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November Deals

Introduction

Christmas is around the corner so everyone wants to sell their goods in November. The industry came up with a bunch of stuff like Single’s Day and Black Friday and many camera and lens manufacturers are also using this opportunity. In this article I will collect the deals I think are actually worthwhile.
Update: Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom Bundle Deal is still available and its price has been further reduced from 74 to 70€.

Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop

1 year subscription for 70€ instead of the usual 142€ on Amazon.de (affiliate link)

Make sure to tick the “One-Time-Purchase” (“Einmalkauf” in German) box!

Deal still available!

Most websites push all kinds of software “deals”, but here you rarely find those. Why is that? Because most of them are not good deals, especially the software related ones. Margins on Preset packages, Tonal mask Addons, Luminar, Topaz and whatnot are huge and this is the sole reason people push those, not because they are actually good products. But I will never recommend you something that I wouldn’t want to use myself.

What I actually am using myself (and constantly so) is Adobe Lightroom + Photoshop.

As was already the case the last years there is a Prime Day offer for all the Amazon Prime members that are using the Lightroom+Photoshop subscription. You can get a one year subscription for 70€ here (affiliate link) instead of the usual 142€.

Now probably you are like me and you already have the plan anyway and now comes the highlight: it even works if you already have the subscription. Order, get the discount code, click on “redeem” in the Amazon Email and the next billing month will be December 2025 instead of December 2024. Offer should be valid for everyone in the EU as well as the UK. This is the link where you can redeem your code after you bought it.

If you haven’t done so, this is also a good opportunity to try out the latest AI-based generative fill I already talked about here.

Laowa

Laowa’s “Mega Sale” started on November 11th and I am guessing it runs until November 30th. Many lenses are discounted, the following are the most attractive ones in my opinion:

9mm 5.6: M-mount for $629 and other mounts for $539
15mm 2.0: All mounts for $579
90mm 2.8 Macro 2x: All mounts for $449

Thypoch

The campaign runs from November 11th until December 3rd.

When ordering from the Thypoch Webshop you can use the codes “phillipreeve Simera” and “Phillipreeve Eureka” to get 15% off of the 28mm 1.4 and 35mm 1.4 Simera and 17% off of the 50mm 2.0 Eureka and get additional free shipping.

TTArtisan

The Double Eleven Sale runs from November 10th to November 18th.

Viltrox

Viltrox’ Black Friday Bonanza is running from November 21st to December 2nd.

There are also a lot of discounts on accesories, Monitors are 20% off, COB Series Lights are 30% off, Light Sticks are 25% off and lens mount adapters are 25% off as well.

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Review: Laowa 15mm 5.0 Cookie – Tiny and Useful

Introduction

laowa 15mm 5.0 II fe venus optics review architecture 42mp 61mp sony a7riv a7rv sharpness contrast vignetting cookie pancake compact
Laowa 15mm 5.0 Cookie on Sony A7rII

In the SLR era some people came up with the term “pancake lens” for very thin 40 to 50mm lenses. Because of the short back focus distance of mirrorless cameras it is very hard to make actually useful lenses for them that are as thin as a pancake though, hence Laowa came up with the term “cookie lens”. This does not only sound more realistic but also pretty cute and the latest addition to this cookie line-up is this Laowa 15mm 5.0. Usually new features are reserved for expensive top-of-the-line products, but this lens already marks a very important point in Laowa’s history. Let’s have a closer look!

camera-icon2The lens was tested on a 42 Mp Sony A7 RII (Sample images with Sony A7 III, Leical M10, and Nikon Zf)

You can see this review as a YouTube video here

Sample Images

nikon nikkor af-d 28mm 1.4 noct wide angle historical review contrast resolution famous 42mp 61mp bokeh vignetting coma aspherical sony a7rII z7 z8 z9 z6 zf
Leica M10 | Laowa 15mm 5.0 M | f/11
Nikon Zf | Laowa FF 15mm f/5 | f/9
Nikon Zf | Laowa FF 15mm f/5 | f/9
laowa 15mm 5.0 II fe venus optics review architecture 42mp 61mp sony a7riv a7rv sharpness contrast vignetting cookie pancake compact
Sony A7III | Laowa 15mm 5.0 | f/5.0
laowa 15mm 5.0 II fe venus optics review architecture 42mp 61mp sony a7riv a7rv sharpness contrast vignetting cookie pancake compact
Sony A7III | Laowa 15mm 5.0 | f/5.0
laowa 15mm 5.0 II fe venus optics review architecture 42mp 61mp sony a7riv a7rv sharpness contrast vignetting cookie pancake compact
Sony A7III | Laowa 15mm 5.0 | f/5.0
laowa 15mm 5.0 II fe venus optics review architecture 42mp 61mp sony a7riv a7rv sharpness contrast vignetting cookie pancake compact
Sony A7III | Laowa 15mm 5.0 | f/11
laowa 15mm 5.0 II fe venus optics review architecture 42mp 61mp sony a7riv a7rv sharpness contrast vignetting cookie pancake compact
Sony A7III | Laowa 15mm 5.0 | f/8.0

