Introduction I suppose that the readers of this article will fall into two categories – one group will be bored…
Browsing: Prime
A system is incomplete without some macro lenses and Nikon does have two in its lineup. One of them is…
The old Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM is a good lens. However, it isn’t exceptional. Sony got the message and…
Recently, we reviewed the Viltrox AF 85mm f/2 EVO, and it turned out to be probably the best value prime…
When rumors about the Canon RF 45mm f/1.2 STM emerged, there was lots of excitement. An ultra-large aperture lens from…
So while we are at reviewing 135mm lenses, let’s not forget about this one – the Canon RF 135mm f/1.8…
Introduction The newest kid in Viltrox’s ever-growing list of prime lenses is the AF 15mm f/1.7 Air XF – an…
Introduction It appears that Sony can’t get enough ultra-wide lenses. The next one in line is the Sony FE 16mm…
We have become quite fond of Viltrox lenses lately. Especially their higher-end offerings have impressed us with a combination of…
The Canon RF 24mm f/1.8 IS STM macro is one of the more affordable lenses in Canon R-mount. At least…
Sigma has a wide variety of ultra-fast lenses in their lineup. Among them is the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 DG DN…
Ref.: https://www.tamron.com/global/consumer/lenses/f072/Price: $700 USD SpecificationsOptical construction15 elements in 12 groups ( 4x LD )Number of aperture blades12 (rounded)min. focus distance0.23m…
Whenever a new pancake lens arrives in the lab, I’m getting pretty excited. Sure, their on-paper specs are never impressive…
Ref.: https://imaging.nikon.com/imaging/lineup/lens/z-mount/z_50mmf14/ Price: $500 USD SpecificationsOptical construction10 elements in 7 groups (1x aspherical)Number of aperture blades9 (rounded)min. focus distance0.37m (max.…
Most of us just love high-speed lenses. And if it’s a 35mm lens, that’s even better. When it comes to…
Introduction A short while ago, we reviewed the Viltrox AF 56mm f/1.7 X in Fujifilm X-mount – with rather surprisingly…
Ref.: https://viltrox.com/en-au/products/af-56mm-f1-7-aps-c-lens-for-sony-e-mount A review will follow soon in this theatre. Price: 180 USD SpecificationsOptical construction11 elements in 9 groups (3x…
Price: 369 USD Ref.: https://www.astrhori.cn/products/120mm-f2-8-full-frame-macro-lens-for-e-rf-z-l SpecificationsOptical construction14 elements in 9 groups (4x LD, 3x HR)Number of aperture blades13min. focus distance0.3m…
Price: 380 USD Ref.: https://www.artralab.hk/products/artra-lab-nonikkor-50mm-f1-2-nocty-lenses SpecificationsOptical construction8 Element in 6 GroupsNumber of aperture blades11min. focus distance0.35mDimensionsφ72x 83mmWeight560gFilter sizeΦ52mmHoodbarrel-shaped, bayonet mountMountsNikon…
The Canon RF 35mm f/1.4 L VCM fills another gap in its R-mount lens lineup. Obviously, this is a moderately…
Introduction The Thypoch Simera 35mm f/1.4 Z is the 2nd lens provided by Thypoch for review. Once again, it’s a…
Introduction Most Chinese lens manufacturers prefer to enter the market on the value end of the food chain. However, there…
Amazingly affordable at just $600USD SpecificationsOptical construction11 elements in 9 groups (including 2 aspherical lens elements)Number of aperture blades9 (rounded)min.…
Introduction Viltrox produces a series of high-quality as well as budget-focussed AF lenses. The Viltrox AF 40mm f/2.5 Z clearly…
Some may not understand it, but from a personal perspective, yours truly has long waited for a “premium” super-ultra-wide prime…
Introduction We reviewed the Viltrox AF 16mm f/1.8 in Sony E-mount about a year ago, and the results were more…
Introduction It is always exciting to review lenses with exotic specs, but the truth is that much of the real-world…
Price: $1400 USD SpecificationsOptical construction17 elements in 12 groups (4x aspherical)Number of aperture blades13 (rounded)min. focus distance0.4m (max. magnification: 1:6.2)Dimensionsφ81.0 x…
Laowa finally did it. It took them a LONG while, but they finally released their first autofocus lens. And it…
Manufacturer Page: https://www.cosina.co.jp/voigtlander/x-mount/color-skopar-18mm-f2-8-aspherical/ SpecificationsOptical construction7 elements in 5 groups (1x aspherical, 1x ED)Number of aperture blades10 (rounded)min. focus distance0.17m (max…
Manufacturer page: https://th.hkyongnuo.com/products/yn11mm-f18s-da-dsm-wl?VariantsId=10292 SpecificationsOptical construction10 elements in 9 groups (1x aspherical, 1x HR, 3x UD)Number of aperture blades7 (circular)min. focus…
Introduction In the last 5 years or so, the ultra-wide lens market has gone bonkers. During the DSLR era, 14mm…
Introduction TTArtisan may not yet be a household name among most photographers. However, they have released some ambitious designs in…
If you could pick only one lens, what would you choose? For many photographers, that would be a 35mm prime.…
Introduction Over the years, we have seen quite a few Chinese players, but most of them are still on the…
Introduction Canon may not have a Pentaxian-level love affair with pancake lenses, but they still have a history here. During…
Introduction Many of us know the problem – sometimes wide and fast just isn’t wide and fast enough. And then…
Introduction At the time Canon announced the Canon RF 600mm f/11 IS STM and RF 800mm f/11 IS STM, the…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published April 2023 Introduction Fast 85mm f/1.4 lenses are hot commodities, but the OEM options tend…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published March 2023 Introduction The release of the Panasonic/Leica DG Summilux 9mm f/1.7 ASPH killed a…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2023 Introduction Welcome to our new mini-series of vintage lens tests – and this…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2023 Introduction Our 2nd 100mm-ish lens in our vintage test series is the Olympus…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published January 2023 Introduction The Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 is a medium telephoto lens that was produced…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2023 Introduction Viltrox is a bit of an outlier among Chinese lens manufacturers. Most…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published January 2023 Introduction Minolta used to be a major player throughout the 20th century. The…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published January 2023 Introduction Canon FD is a lens mount system developed by Canon for its…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published January 2023 Introduction We already reviewed the Olympus Zuiko MC 100mm f/2.8 and didn’t really…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published December 2022 Introduction Laowa, one of the better-known Chinese players in the market, specializes in…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published December 2022 Introduction Sigma’s Series I lens series has a special place in our hearts…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2022 Introduction Autofocus lenses are still pretty rare beyond the mainstream players, but slowly…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2022 Introduction At the time Sony announced their set (11mm f/1.8, 15mm f/1.4G, 10-20mm…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2022 Introduction Meike has had quite a stampede of new lens releases lately. One…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2022. Lens sample provided by Meike. Introduction Fish-eye lenses may not be the most…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published June 2022 Introduction Competition is always a good thing and preventing it is not overly…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published May 2022 Introduction Every once in a while, many of us are feeling an itch…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published May 2022 Introduction No system is complete without macro lenses and while Canon has been…
Reviewed on the Nikon Z 7 (FX)
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2022 Introduction There is a general notion that full-format is the way to go…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2022 Introduction First of all, I’ve to admit something – I’m one of the…
An ultra-wide lens on a budget?
