Recent Guide Updates
Over the past weeks I have been updating all these guides once more. This is always a lot of work and not a lot of fun, so I hope you continue to find them useful. It is now finally the moment to complain that your favorite lens is not included 🙂
- Sony FE lenses: The honest Guide for the A7/A9/A1 Series
- 9-18mm Ultra-Wideangle lenses for the Sony A7/A9/A1 Series
- 20-28mm Wideangle lenses for the Sony A7/A9/A1 Series
- 35mm lenses for the Sony A7/A9/A1 Series
- 50mm lenses for the Sony A7/A9/A1 Series
- 85-200mm Portrait Lenses for the Sony A7/A9/A1 Series
I also noticed something rather unusual: new lenses used get cheaper over time, but compared to last year many of the Sony and Sigma lenses saw sometimes massive increases of their MSRP in the US thanks to the tariffs. The prices of the Chinese and Korean lenses are mostly stable, sometimes widening the gap even further. Especially some of the older Sony lenses are really bad deals now.
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The excellent work you have done to put together the guides, both exhaustively in the amount of lenses reviewed, and succintly in the clear recommendations and descriptions, is commendable.
The generosity of the effort and labor of love, to build and offer an excellent resource for fellow photographers, is laudable and much appreciated.
I have great gratitutude for your work over the years. It has served me and many others well, and I always learn something when visiting reviews and comments of many of the frequent followers.
The exchange of experience and knowledge, is propbably the single most important ingredient for development of abilities, acquiring know-how and sustaining the constant pursuit of improvement.
The fact that this space has remained open over the years, is yet another merit I can only applaud.
A big thank you, and may this space have a long life!
Regarding lenses for upcoming reviews, I wonder if there is a chance you might review the recently announced Zeiss Otus ML lenses.
Having seen a lot of animosity, critique and skepticism towards Zeiss and their new Otus lenses for mirrorless cameras – some certainly justified, and some not so much – I would love to hear your assessment on this not so welcome come-back of Zeiss to the photography market.
At this point I say “maybe”.
Personally, I don’t find big and heavy manual focus 50mm 1.4 and 85mm 1.4 lenses particularly exciting.
Superior resolution (if that even is the case!) is no argument for me to pick those over one of the amazing AF lenses we have in that segment now. And from the first samples I have seen, these Zeiss lenses also don’t knock it out of the park rendering wise for me.
I also need to check if my Zeiss contacts from 10 years ago are still working. When I run out of other lenses to review I may do that.
Is there a Voigtlander 28mm f2.8 SL review planned in the future?
Yes
I am avid reader of this website nearly from the very beginning and consider the reviews to be the best one can find nowadays. Some of them helped me to choose the right lens just for me. And yes, those were the days when I could only afford adapted FD(etc.) lenses. So I was little bit sad when I found those venerable gems were not anymore able to be part of the guides. But hey:”Times they are changing.”
I am now too more interested in the current lens design, AF and so on. Keep them coming, I will gladly read any new article, even those Nikon oriented, one never knows… 🙂
Thank you for your outstanding effort with reviewing so many lenses, films, etc. I realy appreciate the independency, consistency of reviews and overall quality of sample images(!). An unusual combination of perks.
Wish you best luck!
Skimmed thru all of them and the only thing that stood out to me is that the 16/1.8 G is highly recommended in the UWA guide but missing altogether from the first/general/honest guide… I imagine it’s quite a pain to keep them sort of in sync in addition to being up to date.
Blah I meant that as a reply to my own comment, not here… The reply button is really touchy on mobile.
Huh, how did that happen?
Will surely be added here.
Bastian, I am unable to donate via the PayPal link and get “Donations to this recipient are unavailable in this country” after logging into my account—a problem I run into often when trying to donate to Americans or Europeans. Do you have alternative ways to donate? Perhaps Stripe, TransferWise or Revolut
Thanks for telling me, I will look into those options!
Some Sony lenses saw a mild $50-100 bump, and then there’s the 24/40/50 G which went from $500 (on sale IIRC) or $600 to a massive $800. I think I sold my 24G before the price bump, heh, might’ve been able to get more for it…
Anyway, I really appreciate the work put into the guides, they were instrumental when I was first getting into E & FF and even as someone that knows most of the big brand’s catalogs front to back I still go thru them or reference them for others often, they’re a great resource.
Also the 55mm 1.8 ZA saw a $200 increase…
That’s wild, that lens’ MSRP in the US stopped making any sense so long ago…
I find these guides very useful and consult them often, thank you for the great job.
Now my complain 🙂
no mention of the Voigtländer 2,0/28mm Apo Lanthar FE/VM
Haven’t used either myself yet and Ringfoto isn’t really interested in sending my loaners for reviews anymore 🤷
Thanks for all the amazing reviews over the years!
My wishlist:
Sony 28-70 F2 GM
Sony 50-150 F2 GM
If you want to send me one of those you get my address 😊
I also wanted to say a big thank you for this website and the guides in particular – a labor of love, I agree. As you also offer Nikon Z reviews, is there any chance of some guides for that system in the future…? I realise it is a lot to ask.
Looking through the guide for the longer lenses, the Bokina caught my eye. Reading the review, it made me wonder how the Vivitar Series 1 105/2.5, which I happen to have for Pentax (also have an adapter for Nikon Z), would compare to the Bokina. The price seems to be similar, the ratings on Pentax Forums are also almost identical. In case you are interested in testing it, feel free to get in touch.
When we have reviewed more Z mount lenses dedicated Z mount guides are an option, yes.