Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
We recently released some footage of Laowas 9mm f5.6 Dreamer. This Full-frame rectilinear lens blew us away, but we needed to get more footage to really understand the lens.
It seems like a silly concept to describe how wide 9mm is. However, the first time you open the camera you realize, WOW!… that’s wide. Most of the time, when using the lens you end up looking around to see JUST how wide it is! I found the perfect shot to describe it!
When we reviewed the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2X we said it could compete with a microscope. Laowa’s new 65mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO is no different.
The Laowa 65mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO is just a slightly smaller version of its full-frame brother*. Venus Optics managed to cram in all the features and bonuses of its 100mm macro into a smaller package.
There’s no way around it, the new Sigma 105mm f/1.4 Art lens is freakishly huge. Compared to the Nikon 105mm f/1.4E lens released a couple of years ago, it just looks ridiculous. The Sigma is substantially bigger and weighs about 70% more than the Nikon. It even weighs more than my Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom.
But how does it actually feel to shoot? And how good are the images? I’ve had the opportunity to play with one over the last few days, so this post goes through some of my initial thoughts, and what I think of the lens so far. If you want the short version, though, I love it and hated having to give it back.
Yongnuo has been coming pretty thick and fast with lenses over the last couple of years. Sure, they’re generally copies of somebody else’s lens, but they’re cheap and, for the most part, seem to perform fairly well considering the price. Announced last month, the Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4, though, looks to be of their own design.
The first review of the new lens has now been posted to YouTube by Christopher Frost, and it appears to be pretty favourable. It not only keeps up, for the most part, with Canon’s 65% more expensive 50mm f/1.4 USM, but it even seems to beat it in some aspects.
You may remember that a little while back I wrote a first look at the Moment lenses (these: Moment lenses) and I was pretty impressed with the build quality. The image quality was pretty good too. One of my concerns, though, was that they are pretty large and heavy compared to other lens systems that I’ve used in the past and I wasn’t sure whether that would affect how I used them or not. We all know the old adage of the best camera is the one you have with you. So I thought that maybe because of the size and weight, I would eventually decide that I couldn’t be bothered to carry them around with me, which would make them not that useful.
Many of us love taking photos with our smartphones and the cameras on phones are getting better and better. I’ve been super impressed with the cameras on the iPhone X. In fact, other than the fact that I am one of those people who always wants to get the latest tech, the cameras are the most important reason I upgrade my phone almost every year.
A few weeks ago Laowa sent me a copy of their first lens dedicated to Sony’s full frame e-mount system, the 15mm f/2. This lens is meant for landscape & astrophotographers who want to capture as much of the beautiful night sky as possible; which means wide and fast.
Last year I was able to get a copy of their 12mm f/2.8 for Canon and used it on my Sony A7Rii with a Metabones adaptor. I was quite surprised how much I enjoyed the lens. A lot of what was great about that lens can be translated over to this one as well. First, let’s talk about the physical design and characteristics.
You know it’s going to be a good Spring when you get to test drive two new lenses in a row. So far it’s shaping up to be a good Spring indeed, having just wrapped up my thoughts on the new Sigma 135mm f/1.8 Art Series lens, I now find that I get to take the new Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG HSM OS Contemporary Lens out for a spin.
The freshly minted copy I received had a Canon EF mount on it, so it got to spend some quality time mated up to a Canon 5D Mark IV. As they say in the restaurant industry, nice pairing.
One of the biggest announcements at Photokina 2016 (for me anyway) was the long awaited release of the Sigma ART 85mm f/1.4.
I have been holding off buying a Canon / Nikon 85mm for years waiting for Sigma to release the ART version of their 85mm, so as soon at it was announced, I pre-ordered mine.
I’ve had the Sigma ART 85mm f/1.4 for a few weeks now, and I thought that I’d share my experience with this lens.
The Nikon 20mm f/1.8 G was released back in the fall of 2014.
I originally ordered this lens way back in the spring of 2015, but due to production delays at Nikon, I didn’t get my hands on one until just a few weeks ago – which ended up being a great deal on an open box / store demo copy from B&H.
In this hands of review of the Nikon 20mm f/1.8 G Nikkor ultra-wide prime lens I am going to review why I purchased this lens in the first place, where this lens excels, and my hands on experience of using the Nikon 20mm f/1.8 G in the field.
(You’re not going to get any full resolution crops, resolution charts or test graphs – so if you’re looking for that kind of a lens review, check out the DxO Mark review here.)
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!