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Wide-Angle Portraits: Sigma 8-16mm F4.5-5.6 DC HSM Lens Fits The Bill
Steve Bedell  |  Sep 14, 2011  |  First Published: Aug 01, 2011  |  0 comments

I really like extreme lenses. Extremely wide, extremely fast, and extremely long lenses will all allow you to create unique images that stand out from the crowd. When I heard about the Sigma 8-16mm lens I wanted to get my hands on one and start shooting, so I asked my editor if I could borrow one from Sigma for testing. He wanted to know what I was going to do with it, so naturally I told him: take portraits. You might, as he did, find this a little odd—taking portraits with a wide-angle lens, and a very wide lens at that. After all, don’t photographers usually use long lenses for portraits?

 

Why are photographers taught to use long lenses for portraits? There are four basic tenets behind this reasoning: narrow angle of view, shallow depth of field, flattering perspective, and a comfortable working distance between you and your subject. However, flip these “rules” on their head and you’ll see why I like working with wides: wide angle of view, great potential depth of field, unique perspective, and, oddly enough, working right in your subject’s face. In short, I use the special nature of a wide lens to give my portraits a new and unique look.

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Lens NewsNewsPrinter News
Win a Canon PIXMA Pro-1 Printer or a $500 LensRentals.com Gift Certificate in Our New Photo Contest!
The Editors  |  Mar 31, 2015  |  0 comments

Have you shot some great photos? Well, now’s the time to enter them in our brand new photo contest where you’ll have the chance to win two amazing prizes!

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Lens NewsNewsVideos
Would You Buy a Rare and Suspicious-Looking 600mm Novoflex Pistol Grip Lens for $17? (VIDEO)
Ron Leach  |  Jul 06, 2017  |  0 comments

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.

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Lens NewsPortrait Photography How ToVideos
Yes, You CAN Shoot Great Portraits with a Wide-Angle Lens: Debunking the Focal Length Myth
Shutterbug Staff  |  Dec 10, 2018  |  0 comments

You’ve probably heard this one before: you should shoot portraits with mid-range lenses like an 85mm or an 100mm to create the most flattering look. Or this one: don’t shoot a portrait with a wide-angle lens because it will make a person’s face look distorted.

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Lens NewsLens Reviews
You Can’t Use Old Lenses On Digital Cameras! Or Can You? An Extensive Test With The Leica M8 Just Might Change Your Thinking
Roger W. Hicks  |  Aug 01, 2007  |  0 comments

"My" Leica M8--a loaner from Leica for review--came with a 50mm f/2 bar-coded Summicron. The 18x27mm sensor turns this into a 67mm lens in 35mm terms: rather long for someone whose standard lens on 35mm has for decades been a 35mm. So as soon as I got the M8, I started using other, older lenses. There is, after all, an enormous choice, from 12mm (18mm...

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Lens NewsNews
You Could Win a $1K+ Tamron Lens in Shutterbug’s Nature Photo Contest!
The Editors  |  Jul 06, 2015  |  6 comments

Nature photography has long captured the hearts and minds of amateur and professional photographers dedicated to capturing images of the great outdoors. Whether your passion is wildlife, landscape, or macro photography, we’d love to see examples of your best work.

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Lens NewsNews
Zeiss Adds Two Super-Wides and a Short Telephoto to Their Milvus Line of MF Lenses for DSLRs
Ron Leach  |  Sep 08, 2016  |  1 comments

Zeiss has just added three fast prime lenses to their Milvus line of premium manual-focus lenses for DSLR cameras—a 15mm f/2.8, an 18mm f/2.8 and a 135mm f/2 telephoto. This expands the respected Milvus line to nine lenses offering optimum image characteristics, premium coatings, smooth bokeh, and uncompromising build quality.