Continue reading Review: Laowa 15mm 5.0 Cookie – Tiny and Useful

Review: Viltrox 20mm 2.8 AF FE and Z

Introduction

When looking for an affordable AF lens in the ultra wide angle realm my recommendation so far has usually been the Samyang 18mm 2.8 AF – also due to lack of alternatives. But in October 2023 Viltrox released this compact 20mm 2.8 AF lens and now, in February 2024 they released this super low budget lens in Nikon Z and Fuji X mount too. Not as wide as the Samyang, but noticeably cheaper. Is this my new recommendation for a low cost AF lens in the ~20mm range? Let’s find out.

Sample Images

Viltrox AF 20mm f/2.8 STM ASPH ED IF Z nikon z6 Z6ii z50 z30 zfc z7 z7ii Z8 Z9 Zf nikon z f fc Sony FE Fuji X canon rf m43 review nikon z z-fc z30 z50 test sharpness bokeh coma vignetting Flare 24mp nikon z6 z6ii 46mp nikon z7 z7ii Z8 Z9 Zf nikon z f
Nikon Z 7II | Viltrox AF 20mm f/2.8 STM ASPH ED IF Z | f/2.8
viltrox 20mm 2.8 af fe contrast resolution sharpness review sony 42mp 61mp a7rv a7riv a7rii a7iii coma vignetting
Sony A7III | Viltrox 20mm 2.8 AF FE | f/8.0
Viltrox AF 20mm f/2.8 STM ASPH ED IF Z nikon z6 Z6ii z50 z30 zfc z7 z7ii Z8 Z9 Zf nikon z f fc Sony FE Fuji X canon rf m43 review nikon z z-fc z30 z50 test sharpness bokeh coma vignetting Flare 24mp nikon z6 z6ii 46mp nikon z7 z7ii Z8 Z9 Zf nikon z f
Nikon Z 7II | Viltrox AF 20mm f/2.8 STM ASPH ED IF Z | f/2.8
viltrox 20mm 2.8 af fe contrast resolution sharpness review sony 42mp 61mp a7rv a7riv a7rii a7iii coma vignetting
Sony A7III | Viltrox 20mm 2.8 AF FE | f/5.6

Continue reading Review: Viltrox 20mm 2.8 AF FE and Z

2023 in Pictures

Introduction

laowa 35mm 0.95 worlds fastest lens review bokeh 42mp 61mp laowa venus optics venuslens fullframe contrast resolution bokeh optical vignetting fall off
Sony A7III | Laowa 35mm 0.95 | f/8.0

We always tell you about new gear here, but at the end of the day lenses are just tools needed to take nice pictures. Martin and I went through all the pictures we took in 2023 to choose our 10 favorites. You can find those pictures here with a bit of additional information, for which there is not always a place in the gear reviews.

Continue reading 2023 in Pictures

Guide to wide-angle lenses for Sony A7/A9/A1 series

Sony A7rII | Zeiss Loxia 21mm 2.8 | f/8.0

We summarize our experience with all the native E-mount and a few manual legacy lenses in the 20-28mm bracket to give you a compact and independent resource for choosing the right wide-angle lens for your Sony A7/A9/A1 camera. In this summary we also included some adapted lenses we think are worth mentioning. We didn’t include any zoom lenses, you can find those in our general guide to FE lenses as well as the guide to 9-18mm ultra wide angle lenses.

You may also want to check out our guides to 35mm lenses, 50mm lenses and 85-135mm portrait lenses.

Some of these lenses are manual focus only (MF) whereas others feature auto focus (AF). There is also a noticeable amount of lenses listed here that do not feature electronic contacts to communicate with the camera (no Exif).

We have no association with any manufacturer apart from occasionally loaning a lens for a review. Before any short introduction we tell you how long we have used a lens and if we have borrowed it from a manufacturer. But in most cases we have bought the lenses on the market. If you want to support our independent reviews please consider using one of the affiliate links. It doesn’t cost you anything and helps us a lot.

If we have left any question unanswered please leave a comment or contact us on social media and we will do our best to answer it.

Last update: November 2023, Viltrox 20mm 2.8 AF, Viltrox 24mm 1.8 AF and Viltrox 28mm 1.8 AF added

Continue reading Guide to wide-angle lenses for Sony A7/A9/A1 series