Lens News

When Yongnuo first introduced a 50mm f/1.8 full-frame lens for Canon users it was an immediate hit with bargain hunters. It was a $40 clone of the Canon 50mm f/1.8 II which sold for about $125 and offered very respectable performance—especially for the price.

Samyang Optics has introduced the first-ever autofocus lenses in their 40-year history, both for Sony E-mount full-frame mirrorless cameras: A 14mm f/2.8 and the 50mm f/1.4. Both lenses feature solid metal build quality, internal focusing, and a sleek minimal design.

I always thought the weirdest mirror lens ever was a Vivitar Series 1 600–900mm zoom I shot with briefly back in the ‘80s. Until now, that is. Check out the following video review of a Soviet era 1,100mm f/10.5 mirror lens known as the MTO 1000A.

Like many photographers, when Nikon introduced their 20-35mm f/2.8 lens I just had to have one. Being a commercial photographer, the ability to carry a zoom that would cover this field of view was very handy, especially for assignments that involved shooting in buildings or offices for public relations clients. While the lens was exciting, the best images were captured at around f/5.6 to f/8 when the corners started to match the sharpness of dead center. Following that was the Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8, which was more commonly known as the “beast” in photographic circles because it gave us more breathing room at the long end, complete with AF-S focusing. Although it weighed in at two pounds, it was a sharp lens!

Sometimes you want to capture expansive vistas without resorting to post-capture tricks like stitching multiple frames together; like on my latest excursion to Antarctica when I wanted a wider perspective than I achieved on an earlier visit with a 24mm lens (which transformed into a 38mm on my crop-body camera). The question I asked myself was ”how wide is “wide enough?”

I’ve always preferred longer focal-length macro lenses in the 90-100mm range because they give you more breathing room between the camera and skittish subjects than does standard (50/60mm) macros. No wonder, then, that one of my earliest lenses was the original Vivitar Series 1 90mm f/2.5 macro, which I first paired with a Minolta SR-T 102. I burned plenty of Kodachrome with that glass.

Sony just introduced two new full-frame lenses for their E-mount mirrorless camera system: the FE 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 G OSS telephoto zoom and 50mm F1.8 prime lens.