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The Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 IS Macro STM lens: a solid wide angle prime with 5 stops of stabilisation to keep your images razor sharp

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I love shooting with prime lenses. Something about the simplicity of having to ‘zoom with your feet‘ combined with a lighter weight and usually better value for your wallet makes them an obvious choice for many photographers. I shoot a lot of portraits and generally gravitate towards the 50mm. However, for environmental portraits and even the odd landscape image, I will often reach for the 35mm prime lens. On a full frame camera, it’s a fantastic focal length for street photography.

So I was curious to find out how Canon’s native full frame RF mount 35mm f/1.8 lens stacked up. It has 5 stops of Optical Image Stabilisation and 1:2 macro capabilities. But, at $499, for a prime, it’s not especially cheap. So I was keen to find out how good it could be. I tried it out on my Canon EOS R.

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Battle of the bokeh: Comparing six prime lenses

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I own a few odd-ball prime lenses that hover around the 50mm-ish lens length, and offer some unique bokeh, making them interesting choices for portrait photography. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term “bokeh”, its the out of focus area in the image, or rather the quality or look there-of. For many this is very subjective – one person’s AWESOME bokeh is another’s busy, fussy background.

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This is the number one reason why you should shoot with prime lenses

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A lot of us fall into two camps when it comes to photography. Nope, I’m not talking about Nikon versus Canon or any such silliness. I’m talking about whether you’re predominantly a zoom lens shooter or a prime lens aficionado. Personally, I love a good prime lens. I don’t know if it’s because I shoot video or because I love to photograph people, but my camera kit seems to be full of mostly prime lenses.

There are many advantages to shooting with prime lenses, yes, even for landscape or travel photography. In this video, photographer James Popsys takes us for a walk in the beautiful Welsh countryside and tells us what he loves best about shooting with primes.

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Voigtländer announces three fast primes for Sony FE: 35mm f/1.2, 40mm f/1.2, and 50mm f/1.2

German lens manufacturer Voigtländer has just announced three new fast primes for Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras: 35mm f/1.2 SE, 40mm f/1.2 SE, and 50mm f/1.2 SE. The “SE” stands for “Still Edition,” meaning that they’re aimed particularly at still shooters. The reason for this is clickable aperture, but it also makes them more affordable than the Sony counterparts.

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Nikon announces two new Z-mount lenses: 24-200mm f/4-6.3 and 20mm f/1.8

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Other than the D6, Nikon also has something to make Z shooters happy today: the company has just announced NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR and NIKKOR Z 20mm f/1.8 S. We’ve been expecting them since January and October last year. The 20mm f/1.8 was even shown off at last year’s CP+. But now they’re both out and ready for you to start shooting with them. So, let’s dive in and see what you can expect.

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Fujifilm announces two new lenses: XF 16-80mm and GF 50mm

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Fujifilm has just announced two new lenses for its two camera systems. The first is the 16-80mm f/4 R OIS WR, a versatile zoom for Fujifilm’s APS-C X-mount cameras. The second lens is the GF 50mm f/3.5 R LM WR, a compact prime designed for the medium format G-mount GFX system. Let’s check out more details and specs.

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Sigma launches three new lenses for Sony FE: 35mm f/1.2, 45mm f/2.8 and 14-24mm f/2.8

Other than the tiniest full frame mirrorless, there are a few more novelties from Sigma today. Three of them, to be exact. Sigma has just announced three out of four rumored lenses for Sony FE: the 35mm f/1.2 Art, 45mm f/2.8, and the 12-24mm f/2.8 Art. We finally have more details of the specs, prices, and availability, so let’s check them out.

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