Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Earlier this month, Sigma announced its new 16-28mm f/2.8 DG DN Contemporary lens. One of the features is that it features internal zoom and focus mechanisms, so it doesn’t change length when zooming or focusing.
If you’ve been wondering how it works and what it looks like on the inside, Sigma has a video for you. It shows a cross-section of the lens, all of its elements, and its internal zoom mechanism.
There isn’t really much about this lens that we didn’t already know, except for the surprisingly low $499 price tag, thanks to last month’s leaked specs, photos and video but Venus Optics has now officially announced the new Laowa 90mm f/2.8 2x Ultra-Macro APO “CA-Dreamer” lens. The lens was expected to be announced on May 23rd, although that seems to have been delayed until today.
This full-frame lens is available in several mirrorless mounts including Sony E, Canon RF, Nikon Z and Leica L. It’s a manual focus lens with a minimum focus distance of 20.5cm and a magnification factor of 2x. It weighs in at only 619g, and provides what Venus Optics says is “superb optical performance and outstanding sharpness”.
Well, we can see now why the A6400’s back in production, huh? Sony has just announced three new APS-C E-Mount lenses to go with it. First up, there’s the Sony E PZ 10-20mm f/4 G which Sony claims is “the world’s smallest and lightest, ultra-wide angle, constant f/4 APS-C power zoom lens” – of course, such claims from Sony usually come with a caveat or two.
As well as the zoom there are also two new prime lenses, the Sony E 15mm f/1.4 G and the ultra-wide Sony E 11mm f/1.8. This brings Sony’s E-Mount lens lineup count to a total of 70 different lenses for stills, video and hybrid shooters.
Sigma has today announced the 16-28mm f/2.8 DG DN Contemporary lens for full-frame mirrorless cameras. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise, as it was rumoured a week ago that that was exactly what they would be announcing and the short Sigma Stage briefing shows that it was all they were planning to announce today. Well, now it’s official and it’s being released this month.
They say that the new 16-28mm f/2.8 DG DN lens is a “perfect companion” to its 28-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Contemporary lens. There’s no 70-200mm to complete the trio yet, but there are rumours that it’ll be coming towards the end of the year. For now, though, let’s look at the 16-28mm f/2.8 DG DN.
Tokina has announced the new Tokina SZ 33mm f/1.2 lens for Fujifilm X and Sony E mount APS-C cameras. The manual focus offers a field of view similar to that of a 50mm lens on a full-frame body with a wide and bright f/1.2 aperture for shallow depth of field and low light shooting conditions. As well as manual focus, the lens also features a manual aperture ring to help keep it down to a budget-friendly price.
Tokina bills the lens as being ideal for landscapes, street photography, portraits and nighttime photography, and is a third of a stop faster than the Tokina ATX-M 33mm f/1.4 it replaces in the lineup. Despite trying to keep the price as low as possible, though, it’s a little bit more expensive than its predecessor.
Viltrox has announced a new Canon EF to Sony E mount “smart” lens adapter. As with most other “smart” lens adapters, this one allows you to pass through autofocus and EXIF information for complete data communications. This one, however, has a shiny new OLED display on top of it.
The $199 Viltrox EF-E5 Smart Mount Adapter is the fifth generation of Viltrox’s Canon EF to Sony E mount lens adapter, released over the last nine years. It makes use of that dead space between the lens and body by providing useful feedback to the photographer through its OLED display, including focal length, aperture and focus mode.
Samyang, like most brands these days, has a pretty good presence on social media and they regularly make content specifically for posting on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Content like this Happy New Year video Samyang posted a few days ago. The video hides a little secret, though. It contains a lens that isn’t actually available to buy just yet.
Looking very carefully at the beginning of the video, and after a little Photoshop work, we can see that there is what appears to be an AF 135/1.8FE lens. The 135/1.8FE is quite obvious to read, although the “AF” bit is a little more obscured due to compression.
TTArtisan, famous for its inexpensive manual focus lenses has decided to go autofocus, and they’ve done it in quite a big way coming to five different camera systems at once. Announced today, TTartisan AF 32mm f/2.8 is a full-frame autofocus lens, although a couple of the new mounts are for APS-C cameras.
In full-frame flavours, the new lens will be coming in all three of the major mirrorless camera mounts. That means Sony E, Nikon Z and Canon RF. Yes, they’re going where other 3rd party lens manufacturers fear to tread. On the APS-C side of things, it’ll be available for Fuji X mount and, strangely, Canon EF-M for the dying EOS-M system.
There have been one or two rumours that Sony might be about to introduce a 100mm f/1.4 GM lens. They may not be true, but it would be a great lens for Sony to add to their lineup. Nikon has its 105mm f/1.4 and while there is an FE mount version of Sigma’s 105mm f/1.4 “Bokeh Master” Art lens, it’s essentially still an adapted DSLR lens.
Sony Alpha Rumours has posted what might a possible spec sheet for an upcoming Sony 100mm f/1.4 GM lens – although “spec sheet” would be generous. There’s very little actual information, even if it turns out to be true. But the idea of a native FE mount 100mm f/1.4 by Sony themselves in the form of a GM lens is quite exciting.
About a month ago, Sony introduced the 50mm f/1.2 G Master lens and got many Sony shooters excited. So excited, in fact, that the company now claims it can’t manage all the demand. So you’ve guessed it right – you’re going to have to wait a little longer to have your 50mm f/1.2 delivered.
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