. That is…

by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2019 Introduction If you like (classic-)cars you may know the statement that there’s no substitution for engine displacement but more displacement. It is quite similar with lenses actually – there’s no substitution for speed but more speed – and the fastest lenses around are usually in the f/1.2-f/1.4 range. So in the context of this review – meet the Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM – Sony’s professional-grade medium-tele prime lens. As the name implies, it is a member of the “GM” (G-Master) lineup thus it’s among the best of what Sony is offering today. Of…

by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2019 Introduction While mirrorless systems have been around for quite some time, the uptake by the “big 3” third-party lens manufacturers was neither fast nor overly broad. Of course, in the end, it is a number game. The DSLR user base is still massive in comparison but the tide has finally turned and the flood is coming in now – especially for Sony E-mount. Tamron was the first of the big 3 with the release of a full format E-mount lens – the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD in 2018. While the paper-spec may…

by Klaus Schroiff, published June 2019 Introduction As far as ultra-wide lenses are concerned, all the rage is about going even more extreme. A few years ago, 16mm was considered to be the far wide end. Then 15mm, 14mm and now even 10mm lenses are available.However, does this make sense? In a moment of honesty, we probably have to admit that 18mm – and maybe even 20mm is really in the mainstream spot in this lens segment providing images that are still wide without the artificial look.Tokina obviously thought along the same lines and released two lenses here – the…

by Klaus Schroiff, published January 2019 Introduction Laowa is one of the many small manufacturers that emerged over the recent years. By today, they’ve established themselves as China’s most significant player albeit they still got some distance to go until they reach the global mainstream. They released many interesting if not ambitious new lens designs – mostly ultra-wide prime lenses. While most established players are pushing quality to the max – accompanied by a recent trend of super-sizing every lens – Laowa is trying to balance size and performance. A good example of this philosophy is the Laowa 15mm f/2…

Introduction Canon’s new R system is still at the very beginning of its journey. However, it starts with two standard zoom lenses. One of them, the Canon RF 28-70mm f/2 USM L is out of reach for most mortals thanks to a sky-high price tag, while the other one, the Canon RF 24-105mm f/4 USM L IS, reviewed here, will surely find its way into the bag of most EOS R owners. It’s worth noting that Canon is bolder than Nikon with their 24-70mm f/4 for the new Nikon Z system – and most users will probably appreciate the extra…

Introduction It took us a little way (as always), but it is finally here – the review of the first Canon RF that came into our lab, the Canon RF 50mm f/1.2 USM L. Unless you lived behind the moon for the last few months, you probably know that Canon released its first full-frame mirrorless system at the Photokina 2018 (trade show). Now Canon wouldn’t be Canon if they didn’t have something for showing off, and besides a monster of a zoom lens (RF 28-70mm f/2), they decided to go for something they are known best for – an ultra-high…

by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2018 Introduction Every mature system is offering the holy trinity of zoom lenses – thus a relatively fast ultra-wide-, standard- and tele-zoom lens. The only exception to the rule is Panasonic … they got two of them – one native Panasonic set (7-14mm f/4, 12-35mm f/2.8, 35-100mm f/2.8) and one Leica branded set (8-18mm f/2.8-4, 12-60mm f/2.8-4, 50-200mm f/2.8-4). You may notice that the Leica variant has a slightly different flavour regarding the variable aperture and the focal length range here. Unless you are religious about having a constantaperture, the Leica lenses appear to be…

One of the core components of a professional grade system is a fast medium tele-zoom lens – such as theSony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS. Combined with the other recently released lenses and cameras,Sony can finally and truly compete with CaNikon in the high-class segment. Needless to say but that comesliterally at a price – in this case, 2600EUR/USD. This is quite a bit more expensive than the comparableCanon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 USM L IS II but actually a little cheaper than the Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED.Yes, lens prices have inflated quite a bit lately … The Sony…

by Klaus Schroiff, published April 2018 Introduction If you want to play a role in the professional (full format) market you have to offer a variety of lenses and at the center of such a system, there’s the holy trinity of f/2.8 zoom lenses – a 16-35mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8. That’s all old news in the DSLR league but as of the time of this review, Sony provides the only mirrorless system that fulfils this requirement. A while back we reviewed the Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM – a quite impressive lens even on a high-resolution camera.…

