Interestingly out of the big camera manufacturers of the (D)SLR era only Nikon ever produced a 28mm 1.4 fullframe lens. They started in 1993 with the world’s first lens with these specifications, the Nikon AF 28mm 1.4D, and then released an updated version in 2017, this Nikon AF-S 28mm 1.4E. It was one of their last f/1.4 primes still designed for DSLRs, so let us find out what it is capable of in this review.
Martin recently reviewed Lomo’s replica of a Petzval lens. I commented, perhaps slightly snidely, that vintage Petzval lenses are still around, often for less money, and often with better centre sharpness – and certainly with a vast choice of models and thus rendition nuances.
Martin suggested I share my knowledge in an article. And like an inverse Spice Girl, one became two. This one seeks to introduce you to the weird magic of Petzval lenses and their widespread availability from old cinema film projectors. The next will look at adapting them, and indeed any old projection lens, to a modern-day camera.
So here we go, I guess.
All pictures were taken on full-frame evils: a Sony a7r2 and an a7cr. Some were cropped; all were adjusted for proper blacks and whites according to ancient darkroom principles. None had additional sharpening or aberration correction applied.
Continue reading Projector Lenses – Reviving the Joy of Old Petzval Lenses (Guest Article)
The Sigma 105mm 1.4 DG HSM Art was one of Sigma’s last flagship lenses designed for DSLRs and one of the few that hasn’t seen a successor designed for mirrorless cameras yet. If you read my review, you know it is an impressive lens, but I still had some reservations calling it the “Bokeh Master”. Now I get the feeling someone at Sigma read my comment and decided to take it as a challenge by designing this Sigma 135mm 1.4 DG Art – the actual “Bokeh Master”. To me, this is one of Sigma’s masterpieces, so let’s have a closer look!
Continue reading Review: Sigma 135mm 1.4 Art DG – The actual Bokeh Master
The “Evo” series is a new lineup of Viltrox lenses positioned between the “Pro” and “Air” lineups. This series seems to combine the build quality and controls of the “Pro” lenses with a slightly slower maximum aperture like the “Air” lenses while maintaining very high image quality – similar to the Voigtländer Apo-Lanthar series or Sigma’s Contemporary primes. Let’s find out what the first entry of this series – the Viltrox AF 85mm 2.0 Evo FE – has in store for us.
Viltrox offers several different lens lineups: positioned at the top is the “LAB” series, slightly below that the “Pro” series. I already reviewed the Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 Pro FE – offering very good performance at an affordable pricepoint – and this time we will be having a look at the Viltrox AF 50mm 1.4 Pro FE.
