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Lens Comparison

Can you tell the difference between this budget lens and one that costs $2000?

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How much should you spend on lenses? It’s often said that good glass is where you should invest your money in photography terms. However, with so many cheaper options out there, is that really the best use of resources? Certainly, you would expect a more expensive lens to be better, but just how much better is it, and is it worth the extra price tag?

In this video, Katelyn James puts two 50mm primes lenses head to head. She compares the Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L which costs $2099, with the Canon RF 50mm f/1.8 STM which retails at a mere $159. Let’s see how they stack up against each other using the Canon R6.

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Is the difference between an f/2.8 and an f/4 lens really worth the price?

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You’re buying a new lens and there are two versions available of the same focal length. Do you go for the f/4 aperture, or do you splash out an extra grand for two extra stops of light, buy the f/2.8 lens and walk away smug that you’ve bought the ‘best’ option?

It’s a common question and most photographers will tell you that you ‘get what you pay for’, especially when it comes to glass. However, it’s not that straight forward. Obviously it depends on what and how you shoot. In this video Nigel Danson takes a not very scientific approach to discovering the answer to this question. He is a landscape photographer so the video pertains mostly to that genre, although it’s an interesting experiment no matter what you shoot.

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Comparing Samyang’s new 85mm f/1.4 FE II against the Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM and Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art

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Last month, Samyang announced their newest version of their popular 85mm f/1.4 autofocus lens. The new Samyang 85mm f/1.4 AF FE II for Sony is smaller and lighter than the original, with improved autofocus in terms of both speed and accuracy. It also features new “custom switch” and focus hold button to provide new functionality. But how does it fare against the competition?

It would’ve been nice to see this put to the test against its predecessor, but in this video, Mark Duffy does put it up against the two leading competitors, the Sony 85mm f/1.4GM and the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art lenses. The Samyang lens is significantly cheaper than both the Sigma and especially the Sony lenses, so let’s find out if it’s any good.

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This 50mm f/0.95 face-off puts Laowa vs Mitakon vs TTArtisan vs Brightin Star lenses against each other

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There seem to be a lot of very fast lens options these days, even for full-frame cameras. Very few are them are coming from the long-established big-name companies like the camera manufacturers themselves or even Sigma and Tamron, but there are a lot of manual focus ones coming from some of the newer Chinese lens manufacturers.

In this video, Christopher Frost puts four full-frame 50mm f/0.95 lenses to the test to see how they stack up against each other, including the Mitakon, TTArtisan, Brightin Star and the recently announced Laowa Argus lens. The Laowa is a hair wider than the other three at 45mm rather than 50, but it’s close enough.

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Canon 85mm f/1.2 RF vs. EF: Which one is the winner?

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The 85mm is the favorite lens of many portrait photographers. The 85mm f/1.2 RF was introduced last year, and it has become a choice of those who switched to Canon’s EOS R mirrorless system. But can it beat the good old EF version of the 85mm f/1.2? Chris and Jordan of DPReview were eager to find out, so they made a comparison test of the two versions of this lens.

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Watch this side-by-side comparison of 10 $100 or less vintage 50mm lenses

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The ubiquitous 50mm lens has been a staple of photography for many years. And a lot of those older 50mm lenses really aren’t all that terrible – if you’re shooting video or can deal with manual focusing. In this video, Andrew from Danae & Andrew looks at 10 of the most popular vintage 50mm lenses to see how they compare.

While quite a few vintage lenses are starting to fetch some decent money, there are a lot of bargains still to be had, particularly at the 50mm focal length. All ten of the lenses shown in the video cost less than $100. And it might surprise you to find out that some of them actually have a pretty fast f/1.4 aperture.

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$880 Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 vs. $2,200 Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8: how do they compare?

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When buying a new lens, a common dilemma is whether to go for a native or a third-party lens. The third-party lenses are usually much cheaper, but how good are they? In this video, Jay P Morgan and Kenneth Merrill compare two standard E-mount zoom lenses for full frame Sony cameras: an $879 Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD and a $2,198  Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM. How do they compare in terms of sharpness, image quality, and autofocus for both photo and video? Check out the video below for more details.

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Lenses are getting much heavier than they used to be

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It feels like every year or to, my camera bags get heavier and heavier, even though the total amount of kit I carry hasn’t really changed. It just gets replaced by newer stuff. And despite the push towards mirrorless, cameras seem to be getting heavier, too. Or are they? Apparently not. It’s no the cameras that are getting heavier, but the lenses we attach to them.

The folks over at Photography Life just did a study of the weights of 733 lenses released since the year 2,000 to see how they all measure up. And their results show that lenses are most certainly heavier than they used to be.

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Comparing Sigma’s Bokeh Master 105 f/1.4 Art with 85 f/1.4 and 135 f/1.8

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Sigma has been crashing the competition with its Global vision line up. Combination of no compromise image quality and fair price is creating havoc in Canon and Nikon tents. And the recent launch of Sony E mount lenses will surely disturb Sony’s first party glass business. (will also drive Sony’s mirrorless business by providing true 3rd party lens support). In 2013 I bought my first prime lens Sigma 35 f/1.4 art till this day it never leaves my camera bag. Since then I have added Sigma’s 85 f/1.4 and 135 f/1.8 into my arsenal.

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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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