The Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero D lens is another intriguing wide angle option from Chinese company Venus Optics. This is the third of their lenses that I have reviewed, and each lens has had some unique selling points to set…
Sigma’s approach to mirrorless lenses (DN) has come in two distinct phases. Sigma first released a series of three budget primes with moderately wide apertures (19mm, 30mm, and 60mm f DN lenses). I’ve tested all of these, and they are…
The Sony a7R III (a7r3) is a camera that has me more excited than any camera has for a while. The a7R series has had some great things going for it, including a great sensor, high resolution, great video features,…
Wow! It has been a long, long time I have received a new Canon L series prime lens. It was two years ago that I reviewed the excellent Canon EF 35mm f II, and since that point I have reviewed…
In 2016 Sigma launched a new series of lenses for mirrorless bodies (Sony E-mount and M43) – the DC DN Contemporary lenses. They started with the extremely useful (and very good) Sigma 30mm f, a nice standard prime lens with…
Several years back Tamron started a new revolution of affordable supertelephoto zoom lenses with the SP 150-600mm f VC USD. The lens was an instant success and spawned a whole new class of such lenses. About this time last year…
Wow! It has been a long, long time I have received a new Canon L series prime lens. It was two years ago that I reviewed the excellent Canon EF 35mm f II, and since that point I have reviewed…
A friendly subscriber (who wishes to remain anonymous) offered to loan me his hot new Nikon D850 and some lenses that I personally own in Canon mount so that I can do some direct comparisons with the Canon 5D Mark…
Sigma has done a fairly amazing job of reinventing themselves as a company in the past five years. It can be easy to forget that Sigma was known as a maker of mostly “cheap” lenses not all that long ago,…
For a long time the landscape of lenses has been concentrated on a few major lens makers. The first party players, making lenses for their own cameras, and a few established third parties like Zeiss, Sigma, and Tamron. In the…
Earlier this year Sigma released a relatively affordable 100-400mm lens that delivered excellent optics competitive with the much more expensive first party options from Canon, Nikon, and Sony. I was impressed by the Sigma 100-400mm f OS Contemporary when I…
One of Sigma’s most hotly anticipated lenses of the year is this one – the Sigma 14mm f DG HSM ART. It sets the new record for maximum aperture at such a wide angle (this is a full frame compatible…
The Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM replaces a lens that is probably the most popular “L” series ever, but it has scarcely gotten any attention and has received relatively few reviews. Why? Photographer Dustin Abbott believes he knows…
Today’s lens is a very unique one: a small manual everything prime lens for mirrorless systems (Sony, Canon, Fuji, and M43), but with a “killer app” up its tiny sleeves – a huge maximum aperture of f/1.1. The KamLan brand…
I reviewed the “classic” Zeiss Makro-Planar T* 50mm f/2 a few years ago, and concluded that it was a very compelling 50mm option for those that A) are not off-put by manual focus and B) want a much magnification figure…
There are few lenses more important to a lens makers lineup than the 24-70mm f lens. A 24-70mm is valued because of the versatility of its zoom range, which covers a number of very important focal lengths, including 24mm, 28mm,…
One of my most popular articles that I’ve ever written was entitled, “Why I chose a Canon 6D over a 5D Mark III”. The original Canon 6D was a bit of a unicorn: on paper it wasn’t very impressive, with…
After I finished taking a look at the Zeiss Touit series for Sony APS-C mirrorless, I wanted to also take a look at Sigma’s offerings for Sony E-Mount. These are the Sigma DN lenses, and include a 19mm, 30mm, and…