Sony users can choose between a wide variety of different lens options nowadays, but selecting a standard zoom lens has been somewhat tricky so far.Sure, there’s the mighty Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM, but price-wise, it’s beyond the reach of most users. The Zeiss FE 24-70mm f/4 OSS is a good shot on paper, but it really fails to deliver. And the Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS kit zoom lens … well …So the thing is – there’s an urgent need for something good and reasonably affordable in their standard zoom lens lineup, and maybe the new Sony FE 24-105mm…

Sony mirrorless camera users are quite blessed with a variety of medium tele prime choices. There are no less than 4 different Sony/Zeiss 85mm lenses plus the Sony 90mm f/2.8 macro and, of course, the Sony 100mm f/2.8 STF (and a bunch of exotics). Among the 85mm gang, there’s the Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 which we’ll discuss in the scope of this review. It is a so-called “Sonnar” design which relates to fast Zeiss lenses. That being said, the Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM is faster still but therefore also bigger and quite a bit more expensive … although the Zeiss…

by Klaus Schroiff, published December 2017 Introduction Recently, we reviewed the Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 – as it turned out, it’s quite an awesome lens. However, the Zeiss lens isn’t alone in its quest – it has a couple of Sony mates. There’s the insanely expensive 85mm f/1.4 GM and a more mainstream option, which we’ll discuss here – the Sony FE 85mm f/1.8. Some readers may not be too excited about it but as you will see later on it has its merits. Technically, an 85mm f/1.8 is a sweet spot in lens design. It is neither fast nor…

It seems as if the Zeiss-Sony relationship has cooled off a little lately- probably because both want to harvest the premium segment. Zeiss appears to gravitate towards their own Zeiss Batis lens lineup now whereas Sony is focusing on Sony G and GM lenses. However, a while ago, the Sony / Zeiss Distagon T* FE 35mm f/1.4 ZA was one of the first high-speed, pro-grade lenses released for Sony’s full format mirrorless system. As you may have guessed already, such a lens isn’t cheap at around 1500USD/EUR. However, and this may come as a shock to some, it is a…

by Klaus Schroiff, published September 2017 Introduction The Sony FE system is quite blessed by many lens options these days. While the third-party gang hasn’t really started supporting the system, both Sony and its close ally Zeiss have been very busy beefing up the system lately. These days you also have several lenses to choose from in the ultra-wide segment. The latest and most extreme one is the Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G. Being a G-class lens it is primarily targeting the semi-pro or “prosumer” market and it also means that you have to have fairly deep pockets regarding its…

by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2017 Introduction After having reviewed several hundred of lenses, there aren’t too many new lenses that make me truly excited to be honest. However, the Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 STF GM OSS is surely one of them. The high-level specs aren’t all that hot as you may notice – a 100mm f/2.8 is nothing to write home about after all. However, that’s the less interesting aspect here. The real story is described by the “STF” portion in the lens name. STF stands for “Smooth Trans Focus”. STF lenses feature an apodization (APD) element – a…

by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2017 Introduction You have a variety of choices when it comes to Zeiss lenses for Sony FE-mount cameras. Zeiss ZA lenses are co-developed, co-branded and marketed under the Sony umbrella. However, Zeiss is also offering several native lenses independent from the cooperation with Sony – namely the Zeiss Batis (AF) and Zeiss Loxia (manual focus) lenses. One of the most exciting of these lenses is the Zeiss Batis 18mm f/2.8 covered in this review. While the distribution channel may have changed, some things never do and the pricing falls into that category. Such ultra-wide prime…

The Micro-Four-Thirds (MFT) system is blessed by having two primary manufacturers. Their combined lineup is highly impressive by now and their standard zoom segment is especially crowded. Olympus is contributing lenses with three quality grades to the system and Panasonic adds at least two more – native Panasonic and Leica-branded lenses. The exact terms of the cooperation with Leica is not known but the Leica brand is certainly adding some poshness to MFT. One the the latest offsprings of this marriage is the Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 12-60mm f/2.8-4 ASPH Power OIS (gasp). Just to explain the “Vario-Elmarit” portion of the…

