Your one stop shop for everything photo-video
It seems there’s another new player in lens town. At least, the manual focus section of it. There have been a lot of different brands popping up over the last few years in the small, fast, manual focus lens market. Does it have room for one more?
Thypoch, a Chinese lens manufacturer, made its debut at Photophia Hamburg 2023. During the event, the company released the Simera 28m f/1.4 and 35mm f/1.4 manual focus lenses for Leica M mount.
Samyang has today announced the new full-frame Samyang AF 35mm f/1.4 FE II lens for Sony E mount, the successor to its popular AF 35mm f/1.4 FE (which is currently seeing a big price drop from $799 to $499). According to Samyang UK, the new lens boasts corner-to-corner sharpness and clarity with a faster and more precise quiet autofocus system.
It has a minimum focus distance of 29cm, weather-sealing and a “modern design” that looks pretty much identical to the old one on the surface, except for a slight colour change at the end of the focus ring. But has much really changed from its predecessor? Alyssa and Peter Zalabai managed to get their hands on one and have already posted a review.
Sigma has now officially announced the totally-already-leaked Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art series lens for Sigma/Panasonic/Leica L mount and Sony E mount mirrorless cameras. Essentially replacing the 9-year-old Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art, Sigma says that the new lens has been redesigned from the ground up, optimised for today’s mirrorless systems.
Of course, at the moment that’s only two mirrorless systems. L and E mounts. There’s no word on when or if we can expect this lens to come to Z and RF mounts at some point. Sigma says that the new 35mm f/1.4 DG DN offers “exceptional optical performance”, a fast quiet autofocus motor and a “professional feature-set”.
It’s not really much of a surprise that with the official announcement expected tomorrow we’re seeing leaks. This time, though, it doesn’t come from Nokishita. Well, it sort of does, but not directly. This time they’re just the messenger. British retailer Campkins Cameras and Dutch retailer Foto Konijnenberg both published complete product listings for the upcoming Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art series lens for L & E mounts a day early.
According to the now-removed listings (thanks, Google Cache!), the UK price will be £745 with the EU price coming in at €849. This tallies up with the previously rumoured $899 price for the USA. The specs pretty much confirm those leaked by Nokishita a few days ago, and also offers up a couple more that weren’t in the previous leak.
Sigma Global has announced an “Online New Product Presentation” set for April 27th. Given some recent Tweets from Nokishita, it looks like it’s going to be the official announcement for the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art series lens for Panasonic and Sony mirrorless systems. They’ve leaked some of the specs for the new lens, along with a price, stating that it’s been added to some overseas retailers already.
Surprisingly, there don’t appear to be any product photos of the actual lens yet, which is designed for Leica L mount and Sony E mount systems and expected to cost $899, but no doubt they’ll start to pop up in the next few days.
So many of us baby our gear. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Despite the fact that the odd scratch here and there isn’t going to affect the performance of my kit, I’m still going to try to take the best care of it that I can. But sometimes accidents happen.
And an accident is what happened to Christopher Hamberger when he dropped his $1,200 Nikon 35mm f/1.4 Ai-S lens and shattered the rear element. Can it still shoot, though? How will that decimated rear element affect the images? Well, there’s only one way to find out. Shoot with it.
Is it just me, or gear delays have become more common than ever? The new Sony 35mm f/1.4 G Master was supposed to start shipping in a few days. And now Sony Japan has published an announcement saying that we’ll have to wait a little longer after all.
Sony has officially announced its new wide-angle full-frame 35mm f/1.4 G Master lens for the Sony EF mirrorless mount – what Sony describes as a “small, bright 35 for breathtaking images” which incorporates “Sony’s most advanced technology”.
It will be a welcome addition to Sony’s lineup for those whose f/1.4 options thus far have been only the Sony Zeiss Distagon T FE 35mm f/1.4 ZA, with a price towards which the new sony leans, or the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art series lens which is a DSLR lens retrofitted to fit on Sony mirrorless cameras.
In the world of photography, you’ll find people generally prefer primes or zooms. The main benefit to zoom lenses is that you can cover multiple focal lengths in one decent sized package. In saying this, there are some prime lenses that can work well for multiple purposes.
Two of these are the 35mm and 85mm primes. Now just to be clear, like any article this doesn’t apply to all people. With the genres I shoot, these two lenses can cover so many uses and really prove their worth. Regardless of which mount you own, there are great options from both first and third party manufacturers.
I actually feel these lenses have the same benefits and I will discuss why you should own these two lenses.
Tamron SP lenses have been around for 40 years. To celebrate this anniversary, Tamron has decided to launch an “ultimate” 35mm lens for Nikon and Canon DSLRs. The SP 35mm f/1.4 Di USD is coming soon and it’s going to be “the finest lens in Tamron’s history.”
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!