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published January 2022 Introduction So to finalize our little tour of Tokina’s new gang of three…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published January 2022 Introduction Recently, we reviewed the Tokina atx-m 56mm f/1.4 X in Fujifilm X…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published January 2022 Introduction The Tokina atx-m 23mm f/1.4 E is a moderate, wide-angle prime lens…
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published October 2021 Introduction Recently Fujifilm opened up its system to a broader pool of third-party…
Introduction With the Fujinon XF 80mm f/2.8, Fujifilm added a second macro lens to its line of XF lenses. Unlike…
Reviewed on the Nikon Z 7 (FX)
Reviewed on the Nikon D850 (FX)
Introduction As of the time of this review, Samyang has been the only third-party manufacturer offering AF lenses in Canon…
by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2021 Introduction Following our review of the Tamron 35mm f/2.8 Di III OSD M1:2, let’s…
by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2021 Introduction In our last part of our Tamron prime lens review mini-series, we’ll have…
by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2021 Introduction Driven by their recent flood of AF lenses, Samyang has been rushing into…
Reviewed on the Nikon D850 (FX)
by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2021 Introduction It seems that comparatively slow-speed “budget” prime lenses are all the rage these…
by Klaus Schroiff, published June 2021 Introduction There is an almost mad amount of 35mm full format lenses available in…
Introduction There is always a lens that is the bottom feeder in the lineup and within the range of prime…
Introduction By now we know that Canon can produce superb L-class lenses but the photographic world isn’t just about high-end…
by Klaus Schroiff, published January 2021 Introduction Over the last few years, Laowa has created an arsenal of ultra-wide prime…
by Klaus Schroiff, published September 2020 Introduction Laowa has explored many extreme lens designs ever since they started in 2013.…
by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2020 Introduction Laowa has released a couple of very interesting lenses over the last years.…
by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2020 Introduction During recent years, mirrorless lenses suffered from a disease – they got bigger…
Introduction Canon wouldn’t be Canon without their extremely fast prime lenses. And why bother with an f/1.4 aperture when you…
by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2020 Introduction As of the time of this review, the Micro-Four-Thirds (MFT) world is in…
by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2020 Introduction Manufacturers love to explore the extremes because that’s a way of differentiating their…
Introduction Sigma seems to have hit a sweet spot with its “DC DN” trinity of fast APS-C/MFT format prime lenses…
Introduction A little while ago, we reviewed the Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.8 and we were impressed by the maturity of the…
Introduction In our previous review, we discussed the Viltrox AF 23mm f/1.4 XF, a good quality, affordable lens – and…
by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2020 Introduction The Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.2 PRO is among the best lenses that we…
by Klaus Schroiff, published February 2020 Introduction It may seem a bit strange but these days full-format 28mm prime lenses…
Introduction SIgma is maintaining a small set of three very fast prime lenses dedicated to APS-C and Micro-Four-Thirds mirrorless cameras…
Introduction Let’s start 2020 with something different – the Viltrox PFU RBMH 85mm f/1.8 STM – and something new -…
by Klaus Schroiff, published January 2020 Introduction In our previous review, we covered the Viltrox PFU RBMH 85mm f/1.8 STM…
Introduction The Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 STM IS macro was one of the first RF-mount lenses released back in 2018.…
Introduction We have to admit that there was a rather embarrassing gap in our list of Sony E-mount lens reviews…
by Klaus Schroiff, published October 2019 Introduction Shallow depth-of-field photography is not at the center of the micro-four-thirds system due…
by Klaus Schroiff, published October 2019 Introduction Sony has enjoyed quite a headstart compared to Canon R/Nikon Z but obviously…
by Klaus Schroiff, published September 2019 Introduction The Samyang AF 50mm f/1.4 FE (aka Rokinon) is one of the first…
by Klaus Schroiff, published September 2019 Introduction While Sony E-mount lenses are nothing new for Sigma, it took them quite…
by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2019 Introduction It’s awesome … and it’s hell! There you go – the verdict is…
by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2019 Introduction One of the biggest controversials around mirrorless camera systems are the comparatively inflated…
Samyang (aka Rokinon) may not be a household name in the photographic world – yet – but the velocity of…