Category Archives: Meta

Reviewing Lenses isn’t really worth it

Excuse me for the usage of such a clickbait title. As you may have noticed, lately some big photography related websites went out of business. Others are so loaded with advertising these days, it is barely possible to spot the actual content anymore. Some also opted for membership programs like Patreon. We on the other hand always financed this blog exclusively through unobtrusive affiliate links. This is only possible because it is a passion project by people with actual jobs that just happen to love photography.

Don’t worry: we have no intention to add annoying adverts or introducing a membership/Patreon/Onlyfans system, as I have always been an advocate of free internet and freely accessible information. I also don’t want to push junk software with high margins that I would never want to use myself.

That being said there are many articles here that generate zero income: for example the Analogue Adventures and everything from the Technical Knowledge category, as these are not really about a product that could be bought by you. Same is also true for the reviews of simply bad lenses. Why would you buy them through affiliate links if I told you they suck?

Affiliate links also don’t work for everyone and every item. If you are not from Canada or the US, B&H is surely less attractive. Many people from Germany don’t like ordering directly from Asia because of import duties and some items may also not be available through our affiliate partners at all.

If you find yourself in one of these categories – or if you simply want to support us without using affiliate links – you can do that now by using this Paypal donate button under our articles:

via Paypal

The money you donate will go directly to the author of that article.

PS: In my case any money would be used to track down and review further exotic lenses that you cannot find really useful information on elsewhere (like e.g. the Zeiss Hologon 16mm 8.0 or the Olympus OM 180mm 2.0).

Adapting Lenses – Still worth it in 2023?

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.

Continue reading Adapting Lenses – Still worth it in 2023?

Finding photo opportunities near home – Part 2

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

The complexity of deciding which lenses to pack

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

Continue reading The complexity of deciding which lenses to pack

Lenses I would like to Review

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 Review
Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM Review
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 Review
Samyang 85mm 1.4 AF MKII
Samyang 135mm 1.8 AF

Continue reading Lenses I would like to Review