Laowa 14mm f4 Detailed Review

December 31, 2020 David Braddon-Mitchell 12 Comments

Some people who make photographs aren’t astrophotographers, and nor are they specialist hyper-wide photographers. Did I write some people? Most photographers probably fall into that category. For them, especially if they are travelling, a large fast hyper wide, or one of the excellent hyper wide zooms that are now available, is overkill: too much bulk for too little use. A tiny prime, right in the middle of the hyper wide range, makes a lot of sense. It can sit in a corner of the camera bag without taking up too much space or adding too much weight until it’s needed, and when it is needed, it will reward with easy handling. Is this Laowa the hyper-wide we have been waiting for?

Samples

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2020 – Year’s end review

December 28, 2020 Phillip Reeve 37 Comments

This image was taken a little after sunrise on the day of the winter solstice 2020 and I feel that it is a fitting image for the whole situation at the moment. Most days here in Germany are dark but at times one is lucky enough to catch a few rays of sunlight. At the same time one can look forward to sunnier days ahead.

2020 took it’s toll on the team as well. We and our families are all healthy and we work in secure jobs which is a big privilege these days. The blog, which is our hobby, got a little less attention because of the whole situation though. But still we managed to publish or update about one article per week and I am grateful to Bastian, David, Juriaan and Jannik not only for the articles but for the constant exchange behind the scenes.

And now lets have a look at the teams most important articles of the year and also one important image from 2020 from each team member.

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Leica M, MS-Optics, Review

Review: MS-Optics 24mm 2.0 Aporia

December 23, 2020 BastianK 20 Comments

Introduction

Whenever some lens is advertised as “the smallest lens ever made” we usually get to deal with some junky fixed focus and fixed aperture pinhole lens. The MS-Optics 24mm 2.0 Aporia is a very different story though, only 45g and less than 6mm in length but with a maximum aperture of f/2.0, a real diaphragm and rangefinder coupled focus mechanism. But there must be compromises, right?
Lens is being tested on 42mp Sony A7rII and 24mp Leica M10

Sample Images

ms-optics ms-optical aporia apora pancake smallest lens world's leica m10 24mp 42mp review sharpness bokeh vignetting — Leica M10 | MS-Optics 24mm 2.0 Aporia | f/2.8

Leica M10 | MS-Optics 24mm 2.0 Aporia | f/2.0

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Guides, lenses

Sony FE lenses: The honest Guide for the A7/A7II/A7III A7rII/A7rIII/A7rIV A7c A9

December 13, 2020 The Team 214 Comments

Choose the right lens for your Sony Alpha with the help of our independent knowledge gained by writing many in-depth reviews.We are a team of four photographers who all use the FE system and this blog is focused on lens reviews. So we have an in-depth knowledge of these lenses not only because we use them all the time but also because we have reviewed most 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. To easily compare specs check out our Sony FE-list.

In this article we only list lenses which have electronic contacts to communicate aperture and focal length to the camera. There are also quite a few lenses which have an E-mount but no electronic contacts. Most of these are SLR-lenses with a modified mount and we decided against covering these because we think that most of them are not very attractive lenses. We do however cover the Laowa 5.6/9, 4.5/11, 2/15, 4.5-5.6/10-18, 7Artisans 28mm 1.4 FE+ and Mitakon 0.95/50 because those are attractive lenses for some photographers and have been designed for E-mount.
Last update: November 2020

It is always possible that some new or exotic lens is missing, we work hard on filling these gaps.

If you purchase the lens through one of thee affiliate-links in this article we get a small compensation with no additional cost to you.

All native full frame lenses for the Sony FE mount (as of November 2020)

10-15mm

Voigtländer 5.6/10 (manual focus)

voigtlander hyper wide heliar 10mm 5.6 review sample — Sony A7rII | Voigtländer 10mm 5.6 HWH E | f/16

Strengths	Weaknesses
Widest lens available Small size Good sunstars and flare resistance	Huge vingetting Corner sharpness not great

Recommendation: now that the Laowa 9mm 5.6 is available (see bonus section) only recommended if you need the best flare resistance or cannot live without Exif data

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lenses, Pentax K-mount, Review

Guest Review: Pentax SMC FA 31mm f1.8 Limited

Image November 23, 2020 Nehemiah 44 Comments

11/15/2020: “Alternatives” and “Conclusion” and “Notes” sections has been updated in light of new releases, and a few more sample images have been added.

The Pentax 31mm f1.8 Limited is a fast moderate wide angle lens released in 2001. It’s designated as one of Pentax’s “Limited” series, denoting its high status within the Pentax catalogue. Since its release, the 31 Ltd has been beloved, especially within the Pentax community. I picked up my first copy in pursuit of a fast, decently priced alternative to the Sony RX1. Sony hasn’t provided shooters with a native fast 35mm f1.8 or f2 option. The 31 Ltd was a highly praised lens upon release, but optics have come along way recently, and it’s getting long in the tooth. Let’s see how it holds up 17 years after it’s release, and what type of images we can expect.

The 31mm focal length is an oddity, being near but noticeably different from the more conventional 28mm or 35mm focal lengths. The 31 ltd functions as versatile jack-of-trades lens with its 31 FL. The lens is still in production by Pentax/Ricoh, coming in either silver or black.