Lens News

We often turn to Weird Lens Guru Mathieu Stern for interesting tips on bargain vintage lenses that that can be adapted for use with today’s modern mirrorless digital cameras. Best yet, you can often pick up some awesome glass for chump change and the adapters are very inexpensive.

The Lensbaby Twist 60 is a very modern rendition of a 175-year-old optical design, and true to the designer, Joseph Petzval. But does it satisfy our creative expectations when used in the field?

Have you ever noticed a yellow tint to the glass in a vintage lens? That may be because certain lenses in the 60s and 70s used a Thorium coating that yellows over time. Thorium has a high refractive index that improves light transmission, but it also turns out to be slightly radioactive.

See Shutterbug's favorite photo gear for July.

If you stumbled upon a rare Novoflex 600mm pistol grip “bazooka lens” at a yard sale for $17, we imagine you’d lay down your cash, grab the case, and quickly head for your car. That’s exactly what our weird lens guru Mathieu Stern did recently in Paris.

The first thing many photographers do after investing in a new lens is to screw on a UV or haze filter. The idea is that these filters protect the front element of your lens from dirt and impact damage while improving contrast and eliminating atmospheric haze.

Dirty camera sensors are a common source of degraded image quality, resulting in tedious post-processing work to clean up the photograph. This problem is the bane of those who shoot outdoors in dusty conditions, and is particularly acute when using small aperture settings that tend to exaggerate imperfections.