DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

Search

Submit A Story

Lens Announcement

The Mitakon Speedmaster 65mm f/1.4 is the fastest lens available for Hasselblad XCD

by 1 Comment

ZY Optics has announced that its Mitakon Speedmaster 65mm f/1.4, initially released for Fujifilm GFX cameras, is now available in Hasselblad X flavour. This makes the manual focus lens the fastest lens available for the Hasselblad X system. It has an aperture range from a bright f/1.4, stopping down to f/16, with a field of view on Hasselblad X cameras similar to that of a 50mm lens on full-frame cameras.

Being such a wide aperture lens and taking advantage of a medium format sensor, its relative depth of field is also shallower than it would be at f/1.4 on full-frame for the same field of view. Its diaphragm contains nine aperture blades for what ZY Optics describes as “outstanding bokeh” and they say it produces no vignetting at all, with consistent sharpness from edge to edge.

Irix expands its cinema lens lineup to include Fuji X mount

by Add Comment

Irix has today announced the addition of Fuji X mount to the list of mounts in which their lenses are available. This adds to the growing number of mounts, including Canon EF, Canon RF, Nikon Z, PL Mount, Micro Four Thirds and Sony E. The Irix lens lineup is still fairly small, covering only seven lenses – and even two of those are fairly similar to each other. But the addition of X mount will be very welcome to Fuji shooters.

All lenses in the Irix lineup feature a unified design to bring consistency to the range with aperture and focus ring positions and overall dimension and weight. This makes it easy to swap out on camera rigs and gimbals without needing to reconfigure or rebalance your camera.

Leica’s new 100-400mm f/5-6.3 looks like a rehoused Sigma at twice the price

by 6 Comments

Leica has announced a new addition to its SL system (L mount) lens lineup. It’s the Vario-Elmar-SL 100-400mm F5-6.3 and it costs a whopping $2,195. Now, as Leica lenses go, this is par for the course, but when you consider that Sigma also has a 100-400mm f/5-6.3 L mount lens for less than half of that, it’s a bit of a stretch. The Leica lens is quite a bit heavier than the Sigma, too, but we’ll save that comparison for a little later on.

The new lens features a removable Arca Swiss mounting plate for easy attaching to compatible tripod heads with clamp locks every 90 degrees for easy switching between landscape and portrait orientations. Leica has also announced a new 1.4x L mount teleconverter. In conjunction with the new lens, this brings it into a focal length range of 140-560mm, albeit with a stop slower aperture.

Sirui releases Saturn 35mm T2.9 1.6x Anamorphic lens

by Add Comment

Sirui has officially announced the general availability of its full-frame Saturn 35mm T2.9 1.6x Anamorphic lens. Initially launched in November 2022 as a pre-order, this tiny lens is smaller than a can of coke, yet covers a full-frame sensor with a 35mm anamorphic field of view. It’s intentionally small so it can be more easily used on lightweight gimbal rigs, as well as drones, where balance and lens weight is important.

Available in Canon RF, Sony E and DJI DL mount, the lens measures only 100-103mm with a weight of only 390-415g. Its weight is thanks to its use of carbon fibre on the lens barrel. Carbon fibre is much lighter than aluminium or other metals often used in lens construction while maintaining more than enough strength for a lens barrel. So while it’s still a but of a lump, it’s a lot lighter than it could have been.

Meike announces 60mm f/2.8 macro lens for E, X, Z, EF-M, RF & M43 mounts

by Add Comment

Meike has announced their new 60mm f/2.8 APS-C manual focus macro lens. It’s a very low-budget lens, with a price tag of only $189.99, and as such, it probably won’t be able to compete with higher-end (and autofocus) lenses with a similar field of view. But, if keeping costs as low as possible and having a play to see if you even like macro is important, this lens might be worth having a look at.

Aside from being pretty inexpensive as macro lenses go, it’s available for six different camera mounts. Sony E, Fuji X, Nikon Z, Canon EF-M, Canon RF and Micro Four Thirds. Despite the fact that the lens is available for Nikon Z and Canon RF, it is an APS-C lens. So, if you’re trying to use it on full-frame bodies, you’ll definitely need to do some cropping!

