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…
Author: Klaus
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.…
by Klaus Schroiff, published April 2023 Introduction Reviewing a “super zoom” lens is both heaven and hell. It’s heaven because the world is full of shooting opportunities with this much zoom range. And it’s hell for the same reason when having to do the formal testing across many focal lengths in the lab – with results that are often not all that exciting. Anyway, these lenses are popular, so they are an “inevitable” part of the game. This time, it’s about the Canon RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 USM IS. Canon has a bit of a mixed history regarding super zoom lenses.…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published March 2023 Introduction Sometimes, albeit rarely, a new lens seems to defy conventions. Straight f/2.8 standard zoom lenses tend to be rather bulky and heavy – even in APS-C format. e.g. The Fujinon 16-55mm f/2.8 has a size of 83.3 x 106 mm and weighs 655g, and the Sony E 16-55mm f/2.8 G isn’t much smaller. So meet the new Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DN DC Contemporary coming in at just 285g and a size of merely 61.6×76.8mm. Of course, this comparison is slightly unfair. After all, the Sigma isn’t quite as wide – these 2mm…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published March 2023 Introduction The release of the Panasonic/Leica DG Summilux 9mm f/1.7 ASPH killed a lot of the market of the emerging Chinese players in the ultra-wide segment – wide(r), fast, small, and affordable were important value propositions for them, and some of this is now basically owned by Panasonic. So what to do when facing the inevitable? You go even more extreme. Meet the Laowa 6mm f/2 Zero-D MFT. On paper, a difference of 3mm may not sound impressive, but it’s far from insignificant in terms of field-of-view. We are talking about 112° vs…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2023 Introduction Welcome to our new mini-series of vintage lens tests – and this time, it’s not just about some vintage-style lenses but truly about lenses from the 1970s to the early 1980s. In phase I, we’ll have a look at lenses around the 100mm f/2.8 mark with a typical used-market value between $100 to $200. This is probably the financial sweet spot for vintage lenses that you don’t just want to collect but intend to use. There are substantially more expensive (and better) lenses from this era but you have to be quite…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2023 Introduction Our 2nd 100mm-ish lens in our vintage test series is the Olympus E. Zuiko 100mm f/2.8 in OM mount. The Olympus OM mount was developed by Olympus Corporation for their OM-series 35mm single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras. The mount was introduced in 1972 and was used on several Olympus camera models until the early 2000s. So Olympus manufactured manual lenses well after most others had moved on to AF. Some of their latest lenses feature special glasses, and the price on the used market are often sky-high. However, the 100mm f/2.8 is reasonably…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published January 2023 Introduction The Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 is a medium telephoto lens that was produced by Nikon for their F-mount cameras. The 105mm f/2.5 was first introduced in 1959 ( Nikkor Nippon Kagaku 10.5CM f/2.5 ) and has gone through several iterations over the years. In 1966, Nikon introduced an improved version of the lens, the Nikkor-P 105mm f/2.5, which featured a modified optical formula and a more convenient stop-down aperture ring. The version that we are discussing here is the “P.C.” variant manufactured sometime around 1973-1975 which uses a further improved Xenotar/Gauss design. The…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2023 Introduction Viltrox is a bit of an outlier among Chinese lens manufacturers. Most are trying their luck in certain niches. e.g. Loawa is well-known for ultra-wide and macro lenses while others are bottom feeders. However, Viltrox has a very different approach. They are going for the mainstream market. Their rise to (relative) fame started with a set of APS-C format prime lenses – namely the AF 23mm f/1.4, AF 33mm f/1.4 and AF 56mm f/1.4 both in Sony E and Fujifilm X mount. Later they added a 13mm f/1.4 including one for Nikon…