Many of us here at the Phillipreeve team acquire too many lenses. We never get given lenses, but we buy a lot because we are lensaholics. Some of us more than others. From time to time we have too many.

David

I always seem to have too many. What happens is I buy something that is supposed to replace a previous piece of kit, but I come up with a stupid excuse for a special niche use case which justifies keeping the thing that was supposed to be be replaced.

New year’s resolution: goodbye to niche use cases. If I have two equally good lenses (or lenses with slightly different benefits and costs but doing the same basic job) toss a coin and sell one!

So I thought I’d give you guys a chance to buy them. You get the benefit that you know who we are, I get the benefit of, well, free advertising I guess.

So what I will do is list three lenses that I have taken photos of ready for sale, and then list a few more that I am happy to sell, but won’t take photos or research what would be price fair to buyer and seller unless you send me a message and ask me to do that. Of course if I take photos etc of those extra lenses, you aren’t obligated to buy: but please don’t ask unless you are at least genuinely interested!

Extra lenses I’m prepared to sell include: HD Pentax 35mm f2.8 macro, Sigma 2.8/150mm macro (second model), Loxia 50mm, CV Heliar 40mm f2.8 with a beautiful Yeenon helicoid that makes it quite nice to focus, Sony Zeiss 35mm f2.8, Sony Zeiss 55mm f1.8.

I live in AUSTRALIA so they will be priced in AUD; I include a USD equivalent just for your info, but if you buy it’s the AUD price that counts!  Postage is 20AUD to anywhere in Australia. I am prepared to post to most countries at whatever the post office courier service will change. It’s probably about USD50.  If I send it to another country, the service is quite reliable, but your country may have duties, taxes, and some hassle picking it up – this varies from none to quite a lot so you need to know what YOUR country does. You will be responsible for all taxes import duty or hassle.

Condition of all is optically mint; cosmetics I’d grade excellent (genuinely excellent, not Japanese eBay excellent!) to mint, but judge by photos.

Send me a message if you are interested in these three, or any of the others listed above!

Carl Zeiss Apo Sonnar ZF.2 135mm f2.0

Price: $1240 AUD (about USD 890 or 790 euro)

Original box, documents, hood and both caps.

If you want a Novoflex adapter to Sony E as part of the package, it’s an extra $60AUD.

Perhaps the best built lens I have every used. Lovely bokeh and a sharp as a tack from wide open. Selling because I bought the GM to have autofocus.

Zeiss Batis 18mm f2.8

SOLD

I have loved this gorgeous featherweight. It’s a great lens, and very light, just fits in your travel bag and this copy is very sharp. Selling because I got the 14GM. Temptd to keep the Batis because it’s lighter, and quite a difference in FL. But it’s too much cash invested in UW, and I can always crop the GM if I really want this FL (or use my 21mm)

Canon L 200mm f2.8

I reviewed this lens here, and like it a lot. 200mm f2.8 lenses are very rare now, because the assumption is everyone wants a 70-200 f2.8 zoom. But a prime is smaller, lighter and this one is very even from edge to edge.  I’m selling because I need to raise the cash to pay off my GM135 and I figure I can crop that to get a tighter look when needed. Again, must resist niche case arguments to keep a lens!

price is 600 AUD (about 430 USD)

No box, but does include original caps and hood.

Thanks for reading if you have got this far, and a reminder of what else I am prepared to sell:

HD Pentax 35mm f2.8 macro, Sigma 2.8/150mm macro (second model), Loxia 50mm, CV Heliar 40mm f2.8 with a beautiful Yeenon helicoid that makes it quite nice to focus, Sony Zeiss 35mm f2.8, Sony Zeiss 55mm f1.8. Maybe more soon!

Bastian

I decided to join the spring cleaning with a few lenses that see too little use.

I will ship to all european countries and all prices are without shipping. If you live in Germany you can add 6€ for shipping, within EU should be around 16€.
Payment is possible via Paypal or Bank Transfer.

I will only ship insured with DHL. If you want to come to Stuttgart you can also check out the lens you are interested in in person and have a little chat.

If you are interested leave a comment with your Email address and I will get back to you.

Canon EF 70-200mm 4.0L USM

Price: 299€

If you already have an AF adapter this is a real bargain telephoto. This is a late production model (code is visible, so you can check if you want) in “as new” condition. It comes with the original lens hood, an iShoot Arca compatible tripod collar and the original box (which unfortunately has a big dent).
Many of these 70-200mm lenses have centering issues. I shimmed this one to give a very even across frame performance at all focal lengths.
This is not the Canon EF 70-200mm 4.0L USM I have reviewed here, this is a later and better sample.