Which single lens would you take to a remote island? The answer will, of course, vary according to the individual preferences but many would probably chose a long-range zoom lens. Traditionally such lenses had a problem … or a couple of those – they were rather mediocre. Well, maybe with 2-3 exceptions: the Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 USM L IS, Canon EF 35-350mm f/3.5-5.6 USM L and the Leica 14-150mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH OIS. This short list (of DSLR lenses) may already give you an indication – long-range zoom lenses of decent quality come also with a hefty price tag. Olympus…

Sony’s full format mirrorless system has been an immense success in recent years and with the release of the Alpha 9 they are now truly threatening the remaining native DSLR homelands. The FE system has been traditionally weak regarding very long tele lenses. However, Sony is trying to catch up now. A little while ago they released the Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS – thus a mainstream tele zoom lens.Sony is offering 4 classes of lenses – the “plain” consumer lens, the G class and at the top of the line – Zeiss and Sony GM lenses. It’s probably…

Laowa may not be a well-known player to most of you but recently they caused quite some stir with their Laowa 105mm f/2 STF – a manual focus lens featuring an unusual apodization element for optimized bokeh rendering. Before that they released a 15mm f/4 Shift and a 60mm f/2.8 macro lens with 2:1 magnification. You probably agree that all this sounds exciting?! Well, this time they have something in the queue specifically designed for Micro-Four-Thirds cameras – the Laowa 7.5mm f/2 MFT. Once it’s released (planned: April 2017), it’ll be the fastest ultra-wide angle lens available for the system.…

When it comes to publicity and excitement, we are usually talking about lenses such as the Zeiss 24-70mm f/4 OSS or Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM. However, in sheer sales volume, it is quite likely that the low-profile Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS is first in line. It is often sold as part of a camera kit with the Sony A7 (II) but you can also buy it separately for around 450 US$/EUR. On eBay you can find white box variants for much less than that. However, even so – is it worth it? Technically the chances should be good…

In recent years Sony managed to make a big comeback thanks to their highly successful full-format mirrorless system. Unfortunately they neglected their traditional APS-C user base due to the ramp up efforts on the full format side. Their native APS-C mount lens lineup is slim to say the least and it also doesn’t really shine with many high quality options either. You can, of course, use Sony’s full format lenses on APS-C cameras but the price tags are correspondingly high and this doesn’t really help when it comes to standard zoom lenses. There’s one Sony standard zoom lens that we…

Many users aren’t really seeking for the very best standard zoom lens with its correspondingly high price tag. Instead they are looking for something that is “good enough”, versatile and doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg. “Super”-zoom lenses may appear to fulfill those needs but, to be honest, they are often not all that hot in terms of (consistent) quality. In order to close the gap, Panasonic just came up with an “in-betweener” – the Panasonic Lumix G 12-60mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH Power OIS thus a still reasonable 5x zoom lens. It covers a field-of-view equivalent to about “24-120mm”.…

The Panasonic Lumix G 30mm f/2.8 ASPH Mega OIS macro is the third AF macro lens for the micro-four-thirds system. At 30mm it is currently the widest macro option with a field of view equivalent to “60mm” on full format cameras. Thus it behaves like a moderate tele macro lens. Such lenses are usually not the first choice among enthusiasts because of the minimum working distance is very close to your main subject. Small critters tend to get rather nervous … who wouldn’t at just 2cm or so? A max. aperture of f/2.8 may also be fast by zoom standards…

Following Fujifilm’s strategy Sony started the FE system by releasing mostly high priced lenses first. Regarding their comparatively expensive full-format cameras, this was certainly a sensible approach. However, now that the initial quality rush is over, Sony is beginning to offer more affordable lenses for the rest of us. The Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 is one of them. That being said, Sony lenses have never been really cheap. In this case we are talking about the double price tag of its Canon/Nikon counterparts or about 300US$/EUR. That’s quite a bit considering the fact that the lens has a simple optical…

