Reviews

Voigtländer VM lenses on the Sony A7r II, Chapter I: 12mm f/5.6 Ultra Wide Heliar and 21mm f/1.8 Ultron

22/09/2015 By Mathieu 23 Comments

When the original A7 and A7r were released in December 2013, one of the most popular topics was the use of adapted lenses including old SLR, Leica and third party M glass. Adapting M glass to Sony’s full-frame sensor, especially the shorter focal lengths, proved quite challenging. Since Sony’s sensors have a thicker cover glass, the light rays that come from the lens and pass through the cover can produce astigmatism (details on the edges of your image appearing blurred), colour shift and chromatic aberration. The severity of the results depends on the specific lens.

The “all-purpose” lens for the A7 series – Sony 24-240mm f/3.5-6.3 Review

07/09/2015 By Mathieu 8 Comments

This is one of those articles that wasn’t planned but rather happened because of convenience. The 24-240mm was not at the top of my list of lenses to test but it turned out that I needed a telephoto lens to take some pictures of the Tour of Britain 2015 since Stage 1 was passing through Wales. Unfortunately neither the 70-200mm f/4 nor any of the telephoto A-mount lenses were available to hire for that weekend.

Compact and powerful – The Olympus OM-D E-M10 mark II Review

25/08/2015 By Mathieu 35 Comments

When a company introduces a new camera, it usually fits into one of the following three categories: a) a brand new camera that inaugurates a new line-up (E-M1, E-M10), b) a substantial upgrade from the predecessor with lots of new features (E-M5 II) or c) a refined version of an already existing model.

The most modern Leica to date? – The Leica Q (116) Review

20/08/2015 By Mathieu 12 Comments

Excluding the M rangefinder series, which is aimed at specific users, Leica’s attempts to enter the consumer digital imaging market haven’t been that exciting so far. Its X series includes expensive compact cameras that house a large APS-C sensor but lack several features and deliver limited autofocus performance. The build quality is excellent but these cameras pale in comparison to the aggressive competition in the APS-C segment (think Fujifilm, Sony and Samsung).

A day at Penrhyn Castle – Hands-On with the Panasonic GX8

17/08/2015 By Mathieu 24 Comments

I’ve just come back from a day trip to Penrhyn Castle where Panasonic UK held its second Wales-based event in association with the National Trust. Despite being late in the evening, I decided to start writing my first impressions about the Panasonic Lumix GX8 while the experience is still fresh in my mind. We extend our warmest thanks to Panasonic ambassador Ross Grieves, who was able to procure us a pre-production model to use, and to Mark Baber for telling us about the event.