Lenses I would like to Review

May 19, 2026 BastianK 38 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~~ Review
Sigma 14mm 1.4
~~Sony FE 14mm 1.8 GM~~ Review
~~Sigma 17mm 4.0~~ Review
~~Samyang 18mm 2.8 AF~~ Review
~~Sigma 20-200mm 3.5-6.3 C~~ Review
~~Sony FE 20mm 1.8 G~~ Review
~~Samyang 24mm 1.8 AF~~ Review
Voigtländer 28mm 2.0 Apo-Lanthar E
Sony FE 28-70mm 2.0 GM
Sigma 28-45mm 1.8
Sigma 35mm 1.2 II
Sigma 50mm 1.2
Sony FE 50-150mm 2.0 GM
~~Sony FE 50mm 1.4 GM~~ Review
~~Samyang 50mm 1.4 AF MKII~~ Review
~~Sony FE 50mm 1.2 GM~~ Review
~~Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM MK II~~ Review
Samyang 85mm 1.4 AF MKII
~~Samyang 135mm 1.8 AF~~ Review

Continue reading Lenses I would like to Review →

Guides, lenses, Opinion

Sony FE Lenses: The honest Guide for the A7/A9/A1 Series

May 18, 2026 The Team 295 Comments

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.

We do also have guides for:
9-18mm ultra wideangle FE lenses
20-28mm wide angle lenses
35mm FE lenses
50mm FE lenses
85-200mm FE portrait lenses
Macro lenses for the FE system
These guides often contain some older, discontinued or adapted lenses not listed here (anymore).

If we have left any question unanswered please leave a comment or contact us on social media and we will do our best to answer it.

Last update: May 2026
several lenses added, prices updated, several further changes

Continue reading Sony FE Lenses: The honest Guide for the A7/A9/A1 Series →

Review, Sigma, Sony E-mount

Review: Sigma 20-200mm 3.5-6.3 DG Contemporary – Better than you think

May 17, 2026 BastianK 36 Comments

Introduction

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.

Sample Images

sigma 20-200mm 3.5-6.3 dg dn c contemporarly e fe l superzoom mega zoom 10x small review sharpness contrast bokeh coma vignetting 42mp 63mp sony a7 a7rii a7iii a7riv a7rv a7iv a1 a9 a9ii — Sony A7III | Sigma 20-200mm 3.5-6.3 DG C | 70mm | f/5.6

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Canon EF-Mount, Guides, Leica M, lenses, Olympus OM, Sony A-mount, Sony E-mount

Guide to the best Portrait Lenses – Sony A7/A9/A1 series

May 15, 2026 The Team 148 Comments

We summarize our experience with all the native E-mount and a few legacy lenses in the 85-200mm bracket for the Sony A7/A9/A1 series to give you a compact and independent resource for choosing the best portrait lens for your needs.

We also have a general guide to FE-lenses, 9-18mm ultra wide angle lenses, guide to 20-28mm wide angle lenses, 35mm lenses, 50mm lenses and macro lenses.

Unlike most other review sites we have no association with any lens manufacturer apart from occasionally loaning a lens for a review. No fancy trips and meals.

Before any short introduction we tell you how long we have used a lens and if we have borrowed it from a manufacturer. But in most cases we have bought the lenses new from retail stores or on the used market.

If we have left any question unanswered please leave a comment or contact us on social media and we will do our best to answer it.

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

Last update: May 2026, Meike 85mm 1.4 FF STM added, Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 Pro added, Viltrox AF 85mm 2.0 Evo added, Sigma 135mm 1.4 DG Art added, Laowa 200mm 2.0 AF C-Dreamer added, Sigma 200mm 2.0 DG OS Sports added, Zeiss Otus 100mm 1.4 added, many additional changes

Continue reading Guide to the best Portrait Lenses – Sony A7/A9/A1 series →

Review, Sony E-mount, Thypoch

Review: Thypoch 24-50mm 2.8 AF Voyager

May 14, 2026 BastianK 8 Comments

Introduction

review thypoch dzo dzofilm 24-50mm 2.8 voyager af fe sony e-mount fe-mount fe lens contrast resolution sony a7riv a7rv a7v a9 a1 a9ii 42mp 24mp 61mp zomm bokeh vignetting — Thypoch 24-50mm 2.8 AF FE Voyager on Sony A7rII

By mid 2026 we have seen a lot of lenses from the Chinese manufacturers: some with class leading optical performance, some with unique specifications, some very affordable. There is one thing we haven’t seen yet though (at least not that I can recall): an autofocussing zoom lens. I would have first expected a lens like that from Viltrox, Laowa or 7Artisans, but it is Thypoch – so far specialized in all manual M-mount lenses – bringing a lens like this to the market: the Thypoch 24-50mm 2.8 Voyager. Did they succeed in designing a lens like this, or was it too ambitious? Let’s find out together in this review!