Canon EF 1.4x Extender II

Price: 149€

This Canon extender also comes in “as new” condition with original caps and box. No signs of usage visible.

TTArtisan 11mm 2.8 fisheye M-mount

Price: 249€

I bought the review copy after I was finished with the review and I haven’t used it since. Comes in “as new” condition as well, no signs of usage visible. Comes with caps and box, but without the 11mm finder, keep that in mind when you plan on using it on an M-mount camera without Liveview/EVF.
This is the same lens I reviewed here.

Canon EF 200mm 2.0L IS USM

Price: 4499€

If you are desperately searching for one of these in absolute mint condition I may also part with it, but this is pick up in Stuttgart only.
Comes with both polarizer and ND filter holder.
Same lens as in my review.

Just a little reminder that you find my list of all fullframe E-mount lenses (with electronic contacts) under list.phillipreeve.net. As of today it has data for 113 lenses.

If you spot any mistakes (I am sure there are still some) or if I should have missed a lens please leave a comment.

 

Cosina just announced the Voigtlander 35mm F2 APO-Lanthar.

Specifications

Diameter	63 mm
Length	67 mm
Filter Thread	49 mm
Weight (no hood, no caps)	352g
Max. Magnification	1:6.4
Close Focusing Distance from the sensor	0.35 m
Number of aperture blades	12
Elements/ Groups	11/9

Features

Translated by Google Translate

• Adopted an apochromat design that makes the on-axis chromatic aberration of RGB, which constitutes the three primary colors of light, as close to zero as possible. A semi-wide-angle lens that doubles as the APO-LANTHAR 50mm F2, a standard lens that pursues ultimate performance. It combines the performance of the best quasi-wide-angle lens in Voigtlander history with the compactness and ease of handling. Main features:
• Compatible with Sony E mount. Equipped with electronic contacts, the Exif information of shooting data reflects the usage status of the lens. In addition, since it has a built-in distance encoder, it supports 5-axis camera shake correction on the camera body side. It is also possible to enlarge the viewfinder by operating the focus ring.
• Optimized optical design A full-size image circle is secured and an optical design optimized for the Sony E-mount sensor is adopted. High resolution is maintained up to the periphery of the screen, and phenomena such as color cast are suppressed.
• apochromatic design to correspond to digital sensors with high pixel current, and thoroughly suppress longitudinal chromatic aberration and lateral chromatic aberration.
• ball blur 12 sheets squeezed to enjoy the representation aperture blades not only F2 open F2.8, F5.6, adopted a special shape to be circular even F16. It is possible to draw using “ball blur” such as a point light source.
• Manual focus that enables reliable focusing. By adopting an all-metal helicoid unit that has been processed and adjusted with high precision and high-quality grease that produces appropriate torque, focusing with a smooth operation feeling is realized. Allows for delicate focus adjustment.
• Aperture click switching mechanism Equipped with an aperture click switching mechanism that can open and close the aperture ring steplessly without generating a click sound. There is no need to worry about picking up the aperture ring operation sound when recording a video.

No surprises here. The 2/35 APO inherits the 2/50 APO’s aperture design, CA correction as well as the mechanical construction we have come to appreciate.

Our Expectations

As Voigtlander lenses have been very consistent in the past and Cosina emphasizes the close relationship to their excellent Voigtlander 2/50 APO we have very high expectations for their 35mm lens. We expect class-leading sharpness and correction of axial CA as well as excellent handling. We are especially curious about the bokeh.

It is funny: The field of E-mount 35mm has been crowded by rather mediocre lenses (by current standards at least) for the last 6 years, with the huge Sigma 1.2/35 being the first optically excellent 35mm to arrive in 2019. But then we got the excellent Sigma 2/35 two months ago (David and Phillip have bought one and are very happy with it. Review coming when it is done) and Sony launched the surprisingly compact GM 1.4/35 to a very loud chorus of praise by sometimes more and sometimes less independent reviewers. And we would be very surprised if the Voigtlander wouldn’t join the ranks of these excellent lenses, giving those who put emphasis on optical perfection an even harder time to decide.

 

For a few years now I’ve owned an FLM CB-58FTR ballhead. It sits on my largest series 4 tripod, and I’ve liked it up to now, and admired it’s extraordinary engineering. But I discovered something recently. I didn’t know how to use it properly. Not the fancy tilt mechanism that allows you to lock all axes but one, that was fine. Not the fancy switchable indexing on the pan mechanism, I had that down. But the simple act of setting the friction, and locking and unlocking the head.  I had that all wrong. And so did almost everyone on the web. So in the timeless style of first paragraph stings: does this mean that the head is even better than I thought? Spoiler: yes.

Continue reading FLM Ballheads: a rediscovery →