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Guides, lenses, Sony Alpha 7

Guide to the best 50mm Lenses for full frame Sony E-mount cameras: A7/A9/A1

91 Comments
zhong yi mitakon 50mm 0.95 m-mount leica m10 sony a7riii a7riv sharpness bokeh resolution contrast review
Sony A7rII | Zhong YI 50mm 0.95 M | f/0.95

The 50mm lens is what used to be called a “standard” lens, though perhaps a very slightly shorter focal length gives the absolutely most natural perspective. For some of us here at Phillipreeve.net it’s a length we adore, and have more 50s than any other focal length. Others of us are less keen, finding it usually too short or too long. Obviously there is no right answer here, it depends on how each photographer sees the world.

We also have a general guide to FE-lenses, 9-18mm ultra wide angle lenses, guide to 20-28mm wide angle lenses, 35mm lenses, 85-200mm portrait lenses and macro lenses.

But it is a very versatile focal length with a wide range of applications. It can be used for slightly formal portraits, moderately environmental portraits, landscape, architecture – most things except wildlife or sport. You can also, with a little quality loss, crop down to a more formal portrait angle of view, and you can – with a gain in both quality and hassle – stitch frames to get wider angles of view for certain kinds of landscape.

In this article we summarize our experience with all the native E-mount 50mm lenses to give you a independent resource in one place for choosing the best 50 mm lens for your needs. We will cover AF E-mount, MF E-mount with electronic contacts, and lenses with the E-mount but no contacts.

Unlike most other review sites we have no association with any lens manufacturer apart from occasionally borrowing a lens for a review. We prefer independence over fancy trips and nice meals.

Before discussing each lens, we tell you which of us had or has the lens, and whether it was purchased or borrowed for review. In most cases we have bought the lenses new from retail stores or on the used market. 

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.

If you purchase the lens through one of the affiliate-links in this article we get a small compensation with no additional cost to you.

Last update: May 2026, Songraw 50mm 1.2 Moonlit added, Viltrox AF 50mm 1.4 FE Pro added, 7Artisans 50mm 1.8 AF added, Viltrox AF 50mm 2.0 Air added, Viltrox AF 55mm 1.8 Evo Apo added, Sony 50mm 1.4 GM updated, Samyang AF 50mm 1.4 II updated, many further small changes

Continue reading Guide to the best 50mm Lenses for full frame Sony E-mount cameras: A7/A9/A1 →

Comparison, Guides, lenses

Guide to Ultra Wideangle lenses for the Sony A7/A9/A1 Series

179 Comments
Leica M10 | Laowa 9mm 5.6 | f/8.0

We summarize our experience with all the native E-mount and a few manual legacy lenses in the 9-18mm bracket to give you a compact and independent resource for choosing the right super- to ultra-wide-angle lens for your Sony A7 cameras. In this summary we also included some adapted lenses we think are worth mentioning.

We also have a general guide to FE lenses, guide to 20-28mm lenses as well as a guide to 35mm lenses, 50mm lenses and 85-200mm portrait lenses.

We have no association with any lens 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 new from retail stores or on the used market. 

Many of these lenses are manual focus only (MF) whereas some of them 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).

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: May 2026 | Added: Samyang x Schneider-Kreuznach 14-24mm 2.8, TTArtisan 14mm 2.8, Laowa 17mm 4.0 TS C-Dreamer, TTArtisan 17mm 4.0 TS Asph | Updated: Sigma 14mm 1.8, Sigma 17mm 4.0 DG DN C

Continue reading Guide to Ultra Wideangle lenses for the Sony A7/A9/A1 Series →

Canon EF-Mount, Canon FD-Mount, lenses, Minolta SR mount, Sony E-mount

Guide to 20-28mm wide-angle lenses for Sony A7/A9/A1 series

115 Comments
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 85-200mm 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: May 2026, Meike 24mm 1.4 MIX added, 7Artisans 24mm 1.8 AF added, Sigma 24mm 2.0 DG DN C updated, Sony FE 24mm 1.4 GM updated, layout updated

Continue reading Guide to 20-28mm wide-angle lenses for Sony A7/A9/A1 series →

Laowa, lenses, Review

REVIEW: LAOWA FF TS 17mm f/4 C-Dreamer

27 Comments

laowa venus optics 61mp 42mp 46mp nikon z7ii high res resolution canon tilt shift ts-e pc-e perspective control TS T/S 17mm 4.0 review resolution contrast bokeh makro

Introduction

Laowa has already produced a couple of good tilt-shift lenses, such as the T/S 55mm f/2.8 and the impressive T/S 100mm f/2.8. Now they’ve introduced an ultra-wide-angle option — the T/S 17mm f/4 — designed primarily for architectural work. It offers the same handling flexibility as the previous two, including a tripod foot. Let’s see how the optics perform on this one!

camera-icon2We tested this lens on a 46 Mp Nikon Z7ii (Sample images were taken with Nikon Zf , and Sony A7III )
Sample images in high resolution here.

Sample Images

Nikon Zf | Laowa TS 17mm f4 | f8 | Panorama by shifting left/right and stitch (Martin)
laowa venus optics 61mp 42mp high res resolution canon tilt shift ts-e pc-e perspective control TS T/S 17mm 4.0 review resolution contrast bokeh makro
Sony A7III | Laowa T/S 17mm 4.0 | f/4.0 | shifted up (Bastian)
laowa venus optics 61mp 42mp high res resolution canon tilt shift ts-e pc-e perspective control TS T/S 17mm 4.0 review resolution contrast bokeh makro
Sony A7III | Laowa T/S 17mm 4.0 | f/4.0 | shifted up (Bastian)
Nikon Zf | Laowa T/S 17mm 4.0 | f/4.0 | shifted up (Martin)
laowa venus optics 61mp 42mp high res resolution canon tilt shift ts-e pc-e perspective control TS T/S 17mm 4.0 review resolution contrast bokeh makro
Sony A7III | Laowa T/S 17mm 4.0 | f/4.0 | shifted up (Bastian)
laowa venus optics 61mp 42mp high res resolution canon tilt shift ts-e pc-e perspective control TS T/S 17mm 4.0 review resolution contrast bokeh makro
Sony A7III | Laowa T/S 17mm 4.0 | f/4.0 | shifted up (Bastian)

Continue reading REVIEW: LAOWA FF TS 17mm f/4 C-Dreamer →

Uncategorized

November Deals

7 Comments

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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