As a landscape and travel photographer, I often carry around an ultra-wide-angle 14mm lens and the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8. Last week I was able to test the latest addition to the Tamron series for full-frame mirrorless cameras: the 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III RXD. And I think I've found the perfect addition to my usual 2-lens kit.
Everyone that knows me knows that I love shooting with extreme wide-angle lenses. When I had just gotten the original a7 and no native (fast) wide-angle lenses were available yet, I was always shooting with the Samyang 14mm.
Tamron has been on a roll the last 2 years with E-Mount lenses. After introducing a holy trinity of fast zooms and 3 compact primes with 1:2 macro abilities, the company has announced its newest E-Mount lens: the 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6.
Jordan Drake and Chris Niccolls over at DPReview TV recently published a follow-up to their lens cleaning video, where they tested something that we've all wondered: how much do scratches, dust, water droplets, and fingerprints on your lens really impact image quality?
Lensrentals cracked open the brand new $9,500 AF-S NIKKOR 120-300mm f/2.8E FL ED SR VR lens this week, putting the behemoth of a zoom lens to the test. And while they found a "classic" Nikon build that isn't as elegant as the new Z-lenses, the bench tests reveal that the lens is "spectacularly good optically."
The folks over at YouTube channel Media Division recently put together an incredibly comprehensive test of the fastest camera lenses on the market. In this video, they cover everything from the legendary Zeiss R-Biotar 100mm f/0.73 X-Ray lens, to some of the more "practical" options with maximum apertures under f/1.
After teasing an “in development” announcement late last year, Tamron’s all new 70-180mm f/2.8 for Sony E-mount is finally about to hit store shelves. With the release of this lens, Tamron will complete their “holy trinity” for Sony mirrorless.
Photographer Christopher Frost has put together one of the most comprehensive and detailed macro lens shootouts we've ever seen. In this video he tests the latest 100mm (ish) f/2.8 macro lenses from Canon, Nikon, Sony, Sigma, Tamron, and Laowa to see how they compare in terms of build, usability and performance.
Photographer and YouTuber Michael the Maven has put together a video about one of the worst-kept "secrets" in optics: sample variation. Or: why you should immediately test every lens you buy to make sure you have a good copy.
Photographer Felix Jäger recently got to review a lens that many Micro Four Thirds shooters have on their wishlist: the Voigtländer 42.5mm f/0.95. But while that mouth-watering aperture number might set your heart to racing, don't whip out your wallet just yet.
Roger Cicala at LensRentals is on a quest. A quest to MTF everything that moves... or in this case zooms. After putting off zoom lens comparisons as long as possible, Roger finally bit the bullet and published his 70-200mm f/2.8 MTF chart comparison.
Given how much more it costs to buy an f/1.4 prime compared to an f/1.8, beginners in particular often ask if the upgrade is worth it. Build quality and optical quality being equal, is the difference in light gathering capability and depth of field noticeable? Can you really tell?
We'll start with the conclusion. DxOMark has dubbed Nikon's NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S lens "the new benchmark for 24-70mm lenses." The lens' overall score of 36 makes it the best 24-70mm f/2.8 lens DxOMark has ever tested, and the 5th best zoom lens overall. Not too shabby.
If you're looking for an 85mm portrait lens for your Sony full-frame e-mount camera, you should seriously consider the 'budget' FE 85mm f/1.8 Sony announced back in February. It might have seemed like an afterthought, but this $600 lens can keep up with glass more than twice its price.
Another day, another lens comparison takes on Sigma's "king of portrait lenses," the 85mm f/1.4 Art. This time, our friend Usman from Sonder Creative tested the Sigma 85mm against Sony's well-liked 85mm f/1.4 GM out in the real world to see which of the two 85s he preferred.
The 50mm lens has been the 'standard' for street photographers for ages, but is it the best option available? Maybe not. Kai wanted to find out, so he pit the 50mm against a 35mm and 28mm, and went out shooting to find out which he liked best and why.
I have had a great weekend shooting with the now kind-of-old, well-known, and mostly-forgotten-about Canon 50 f/1.2L lens. This lens came out years ago, and has been reviewed hundreds of times by users, reviewers, and anyone with an opinion. So why I am dedicating a post and short review to this lens?
"As a rule of thumb, if your [Director of Photography] mentions something with a German-sounding name, it means it's going to be super expensive." Ain't that the truth...
Fujifilm has a new website that lets photographers "try" X-Mount lenses to see what they can do. It's a lens simulator of sorts: select the lens, aperture, and focal length you want, and press the shutter button on the page. A sample photo will pop up showing what that combination of gear and settings would produce.
Like a lot of photo history buffs, I’ve been quite excited about Lomography’s new iteration of the Petzval lens in …
Can the new Rokinon 12mm f/2.0 NCS CS compete with the Zeiss Touit 12mm f/2.8? Here are my thoughts on this unique lens.
We have our own Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art lens on the way for full review, but until then it's interesting to see what some of the big names in gear review are saying about this optical beast and how it compares to the Otus it was meant to compete with.
Today, one of the biggest of those reviewers, DxOMark, released the results of its tests -- and news is good if you're planning to pick one of these beauties up.
Sigma made quite a splash at CES this year when the company not only announced that a 50mm f/1.4 lens would be added to its superb Art series, but claimed that this lens would be so good that its competition wouldn't be Nikon or Canon, but the indisputably exceptional $4,000 ZEISS Otus.
Well, thanks to the website Xitek and their recently posted lens test results, we finally get to see if the 50mm's bite measures up to its bark.
Camera weenies can argue until they drop about subjective qualities like bokeh yumminess or ergonomics. For the folks who like to stick with numbers, however, there's software maker and testing titan DxOMark, which recently declared the Zeiss 55mm FE the best autofocus lens it's ever tested.
There’s been a lot of interest in the newly released Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 SP Di VC USD lens. (For those wondering what the initials mean, VC means vibration control, the others all read ‘marketing drivel’.) But meaningless initials or not, with a price under $1,100, a superior range, and vibration control, this lens has created a lot of excitement.
You've probably seen a good number of sample photos and videos from camera and lens tests before, but probably not quite like this. Filmmaker Anders Øvergaard puts a creative twist on the idea of "test videos" with this sample footage shot with only a Canon 550D/Rebel T2i and Tamron 18-270mm lens.