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Lens NewsLens Reviews
Zeiss Ikon Lenses; ZM Mount For New Zeiss Ikon Rangefinder 35mm Camera
Roger W. Hicks & Frances E. Schultz  |  Aug 01, 2006  |  0 comments

As we said in the review of the new Zeiss Ikon (ZI) 35mm rangefinder (April 2006 issue of Shutterbug or online at www.shutterbug.com), we received six of the seven Zeiss ZM-mount lenses announced at photokina 2004: 15mm f/2.8, 21mm f/2.8, 25mm f/2.8, 28mm f/2.8, 35mm f/2, and 50mm f/2. The 85mm f/2 (listing at $2759, plus $127 for the lens shade) still wasn't available as we...

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DSLR NewsLens NewsNews
Zeiss Intros New Milvus Lenses for Nikon and Canon DSLRs
Cynthia Boylan  |  Sep 10, 2015  |  0 comments

Zeiss has introduced a new line of six high performance lenses designed for high-resolution DSLR cameras from Nikon and Canon.

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Lens NewsNews
Zeiss Intros New Premium Piece of Portrait Glass: the Otus 85mm F/1.4 Lens
Dan Havlik  |  Sep 08, 2014  |  0 comments

Zeiss has introduced the second lens in its coveted Otus family: an 85mm F/1.4 lens known as the Apo Planar 1.4/85. Designed for portrait photography or any imaging job that requires extreme sharpness and the ultimate in resolving power, the Otus Apo Planar 1.4/85 is comprised of 11 elements in nine groups and comes in both ZE (EF bayonet mount for Canon) and ZF.2 (F bayonet mount for Nikon) versions.

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Lens NewsNews
Zeiss Intros Otus 1.4/28 Lens: New Focal Length and Fast Aperture in the Wide-Angle Range
Cynthia Boylan  |  Oct 14, 2015  |  0 comments

The new Zeiss Otus 1.4/28 lens offers users of shorter focal lengths the quality of the ZEISS Otus family for landscapes and architectural photography—or any other images they take with a wide-angle lens. The ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 with ZE (or ZF.2 mount for DSLR cameras from Canon and Nikon) was created for pro photographers and features inner focusing, a dial window and the well-known yellow labeling of the dials for easy legibility. 

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Lens NewsMirrorless Camera NewsNews
Zeiss Launches Batis 25mm F/2 & 85mm F/1.8 Lenses with OLED Displays & Autofocus
Cynthia Boylan  |  Jun 16, 2015  |  0 comments

Zeiss has just introduced the Batis 25mm F/2 and 85mm F/1.8 lenses for Sony's A7 series mirroless cameras. The lenses, which are formally known as the Zeiss Batis 2/25 and Batis 1.8/85, are equipped with OLED displays and autofocus.

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Lens News
Zeiss Launches Lustworthy AF Super-Wide Lens For Sony E-Mount Full-Frame Cameras: the Batis 2.8/18
Ron Leach  |  Apr 14, 2016  |  0 comments

For many photographers the Zeiss moniker conjures visions of optical magic, and the new Zeiss Batis 18mm f/2.8 super-wide for Sony E-Mount full-frame cameras promises not to disappoint. With its diagonal angular field of 99 degrees, this is currently the widest full-frame fixed focal length lens with autofocus capability.

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Lens NewsMirrorless Camera NewsNews
Zeiss Unveils Batis 2/25 & Batis 1.8/85 Autofocus Lenses with OLED Displays for Sony A7 Cameras
Cynthia Boylan  |  Apr 22, 2015  |  0 comments

Zeiss just launched the Batis 2/25 and 1.8/85 lenses, which are are the first full-frame autofocus lenses with an OLED display for Sony's mirrorless E-mount A7 camera series.

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Lens NewsLens Reviews
Zeiss “Nikon-Fit” ZF Lenses; Manual Focus For “F” Mount Cameras
Roger W. Hicks  |  May 01, 2007  |  0 comments

Quality, according to the old saying, doesn't cost: it pays. These new manual-focus, Nikon-fit "ZF" lenses are a perfect illustration of that saying. Sure, they are built by Hirofumi Kobayashi in Japan, but they are built to Zeiss standards from Zeiss designs, and they feel like the Zeiss lenses of yesteryear: smooth, solid, beautifully finished, with a lot of...

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