Laowa Argus 25mm F0.95 APO Review
A little over a year ago I spent some time with my first Laowa Argus lens. The Argus series is a more premium line of prime lenses that to this point have all had the extreme maximum aperture of F0.95. …
Category Lens Reviews
Dustin Abbott has been published in such publications as PhotoPlus, Photo News, Popular Science, American Photo, Pro Photographer, and Photography Week magazines as well as the Globe and Mail newspaper. He has been featured as a guest on many photography blogs and has had either articles or photos published in local magazines in multiple countries. He writes on a regular basis as a free-lance writer for PhotoNewsFlash, Alien Skin Software Blog, CanonRumors, B&H Explora eZine, and has also written for Photography Masterclass Magazine, Henry’s Photography Blog, PhotoNews Magazine, Digital Photography School, the Zeiss LenSPIRE blog, and Pro Photographer magazine. His lens reviews are respected around the world and can be seen on YouTube, too.
Tamron 20-40mm F2.8 VXD (A062) Review
Japanese lensmaker Tamron has had an epiphany: rather than just produce less expensive alternatives to first party lenses they could instead forge their own path and open up new market share for themselves by thinking outside the box. Tamron has…
Brightin Star 16mm F2.8 Review (M-Mount via Techart)
Brightin Star is one of many startup lens companies that is trying to make a name for themselves. I’ve reviewed a couple of their lenses previously, starting with a budget wide angle 12mm F2 for APS-C (my review here) and…
Canon RF-S 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM Review
The Canon RF-S 18-150mm IS STM lens is one of two newly announced lenses that will serve as the “kit” lenses for Canon’s first APS-C cameras that utilize the RF mount. The 18-150mm is the more premium of the two,…
Laowa 58mm F2.8 APO 2x Macro Review
It was just a few months back that Laowa built on the foundation of the excellent Laowa 100mm F2.8 APO 2x Macro with a new and improved lens specifically designed for mirrorless mounts in the form of the Laowa 90mm…
Tamron 50-400mm F4.5-6.3 VC VXD Review (A067)
Tamron has another game changer. This is how I felt about the Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8 VXD zoom because it blurred the traditional F2.8 zoom focal ranges (24-70mm and 70-200mm) while also providing a larger than typical maximum aperture. I gave…
Canon RF 16mm F2.8 STM Review
Canon has been a new roll in the mirrorless space since with a run of amazing cameras that began with the EOS R5 (my review here) and EOS R6 (my review here), and then carrying on to the high end…
7Artisans Spectrum 50mm T2.0 Cine Lens Review
I’ve previously spent time reviewing 4 different 7Artisans lenses, most all of them relatively inexpensive manual-everything lenses designed for APS-C and smaller sensors. But recently the company reached out to me and asked about the possibility of my reviewing a…
Viltrox AF 13mm F1.4 E Mount Review
Back in May of this year I spent extended time reviewing the Viltrox AF 13mm F1.4 STM for Fuji (on a FUJIFilm X-T4 camera). I concluded that it joined the 85mm F1.8 as one of their best lenses to date…
TTArtisan 50mm F2 Review and Gallery
It was just a few months ago that I was reviewing a much more extreme instrument from TTArtisan – the 50mm F0.95. That lens was designated for use on APS-C, but it did a reasonable job of covering the full…
Sigma 24mm F1.4 DN ART Review
The original 24mm F1.4 ART was (I believe) the only Sigma ART lens that I missed reviewing at its time of release (in 2015). I rectified that in 2018 when I reviewed the newly released version of the lens for…
Techart LM-EA9 MF to AF Adapter Review and Gallery
Early on photography was a hobby, not a career for me. I engaged with other photographers on Flickr, a place where my collective photos have had 30 million views at this point. In one of the Flickr communities I became…
Sigma 20mm F1.4 DN ART Review
It was April 2016 when I reviewed Sigma’s first 20mm F1.4 ART lens, a lens designed for full frame DSLRs. I came away very impressed with the optical performance of the lens and felt like the greatest negatives were a…
Meike 85mm F1.8 STM Review
Meike is one of many newer lens companies who have specialized in inexpensive manual focus lenses (though they also have a lineup of slightly higher end cine lenses). I’ve spent time with three Meike manual focus lenses in the past,…
Laowa 10mm F4 “Cookie” Lens Review
By my count this is (at least) the 13th Laowa lens from Venus Optics that I’ve reviewed. I’ve long felt that Laowa stands out for their courage in tackling challenging and unique projects, including wide angle macro lenses, very large…
TTArtisan 50mm F0.95 Review
TTArtisan has continued to surprise me with lenses that in some way exceed my expectations. Whether it was a surprisingly sharp full frame fisheye lens, a shockingly competent macro lens that cost right over $100, or tiny little prime lenses…
Sony E 11mm F1.8 Review
I’ve questioned Sony’s commitment to its APS-C platform in the past, as both camera and lens releases in that space have been few and far between over the past 3 years. Sony’s development on full frame has been rather frenzied…
Laowa 90mm F2.8 APO 2x Macro Review
Earlier in 2022 I revisited the Laowa 100mm F2.8 APO 2:1 Macro because when I had initially reviewed it in 2019, my review was conducted on an EF mount lens on a Canon 5D Mark IV DSLR and was interested…