Kase AF 85mm F1.4 Review
The company Kase has long been known as a filter maker, with a wide variety of filters and filter systems. But they have just released their first lens, and it is a surprisingly ambitious one. The Kase AF 85mm F1.4…
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.
Nikkor Z 35mm F1.8 S Review
I noted in my recent review of the Nikkor Z 50mm F1.8 S that Nikon’s marketing strategy at the typical prime focal lengths (35mm, 50mm, and 85mm) is a bit unconventional. In the past the usual strategy was entry level…
Sigma 17-40mm F1.8 DC | ART Review
Sigma’s 18-35mm F1.8 that was released ten years ago became a cult favorite, particularly with the video crowd. Even full frame users often used it to help mitigate crop factors and because of the flexibility of having a zoom range…
Viltrox AF 85mm F1.4 PRO FE Review
The launch of the APS-C specific Viltrox AF 75mm F1.2 Pro for Fuji’s X-mount platform was the moment I realized that Viltrox was moving to a whole new level of optical design. I gave that lens a glowing review because…
Yongnuo YN 35mm F1.8 DA ART Review
I’ve praised Yongnuo over the past few years for being innovative rather than derivative. My first exposure to Yongnuo is when they started making cheap versions of Canon optical designs (very derivative), but more recently they’ve found their footing in…
Schneider-Kreuznach x LK Samyang 14-24mm F2.8 FE Review
It has a been a long time since I’ve reviewed a Samyang lens (two years, to be exact). Samyang seems to have gone through a bit of a restructuring during that time, rebranding as LK Samyang. The LK Group is…
7Artisans AF 24mm F1.8 Review
In 2024 7Artisans not only embraced autofocus but also a series slightly more upscale full frame lenses that are physically larger, have more features, and also have higher (but still inexpensive) price tag. The 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 lens was…
Nikon Z 50mm Showdown – F1.4 vs F1.8 S
Nikon’s marketing strategy with the common prime focal lengths is a little odd. They started with a series of premium S-Line primes…but with the uncommon maximum aperture of F1.8. They then followed those with the extreme F1.2 options. Everything made…
Sony 50-150mm F2 GM vs Tamron 35-150mm F2-2.8
Sony’s new 50-150mm F2 GM has created a lot of buzz for being the first full frame zoom to reach to 150mm with a constant maximum aperture of F2. Tamron was the first genre boosting zoom like this back in…
Nikkor Z 50mm F1.8 S Review
I noted in last year’s review of the Nikkor Z 50mm F1.4 that Nikon’s marketing strategy at the typical prime focal lengths (35mm, 50mm, and 85mm) is a bit unconventional. In the past the usual strategy was entry level (F1.8),…
LAB vs GM – Sony 35mm Showdown
I’ve owned the Sony 35mm F1.4 GM for about four years, and I think it is one of the best 35mm lenses ever made. It’s small and compact, focuses quickly, has great optics, and even has great magnification. The Viltrox…
Sigma 300-600mm F4 DG OS | SPORT Review
I had the privilege in late February to be in Japan for Sigma’s announcement of a three new products along with some new branding initiatives. My favorite of those announcements was the 300-600mm F4 DG OS | SPORT lens. Sigma…
LAB vs PLENA: Nikon 135mm Showdown
In the past six weeks I have reviewed two amazing 135mm lenses – both in Nikon Z mount. That’s great, as 18 months ago we had zero 135mm lenses. Both of them have tremendous strengths and a lot of similarities…but…
7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4 X-Mount Review
Last year about this time I reviewed the little 7Artisans AF 27mm F2.8, a pretty decent budget autofocus lens for various APS-C mounts (I reviewed in on Sony). This year they are back with another APS-C lens, but this is…
Sony FE 50-150mm F2 G Master Review
Sony’s mirrorless E-mount has reached a saturation point with more lenses available than possibly any lens mount before, so finding an actually unique lens can be hard to do. That’s not true for today’s review, however, as Sony is releasing…
Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE Review
We’ve known that Viltrox’s LAB series was coming for about two years, and I, for one, was very excited for the series. Viltrox has proved to be capable of doing very serious optical engineering, and, put simply, the LAB series…
Nikkor Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena Review
This is a very important review for me. Not because the Nikkor Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena is a new and hot review (it was actually released in October of 2023, several months before I started to do Nikon reviews…
Sony FE 16mm F1.8 G Review
In May of 2023 I reviewed a lens that I was very excited about. Viltrox had released a next level 16mm F1.8 autofocus lens for Sony FE, and it fill a niche previously unfilled on FE – a high quality,…