Category Archives: Meta

Accessories, Adapters, camera, lenses, Meta, Opinion, Sony E-mount

Adapting Lenses – Still worth it in 2023?

40 Comments

Introduction

canon ef 200mm 2.0 l is usm sony 42mp high res review 1.8 comparison sharpness bokeh resolution brenizer
Canon EF 200mm 2.0 L IS on Sony A7III via Metabones Smart Adapter

There have always been people adapting lenses to other camera systems, but it was really the release of the Sony A7 that completely changed the game, being the first affordable fullframe mirrorless camera with a short flange focal distance, Liveview and built-in EVF.
This not only made it possible to use long forgotten legacy lenses from decades ago on a modern camera, it also led to some of the most sophisticated adapters we have seen so far.
This was the end of 2014 and since then a lot has changed, so let us see what are the reasons to adapt lenses and in what cases it is still worth it today.

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Meta, Opinion, photography, The creative process

Finding photo opportunities near home – Part 2

14 Comments

Introduction

ttartisan 28mm 5.6 m m-mount pancake review smallest leica contrast sharpness resolution
Leica M10 | TTArtisan 28mm 5.6 | f/5.6

In Part 1 of this series we tried to figure out what things might be interesting to take pictures of where you live, this time I want to talk about collections. A friend of mine was looking for some Stuttgart specific decoration for her walls at home and asked me if I may be able to help out. When going through my archive (read: Lightroom library) I noticed that several of these Stuttgart related pictures can be summarized in categories. It seems I actually started several collections – and subconciously so.
I will show you small collages of these collections I made and I am also curious to find out: what do you collect?

Continue reading Finding photo opportunities near home – Part 2 →

Meta, Opinion, The creative process

The complexity of deciding which lenses to pack

35 Comments

Introduction

Now I have way more lenses than anyone possibly needs – luckily this was listed as kind of a requirement in the job description here –  but when that is the case it also gets more difficult to decide what lenses to bring on a trip or an assignment. Going by the discussions in the forums I participate, and on our Discord, it seems I am not alone here.
A community member said it would be interesting to know about my thought process of deciding which lenses to bring on a trip, so here we are.

My approach

These days I often build my kit around lenses that still need to be reviewed. This will also heavily influence what cameras I pick. But let’s forget about that for now and keep it to the lenses I actually own.

ms-optics ms-optical apoqualia 35mm 1.4 fast noctilux angenieux leica m10 24mp 42mp review sharpness bokeh vignetting
Leica M6 | MS-Optics 35mm 1.4 Apoqualia | f/2.0 | Gold 200

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Meta, Review

Lenses I would like to Review

19 Comments

Introduction

There are some lenses I would like to review one day, but the more interesting (read: rare and expensive) they are, the less feasible it is for me to buy them just to write a review.
Thanks to several readers here I already got the opportunity to remove several lenses from this list in the past, but there are still some left:

E-mount:

Sony FE 12-24mm 2.8 GM
Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM
Samyang 18mm 2.8 AF Review
Sony FE 20mm 1.8 G Review
Samyang 24mm 1.8 AF Review
Samyang 50mm 1.4 AF MKII
Sony FE 50mm 1.2 GM
Samyang 85mm 1.4 AF MKII
Samyang 135mm 1.8 AF

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Meta

Survey

82 Comments

Dear readers, I would like to increase the range of this blog and I am currently thinking what would be the best way to do it.

Most of the interaction with you happens through the comment section here or through our Facebook account and I am getting the feeling this is not enough, especially considering you cannot get this high quality, in-depth reviews anywhere else with so little and unobstrusive advertising on the pages.

We do have an Instagram blog account, but honestly I hate the instagram workflow. Posting via phone sucks, the desktop apps suck even more and you cannot properly paste links leading to the reviews, because Instagram wants to keep you in their system at all cost.

Is Instagram the way to go nevertheless?
Is Twitter still a thing?
Youtube videos that go along with the reviews?
A whatsapp group?
Telegram?
Anything else that comes to mind I didn’t think of yet?

It would be greatly appreciated if you could tell us in the comment section what would be your preferred way to communicate with us and where you would like to be informed about new posts first.

Thanks in advance, Bastian

Update:
I am amazed by the sheer amount of feedback from you guys! I may not reply to every comment but be assured I read all of them. So I will comment on some of the more common discussion points in summary here.

2nd Update:
I set up a phillipreeve.net Discord server, so you are invited to try it out with me and see if it is an useful addition.

Continue reading Survey →