Sigma 35mm F1.2 DG II | ART Review
Sigma has been releasing one hit after another in 2025, and it feels like a full time job just to keep up with all the new lenses. This most recent tranche of lenses has a number of huge releases: the…
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.
Viltrox AIR 14mm F4 FE Review
Viltrox’s AIR series has become one of the most fascinating lineups in the lens market today. Not because they are fancy (they aren’t) or feature rich (ditto), but because they are small, light, inexpensive, and, most importantly, optically impressive. While…
Laowa AF 180mm F4.5 1.5x Ultra Macro APO Review
You’ve heard of autofocus lenses, and you’ve heard of manual focus lenses, but what about lenses that are a little of both? Laowa’s new 180mm F4.5 1.5x Ultra Macro APO is a first for me – it’s an autofocus lens…
Sigma 135mm F1.4 DG | ART Review
Sigma has been releasing one hit after another in 2025, and it feels like a full time job just to keep up with all the new lenses. This most recent tranche of lenses has a number of huge releases: the…
Viltrox Pro AF 56mm F1.2 E Review
Each one of Viltrox’s Pro series lenses have proven to be serious disruptors in the lens market. The 75mm F1.2 set the bar from what was optically achievable in a fast APS-C telephoto, while the 27mm F1.2 proved to be…
Sigma 12mm F1.4 DC | Contemporary Review
About five weeks I reviewed the new Viltrox 15mm F1.7 from their AIR series, and while I was researching competitors for that lens I realized that Sigma didn’t have anything wider than 16mm in their APS-C prime lenses specifically designed…
TTArtisan AF 40mm F2 E-Mount Review
In 2024 TTArtisan released their first full frame lens in the form of the AF 75mm F2, which I gave a largely positive review here. It offered a compact size, nice build, and good performance in an inexpensive package. Autofocus…
Sigma 200mm F2 DG OS | SPORT Review
Sigma is on a roll. They have essentially saturated the market with both traditional focal lengths and then more extreme prime and zoom lenses, often releasing focal length and aperture combinations previously unseen on Sony E and Leica L. But…
Viltrox AIR 15mm F1.7 X-Mount Review
Viltrox’s AIR series has become a favorite of a lot of APS-C photographers for a very good reason. These lenses have all punched way above their weight optically, and while the build formula is simple, these have all been very…
LK Samyang AF 85mm F1.8 Prima Review
Samyang is back…but now they are LK Samyang. My first LK Samyang lens in over two years was of the Schneider-Kreuznach x LK Samyang 14-24mm F2.8 FE. Just two months later, however, LK Samyang reached out to me to look…
LK Samyang AF 16mm F2.8 Prima Review
It was just a few months ago that I happily gave the Schneider-Kreuznach x LK Samyang 14-24mm F2.8 FE a positive review. It had been two full years since I had done a Samyang review. That was long enough that…
Tamron 16-30mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2 Review
Tamron has proven to be one of the most successful designers of zoom lenses in the modern era. They are the largest third party lensmaker in the world (in 2025), and part of that is because there are actually a…
Laowa AF 12mm F2.8 Zero D Review (Z-Mount)
The very first lens I reviewed from Laowa was their 12mm F2.8 Zero D wide angle prime, which I reviewed at the end of 2016 on Canon EF mount. I ended up buying that lens later on, though actually to…
Nikkor Z 35mm F1.2 S Review
All of Nikon’s Z-mount F1.2 S lenses are extreme instruments. They are big, heavy, and expensive…not for the faint of heart. But if you’re interested in premium performance (and you have a strong back), they are delivering uniquely amazing results.…
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…
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…