All posts by Jannik Peters

I am a passionate photographer from northern Germany and I love landscape, architecture, travel, portrait and family photography. I use manual lenses but I also enjoy the comfort of autofocus lenses, therefore both can be found in my bag.
camera, Comparison, Sony Alpha, Sony Alpha 7

Sony A6500 vs. Sony A7II comparison – which one is the smarter choice?

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With the Sony A6500, Sony has entered the terrain of semi-professional crop cameras. The camera is significantly higher priced than other Sony APS-C cameras, and is directly competing with other smaller format flagship cameras like Fuji X-T2, Nikon D500, Olympus OMD-EM1 Mk2 or the Canon Eos 7D Mk2.

Furthermore, the Sony A6500 is now similarly (or even higher) priced than the Sony A7II. This leaves open the question for many people as to whether they should really spend that much on an APS-C camera, or if they should get a full frame body instead. The comparison is obvious, and legitimate, because the cameras share a few key specifications – like sensor resolution, mount, and sensor stabilization. Let’s check what sets these cameras apart from each other.

Sony A7II | Sony FE 1.8/55 ZA
Sony A6500 | Sony 1.8/24
Sony A6500 | Sony 1.8/55 ZA

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lenses, Sony E-mount

Review: Sony FE 1.8/85

85 Comments

Introduction

We are happy to see that Sony keeps expanding it’s budget lens lineup. Especially the Sony FE 2/28 reflects a great value for the price, we also liked the Sony 2.8/50 Macro. The Sony FE 1.8/85 is the latest addition to it.

On the paper, the lens seems to hit a sweet spot between cost, brightness, size and weight. Let’s check if the lens can also deliver optically.

Sample Images

Sony A6500 | Sony FE 1.8/85 | f/2.8 | full resolution
Sony A7 II | Sony FE 1.8/85 | f/9 | full resolution
Sony A7 II | Sony FE 1.8/85 | f/1.8 | full resolution

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lenses, Review, Sony E-mount

Review: Sony FE 2.8/24-70 GM

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Introduction

Since the introduction of the Sony A7-series cameras, many people asked for well performing f/2.8 zooms.  Although it negates the approach of the small bodies, Sony listened to their customers and developed the no-compromise GM(aster) lens lineup. The Sony FE 2.8/24-70 GM is the first lens of this new series in our hands.  In this review I will check the performance of my own copy which I have used for the last three months.

Sample Images

Sony A7II | Sony FE 24-70mm 2.8 GM | 24mm f/10 | full resolution
Sony A7II | Sony FE 24-70mm 2.8 GM | 31mm f/16 | full resolution
Sony A7II | Sony FE 24-70mm 2.8 GM | 70mm f/2.8 | full resolution

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Manual Photographers, Manual Photographers series

The manual photographers series part 3: Oliver Fecher (aidualk)

6 Comments

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Hi Oliver, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and why you use manual Lenses?”

I am an industrial economist and live near Frankfurt, Germany. Photography has been my hobby for more than 25 years. When I started I was never satisfied with the image quality of analog 35mm film, so I turned to larger formats very soon. Most of my landscape pictures were taken with medium and large format cameras. Of course all lenses were manual focus, so I was accustomed to manual focus from beginning . 😉

With the Sony A900, I switched to digital cameras in 2008 and I was very satisfied with the possibilities of this new medium. At that time, the Sony-Zeiss 24mm SSM lens was my favorite and remained so for many years.

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Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland – Sony A900, Sony-Zeiss 24mm, f8

The next steps were the A7R in 2013 and, since last year, the A7RII. I switch slowly and flexibly (thanks to the LE-EA Adapter) from A- to E-Mount, also by reason of the fantastic Zeiss primes for E-Mount, lenses which I wanted to have for a very long time 😉 I use AF Lenses too, but for landscape pictures, I use them mostly by manual focus to get the best control of the depth of field. The Sony cameras are perfect for manual focus.

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Nightsky over Watzmann – Sony A7R, Samyang 14mm, f4

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Manual Photographers, Manual Photographers series, photography

The Manual Photographers Series Part 0.3: Jannik Peters

19 Comments

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 Hi Jannik,
can you tell us a little bit about yourself and why you use manual Lenses?

Jannik: I am an automotive engineer from Wolfsburg, Germany. I started out with an Sony Alpha 200 in 2008 but I discovered photography as my passion when the first Sony A7 came out. I preordered it and was fascinated by the ability to revive all the legacy lenses, that were “dead” for a long time. My first manual lens was a Canon nFD 1.4/50 which was an eye opener for me. At this time, I only owned the Sony FE 3.5-5.6/28-70 kit lens and I was never really satisfied by it. The sharpness and the creative potential of the fast aperture combined with the bargain price (50€) were amazing. I added lots of Canon FD lenses soon and started to discover other systems like Olympus OM and especially Contax/Yashica as well. With some experience, I found the different rendering styles of specific lenses and I am happy that I can choose between several lenses depending on the look that I want to create.

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Sony A7 | Canon nFD 2.8/24mm | Na Pali Coast, Kauai
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Sony A7 | Samyang 2.8/14mm | San Francisco

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