Lens Reviews

Born to be Wide – The Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2 Review

23/07/2015 By Mathieu 9 Comments

Following our review of the 85mm that was published a few days ago, we are now here with our full review of the second Batis lens released by Zeiss, the 25mm f/2. The renowned German brand clearly sees Sony E-Mount as a system worth investing in, especially now that there are so many full frame cameras available. While the Loxia lens family is aimed at manual focus lovers who appreciate traditional distance scales and mechanical rings, the Batis family has more modern characteristics that include autofocus and the world’s first OLED screen on a lens.

Portrait Perfection – The Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 review

21/07/2015 By Mathieu 25 Comments

Update: the Batis 2/25mm review is now online!

Zeiss caused quite a stir when it announced its second family of lenses designed exclusively for the Sony E-mount system. Unlike the Loxia lenses (see our review here) that are manual focus, the Zeiss Batis 85mm offers everything you would expect from a modern lens: autofocus, optical stabilisation and the world’s first digital OLED screen that replaces the classic distance scale marked on the lens.

Getting in close – The Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro Review

14/07/2015 By Heather 8 Comments

The first encounter we had with the Sony FE 90mm f2.8 macro G OSS was at last year’s Photokina, a mere prototype sitting inside a glass display alongside the other upcoming FE lens prototypes. Now, nearly a full year later, the lens is finally on the market and ready to be enjoyed by the macro-loving community.

Extra fast, extra wide – The Voigtlander 10.5mm f0.95 Review

07/07/2015 By Heather 6 Comments

The Micro Four Thirds system has wide-angle primes and zooms aplenty but the same cannot be said for extreme wide-angle non-fisheye primes. Enter the Voigtlander 10.5mm f/0.95, a lens that claims two important titles: not only is it one of the widest non-fisheye primes for Micro Four Thirds*, but it is also the fastest wide angle lens for the system.

Panasonic Lumix 42.5mm f/1.7 Review and Comparison with Olympus 45mm f/1.8 vs Nocticron 42.5mm f/1.2

25/06/2015 By Mathieu 5 Comments

While Heather spent her time testing the new Panasonic G7 at the Erddig National Trust site, I concentrated on the new Lumix 42.5mm f/1.7 lens. As with the G7, this can also be categorised as a mini-review. My time spent with the lens wasn’t any longer than an afternoon but enough to write more than I did for our hands-on review from the UK Photoshow in March.