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Yongnuo has launched the YN RF 85mm f/1.8 – first 3rd party RF lens with a control ring

Yongnuo has officially announced their first RF mount lens. It’s the YN RF 85mm f/1.8R DF DSM and it’s actually equipped with a configurable control ring. Despite a number of other lens manufacturers producing RF mount compatible lenses, this marks the first 3rd party lens to actually include a control ring, which has so far been found exclusively on Canon’s own RF lenses.

A few reviews for the lens have already been popping up online over the last week or so, but the lens hadn’t officially been announced yet. It just kind of quietly slipped out. It’s the same optical formula as their 85mm f/1.8 for Sony FE, but in a whole new housing that shows some nice improvements over the FE mount design – like a weather sealing gasket.

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A day earlier than expected, Panasonic announces its $599 85mm f/1.8 L mount lens

Panasonic has now officially announced the new Panasonic S 85mm f/1.8 L mount lens. And it does indeed come with a rather reasonable price tag. It looks like Panasonic has listened to the complaints from many users (of all mirrorless systems) about the high prices of mirrorless lenses vs their older DSLR equivalents.

It marks the start of a new chapter in Panasonic’s full-frame L mount lineup, with primes aimed at a lower budget user – something that has been sorely missing thus far. It’s a small 85mm f/1.8 prime lens for L mount mirrorless cameras from Panasonic, Sigma and Leica that costs a mere $599.

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Leaked photos of Panasonic S 85mm f/1.8 L mount lens – reported to cost $599

It looks like Panasonic’s plan for the 85mm f/1.8 is to indeed make a reasonably priced prime lens aimed at attracting lower budget users into the L mount ecosystem. At least, it is if the price tag being reported by Nokishita turns out to be true. They say it’s expected to be the same price as Panasonic’s 20-60mm f/3.5-5.6 L mount lens, which sits at around $599.

They’ve also leaked some photos of the new lens, which shows a compact and clean looking design. There’s just a single switch on the side to flick between Autofocus and Manual Focus with a wide-banded ring for when you want to switch to the latter.

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Panasonic S 85mm f/1.8 L Mount lens specs leak – announcement expected November 5th

An 85mm f/1.8 lens for the Leica L mount has been on Panasonic’s roadmap for a long time. In fact, the updated roadmap shows lenses that weren’t there in February’s list when the 85mm f/1.8 appeared on it. Now, though, it looks like it’s finally going to be coming in just three days, according to yet another leak from Nokishita.

The leak includes the complete specs for the camera (in Polish, apparently). Nokishita also says that it’s expected to go on pre-order in Japan on November 5th, although they don’t know whether it will become available worldwide at that time, or if the rest of us will have to wait.

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The Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 for Sony E Mount can become an f/1.6 lens with just a simple firmware update

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The Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 lens has started to become quite a popular lens choice for Sony E mount shooters due to its decent level of performance vs its fairly low $399 price tag (compared to the $600 Sony). It’s also available in Fuji X flavour, too. But can this lens go even faster than f/1.8? Yeah, apparently.

The video above by Stefan Malloch was actually posted back in April, but only just now seems to have gained any real traction, but it turns out you can update the Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 lens to f/1.6, giving you an extra third of a stop, rounder bokeh and a slightly (barely noticeable, really) shallower depth of field, with just a simple firmware update.

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Z mount and F mount go head-to-head in this Nikon 85mm f/1.8G vs 85mm f/1.8S comparison

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One of the biggest issues any time a new camera system is released, is the lack of lenses. It’s what held back Sony’s first couple of generations, and it’s one of the hesitations amongst buyers towards Canon and Nikon’s mirrorless offerings – especially when the native RF and Z mount lenses are so expensive.

Fortunately, both Nikon and Canon have a long history and have released their own lens adapters for the new systems. But how does a Nikon 85mm f/1.8G lens compare to the Nikon 85mm f/1.8S? That’s what Dariusz Breś wanted to find out, so he compared the $427 F mount lens to the $797 Z mount lens on the Nikon Z7.

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Two focal lengths every prime lover should own

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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.

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85mm lenses aren’t just for portraits as this foggy landscape challenge shows

When we think of shooting landscapes, typically it’s with pretty wide lenses. Most landscape photographers I know rarely shoot with anything that isn’t at least as wide as a 24mm on a full frame body. But does that mean you have to only shoot landscapes with a wide angle lens? In this video, Toma Bonciu challenges himself to shoot landscapes with an 85mm lens, typically used more for portraits, and the results are pretty spectacular.

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The Canon 85mm f/1.2 vs f/1.4 vs f/1.8 showdown shows there’s no clear winner

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One of the most popular portrait focal lengths out there is 85mm. Most of us have one in our bag, or at least a zoom capable of 85mm. We’ve seen comparisons of 85mm lenses before, although they’re typically from different manufacturers.

But how do Canon’s 85mm f/1.2, 85mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.8 lenses stack up against each other? What are each of their strengths and weaknesses? Is there really an advantage to buying a $1,849 lens over a $349 one? That’s what photographer David Flores wanted to find out, so he made a video.

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