Nikon AF 135mm 2.0D DC via Monster LA-FE2 on Sony A7rII
At the beginning of the 1990s Nikon released two special portrait lenses featuring a “Defocus Control” mechanism, which allows you to make the bokeh smoother or harsher. This Nikon AF-D 135mm 2.0 DC is the longer of the two DC lenses and in this review I will tell you how it works and if it is still a useful portrait lens today.
Nikon has a history of producing outstanding ultra-wide-angle zoom lenses, including the long-standing top-tier F-mount 14–24mm f/2.8. They kicked off the mirrorless Z lineup with the excellent 14–30mm f/4, and after a while they really went big by releasing the fast Z 14–24mm f/2.8. It’s fast enough to handle dark indoor scenes or even night photography. While this lens definitely isn’t budget-friendly, its price and Nikon’s track record set the expectation that it should deliver well above-average performance. Let’s check it out!
As second lens for their “Ksana” series Thypoch decided to release a compact 35mm 2.0 M-mount lens with black paint finish. These Ksana lenses feature vintage coatings – to create a distinct color signature – but are otherwise modern designs. The Thypoch 21mm 3.5 Ksana proved to be a capable yet compact lens, will this Thypoch 35mm 2.0 Ksana follow its footsteps? Let’s find out in this review! This lens will be reviewed on the 42mp Sony A7rII and the 24mp Leica M10.
Choose the right lens for your Sony Alpha with the help of our independent knowledge gained by writing many in-depth reviews.
We have an in-depth knowledge of many of the lenses listed here not only because we have used them, but also because we have reviewed many of them in detail. We are also independent from any lens manufacturer and when you check our reviews you will see that we do not hesitate to name any shortcomings of a lens.
We will also talk about lens aberrations, if you don’t know too much about these terms maybe have a look at our article Lens aberrations explained first.
Originally the idea of this guide was to include all available fullframe E-mount lenses. The number of fullframe E-mount lenses has significantly grown over the years though, so that has become an impossible task.
From now on this article will only include lenses that we find currently recommendable. That will make this article much easier to navigate and read and therefore more valuable. It should also make it easier for us to keep it up to date, as we don’t have to waste a lot of time adding uninteresting or mediocre lenses anymore. I also removed most of the super tele lenses, as we have too little experience with them. The aim is to generally keep this article below 10000 words, which is still a whole lot.
Sigma 20-200mm 3.5-6.3 DG Contemporary on Sony A7rII
You haven’t seen (m)any reviews of superzoom lenses on this blog so far, because traditionally many of those ~10x zoom lenses were either lacking in terms of optical performance (e.g. Sony FE 24-240mm 3.5-5.6 OSS) and/or I personally didn’t find the focal length range particularly useful, often starting at 28mm (e.g. Tamron 28-200mm 2.8-5.6 Di III RXD). Furthermore, if you want to review such lenses properly, it takes a lot of time and effort, equal to reviewing several prime lenses.
With its unique focal length range this Sigma 20-200mm 3.5-6.3 DG Contemporary intrigued me though, but can the performance of such a bold design be any good? I ultimately decided to buy one and see for myself how it performs, so here we are.
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I tested this lens on a 46 Mp Nikon Z7ii (Sample images were taken with a Nikon Zf)
You can see this review as a YouTube video here!
Sample images in high resolution here.