Samyang announces AF 75mm F1.8 X lens for Fuji

by Add Comment

Samyang has officially announced the recently leaked Samyang AF 75mm F1.8 X lens for Fuji X mount cameras. Naturally, as a lens designed specifically for Fuji, it’s an APS-C lens. Interestingly, however, it appears to be very similar in specification to the Samyang AF 75mm f/1.8 FE full-frame lens for Sony E cameras released in 2020. It does have a very different outward appearance, though.

According to the Fuji website, the new AF 75mm f/1.8 X is constructed of 10 elements in 0 groups with a minimum focus distance of 69cm, the same as the Sony one. It has the same maximum and minimum aperture range, although it appears slightly wider and uses a larger filter thread.

Lensbaby Double Glass II – A familiar old look with a fresh level of sharpness

by Add Comment

Lensbaby has announced their new Double Glass II optic. It builds on the look of the original Lensbaby, released in 2004 – a look which was improved by the first Double Glass optic released in 2008. Now the Double Glass II takes the quality up another level to provide a very sharp point of focus where it counts, with the rest of the frame drifting off into the typical weirdness we expect from Lensbaby.

It’s available in two flavours. There’s the standard Double Glass II optic, for those who already have a Lensbaby optic swap system and also as a Double Glass II Lens bundled with the Lensbaby Composer Pro II. The new Double Glass II is a 50mm optic featuring a 12-blade adjustable f/2.5-22 aperture, while still providing drop-in magnetic aperture abilities.

Sony officially announces the FE 50mm F/1.4 G Master lens

by Add Comment

After relatively few leaks, Sony has now officially announced the new Sony FE 50mm f/1.4 G Master lens. It comes hot on the heels of Sigma’s recently announced 50mm f/1.4 DG DN Art series lens, but at significantly higher price. This cost over the Sigma might be a tough pill for some Sony shooters to swallow.

Sony’s new lens features an 11-blade aperture that opens up to a wide f/1.4 and stops down all the way to f/22. Two XD linear AF motors with internal focus ensure quick silent focusing. It has a dust and moisture-resistant construction, with Nano AR II and Fluorine coatings for maximum image clarity as well as to help raindrops fall off that front element.

Tamron’s ultra-wide 11-20mm F2.8 lens is coming to Fuji X

by Add Comment

Tamron has announced that the company’s 11-20mm F/2.8 Di III-A RXD, initially launched in April 2021 for Sony E mount is coming to Fuji X. The news from Tamron isn’t a release announcement just yet, but a development announcement. So, it’s coming, it’s on the way, but they haven’t yet said when – or confirmed that the price is the same as the Sony version.

This marks the 4th lens in the Tamron lineup for Fujifilm X mount cameras, adding to the 17-70mm f/2.8, 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 and 150-500mm f/5-6.7. The full specs for the lens haven’t been released yet, although I think it’s pretty safe to assume that the important ones will be identical to that of the E mount version, as is the case with the 150-500mm f/5-6.7, with some slight variance in length and weight.

Leica announces two new lightweight 35mm and 50mm f/2 Summicron lenses for L mount

by Add Comment

Leica has announced two new lightweight Summicron-SL lenses for Leica L mount at 35mm f/2 and 50mm f/2. You might be wondering why Leica’s announcing two new 35mm and 50mm f/2 lenses when they already have the Leica APO-Summicron-SL 35mm f/2 and 50mm f/2. But when you compare those to the two new lenses, the size and weight saving, not to mention the massive cost saving, make it quite obvious.

The new Leica Summicron-SL 35mm f/2 and Summicron-SL 50mm f/2 lenses are significantly smaller and lighter than their APO counterparts. In fact, both of the new lenses share identical dimensions, making it easier for video shooters to swap between them without having to rebalance gimbals, etc. They also cost less than half of the APO versions, making them a financially viable option for a lot more L mount photographers.

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Learn photography

Recent Posts