All posts by BastianK

My name is Bastian and I am your expert here when it comes to ultra wide angle lenses, super fast portrait lenses (ranging from a 50mm f/0.95 to a 200mm f/1.8) and I also have reviewed way too many 35mm lenses. Don't ask me anything about macro or wildlife shooting though.

Meta, Review

Lenses I would like to Review

January 19, 2023 BastianK 28 Comments

Introduction

There are some lenses I would like to review one day, but the more interesting (read: rare and expensive) they are, the less feasible it is for me to buy them just to write a review.
Thanks to several readers here I already got the opportunity to remove several lenses from this list in the past, but there are still some left:

E-mount:

~~Sony FE 12-24mm 2.8 GM~~ Review
Sigma 14mm 1.4
~~Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM~~ Review
Sigma 17mm 4.0
~~Samyang 18mm 2.8 AF~~ Review
~~Sony FE 20mm 1.8 G~~ Review
~~Samyang 24mm 1.8 AF~~ Review
Sigma 50mm 1.2
Sony FE 50mm 1.4 GM
Samyang 50mm 1.4 AF MKII
~~Sony FE 50mm 1.2 GM~~ Review
~~Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM MK II~~ Review
Samyang 85mm 1.4 AF MKII
~~Samyang 135mm 1.8 AF~~ Review

Continue reading Lenses I would like to Review →

lenses, Postprocessing, Technical

How to: Creating Distortion Correction Profiles for Lightroom/Photoshop

January 16, 2023 BastianK 20 Comments

Introduction

Distortion is one of the classic lens aberrations and comes in various forms. We will have a look at them, see which ones are easy to correct and how to create correction profiles for those lenses with complicated wavy distortion patterns.

Continue reading How to: Creating Distortion Correction Profiles for Lightroom/Photoshop →

Uncategorized

phillipreeve.net now on Discord

January 11, 2023 BastianK 2 Comments

A few days ago I asked you what you think would be a good platform to get announcements about new posts any maybe also start discussions or simply chatting.

Discord was mentioned quite often in your comments. I did some research – as I didn’t know much about it – and it does indeed offer some features I was looking for. I also like that it is you who decides what you want to see and not some algorithm. So I set up a phillipreeve.net Discord server where already some of you joined.

Continue reading phillipreeve.net now on Discord →

Laowa, Leica M, Review, Sony E-mount

Review: Laowa 9mm 5.6 FF-RL

January 11, 2023 BastianK 158 Comments

Introduction

laowa 9mm 5.6 ultra wide w-dreamer uwa hyper wide heliar 10mm distortion zero-d — Laowa 9mm 5.6 on Sony A7rII

The king is dead, long live the king! After the Voigtlander 10mm 5.6’s field of view has been matched by the Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP and the Laowa 10-18mm 4.5-5.6 it has now been surpassed by this Laowa 9mm 5.6 FF-RL. Can a lens be wider and at the same time better? Let us try to find out!
Lens is being tested on 42mp Sony A7rII and 24mp Leica M10
Last Update: January 2025

Sample Images

Continue reading Review: Laowa 9mm 5.6 FF-RL →

lenses, Pergear, Review, Sony E-mount

Review: Pergear 35mm 1.4 – The cheapest 35mm fullframe lens

January 9, 2023 BastianK 21 Comments

Introduction

pergear 35mm 1.4 f/1.4 review sony e fe fullframe e-mount a7riv a7rv a7riii a7rii 42mp 61mp sharpness contrast review coma vignetting bokeh — Pergear 35mm 1.4 on Sony A7rII

According to my statistics this is the 25th 35mm lens I am reviewing here. After so many you may think you have seen it all, but this one has a stand out feature: at $129 new it is definitely the cheapest fast 35mm and not only that: it is also very compact.
Now if you think you can get the quality of a Sony FE 35mm 1.4 GM for a fraction of the price here you can already stop reading, but for everyone else: let’s find out how much lens we can get for 130 bucks.