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…

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…

It is interesting how things changed during the last few years. There was a time when it (progress in photographic technology) all happened on the DSLR side but lately mirrorless systems are the leaders in innovation. Sony is certainly an aggressive player here and it doesn’t come as a surprise that they were the first to release a full-format mirrorless system. They are still in the ramp-up phase so the system doesn’t really offer many options. In its lens universe, there are less than a handful of available native lenses as of the time of this review. For our first…

by Sebastian Milczanowski, published Jan 2014 Lens kindly provided by Hendrik Baumgarten. After five and a half years of Micro-Four-Thirds (MFT) Olympus and Panasonic cover the entire range from 7 to 300mm, including some excellent fixed primes like the Olympus 75mm f/1.8. However, friends of fast zoom lenses were left staring at nothing until the launch of the Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 in mid 2012 and only more than one year later Olympus finally joins the league of MFT prime zooms.Therefore Olympus raises the bar, at least on paper, by spending 5mm extra focal length as well as an outdoors body…

Lens kindly provided by Hendrik Baumgarten. Review by Sebastian Milczanowski, published Jan 2014 The Panasonic Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 ASPH II is a standard prime lens designed lens for micro four-thirds format cameras. It is a so-called pancake lens because … well … it is just as flat – just 2.5cm in this case. Pancake lenses tend to be rather “slow,” but Panasonic managed to squeeze out an ultra-large max. aperture of f/1.7. In terms of its depth-of-field capabilities this is about f/3.4 in full format terms, the focal length is equivalent to 40mm. As such, it is a very…

Micro-Four-Thirds (MFT) may offer the most extensive mirrorless lens system but even so it has one significant shortcoming – professional-grade MFT tele-zoom lenses are rare. Very rare. Essentially, ambitious users have the choice between … well … one lens – the Panasonic Lumix G X 35-100mm f/2.8 Power OIS (Note: Olympus is going to release a 40-150mm f/2.8 in 2014). Now while this simplifies your purchasing options quite a bit, it is still interesting to have a deeper look, of course. :-)In full format terms, it offers a “70-200mm” range with a f/2.8 speed but depth-of-field capabilities equivalent to “f/5.6”.…

The Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8 is – as of the time of this review – the 4th high-speed prime lens for the micro-four-thirds (MFT) system by Olympus. It is a moderate wide-angle lens thus targeting applications such as street-, landscape- and still-life photography. While Olympus is shy of marketing this M.Zuiko as ‘pancake lens’, we’d say that given its short length (3.5cm) and marginal weight (120g), it still falls into this category. The price tag feels somewhat steep upon first glance. This seems to be a bit of an unfortunate trend in the MFT system lately – but let’s see…

The micro-four-thirds (MFT) system may be the most complete of the mirrorless systems. However, it mostly tackles entry to medium level users but slowly but steadily we are seeing more ambitious offerings. The Olympus M.Zuiko 75mm f/1.8 ED is certainly among them. It has a fairly “unusual” focal length equivalent to a 150mm lens on classic full format cameras. As such it is a moderately long tele lens suitable for applications such as portrait and still-life photography. At f/1.8 it is very fast by MFT standards but keep in mind that in terms of depth-of-field is behaves like a “150mm…

Special thanks to Sylvain Goffin for providing this lens! As of the time of this review, there’re 2 native macro lenses in the Micro-Thirds-Thirds system. A while ago, the Panasonic / Leica DG Macro-Elamrit 45mm f/2.8 ASPH OIS delivered very impressive results in our review here in the zone. However, since late 2012 it faces competition from the Olympus M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 ED macro. Obviously Olympus preferred to make this one a little longer in order to allow a bigger working distance – a key aspect for those photographers interested in critters. That said the front lens-to-object distance is still…

Micro-Four-Thirds (MFT) is undoubtedly the mirrorless system with the biggest footprint in the market today. However, so far the system focused primarily on consumer- and prosumer-grade products and ignored the professional arena but during the recent months we are seeing indications that this is going to change. Olympus released the popular OM-D camera and a high grade 75mm f/1.8 lens and Panasonic is also placing some bets into the higher end of the market.In this review we’ll have a look at the Panasonic Lumix X 12-35mm f/2.8 ASPH Power OIS – the first fast standard zoom lens of the MFT…