Think Sony FE 100-400mm super-telephoto zoom lenses and if you’re like me, you’re thinking of ‘great whites’ with a big, hefty build and similarly heavyweight price tags. The white paint job aims to minimize the sun-induced build-up of heat in these big lenses, while their Gold Master designs aim to go large on build quality, handling exotica and all-round performance. That’s all very well if you have strong arms to handle the load, and deep pockets to make the purchase. However, we don’t all fall into either or both of those categories.

Independent lens makers have come to the market with more compact, lightweight and affordable alternatives. An appealing option is the Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS | C, which measures 86x199mm / 3.4x7.8in and weighs in at 1,140g / 2.51lb. Then there’s the Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD, which is physically shorter and lighter at 89x183mm / 3.5x7.2in and 1,115g / 2.46lb, despite having a greater overall zoom range. Even so, the new Sony lens that I’m reviewing here seriously undercuts both third-party options with a size of 78x165mm / 3.1x6.5in and a relatively featherweight 654g / 1.44lb build.

The Sony is two-thirds of an f/stop slower at the long end than the Sigma and Tamron lenses, which helps with downsizing to some extent, but there’s more to it than that. Cutting-edge design aims to make the Sony one of the best 100-400mm lenses on the market, as well as one of the best telephoto lenses for Sony cameras, especially for the budget-conscious and lovers of lightweight lenses.

Sony FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS: Specifications

Sony FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS: Price

What price an own-brand Sony 100-400mm super-telephoto zoom? At $849 / £799 / AU$1,399, the FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS only costs about a third or even a fifth of its more glamorous G Master siblings. Indeed, the long-standing, stalwart Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS costs $2,798 / £2,149 / AU$3,289, whereas the newer, constant-aperture Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5 GM OSS is a seriously big-money option at $4,298 / £4,399 / AU$6,899.

As it turns out, the budget-friendly Sony lens also costs less to buy than the independent Sigma 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS | C (Australia aside) at $1,049 / £899 / AU$1,377, and the Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD at $1,299 / £999 / AU$1,899. It’s actually very similar in size, weight, aperture rating and price to the popular Canon RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM, which sells for $749 / £799 / AU$1,319. However, there’s a bit of a sting in the tail with the Canon lens, in that the ET-74B hood is sold separately, at a pricey $50 / £76 / AU$90, whereas the Sony comes complete with a hood. All in all, it looks quite the bargain.

Sony FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS: Design & Handling

Let’s get a sense of perspective. Without wanting to labor the point, this is a seriously small and featherweight lens for a full-frame compatible 100-400mm zoom. It actually looks and feels more like the 70-300mm lenses of old. Weighing less than 1.5lb, it’s easy to carry and a doddle to use on both full-frame and APS-C format Sony mirrorless cameras. On the latter it has a boosted ‘effective’ zoom range of 150-600mm, and the same applies if you select APS-C crop mode on a full-frame camera. Getting back to that sense of perspective in terms of size, the lens has a relatively small 67mm filter attachment thread, compared with the Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5 GM OSS that has a massive 95mm filter thread at the front, plus a 40.5mm drop-in filter holder at the rear.

If you feel the need to boost the telephoto reach of the lens with or without switching to APS-C crop mode or using an APS-C format camera body, the lens is compatible with Sony’s E-mount 1.4x and 2.0x tele-converters. The usual catch applies however, in that you’ll suffer a 1-stop or 2-stop aperture reduction, respectively. At the long end of the zoom range, a resulting f/11 aperture might not be an insurmountable problem with the 1.4x tele-converter, but f/16 with a 2.0x tele-converter might feel a bridge too far.

Before we get too carried away with how small the lens is, it’s important to bear in mind that it has an inner barrel that physically extends as you zoom from 100mm to 400mm. The overall extension is considerable as you stretch towards the 400mm mark. The images above and below show the difference in operating length at the shortest and longest zoom settings, respectively.

The action of zooming is taken care of by a conventional rotary control ring. It works smoothly without any stiff spots or jerkiness, enabling easy-gliding, precise control. It also has a calibrated scale, marked off at 100mm, 135mm, 200mm, 300mm and 400mm focal lengths.

Diving right in, the optical path comprises 15 elements arranged in 10 groups. These include two large aspherical elements at the front and two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements further back, aiming to enhance clarity and reduce both size and unwanted aberrations. The elements moved for focusing are also towards the rear, which helps with speed and efficiency, as well as ensuring that the front element neither extends nor rotates during focusing. That’s a bonus for handling and makes rotation-specific filters like polarizers and ND grads easier to use.

Autofocus is driven by dual linear stepping motors. As well as aiming for speed and accuracy when shooting stills, the system enables smooth and near-silent operation when shooting video. The minimum focus distance is unusually shorter at the maximum rather than minimum focal length, equating to 1.13m at 100mm and shrinking to 0.86m at 400mm. This enables a generous maximum magnification factor of 0.41x at 400mm, standing at the gate of genuine macro territory.

Keeping a lock on autofocus, most up-market 100-400mm lenses often have a rank of four customizable AF-hold buttons towards the front, whereas some lenses in this price bracket have none at all. The Sony compromises by featuring a single customizable function button, to which most photographers would assign the option of AF-hold.

Another difference between this lens and Sony’s real high-flyers is that there are relatively few switches at the rear. You still get a pair of useful switches on the left hand side. One neatly combines access to AF/MF (auto/manual focus) modes with an additional position for an autofocus range limiter. When engaged, this locks out the autofocus distances shorter than 3 meters, or just under 10 feet.

The other switch is for optical steady-shot on/off. While handy to have, it lacks the additional options often featured in more up-market lenses, like switchable static/panning modes and a tertiary mode that helps with tracking erratically moving objects.

As I’ve mentioned, there’s a smooth action to the zoom control ring. That’s despite there being no hint of zoom creep. I found that I could shoot at extreme upward or downward angles with zero movement of the extending inner barrel. Even so, the lens features a zoom lock switch on the right hand side of the barrel, which is useful to keep it locked in its shortest configuration while carrying it around, if it’s mounted on a camera body that’s slung around your neck or over your shoulder.

Nearly all Canon lenses that don’t make the company’s luxurious (expensive) L-series cut are supplied without a hood, and you have to buy one separately as an ‘optional extra’. I’m pleased to see that Sony supplies a hood with the lens. Typical of super-telephoto lenses, the companion hood has a circular rather than petal-shaped profile.

The hood fits to the lens via the usual bayonet-fit mechanism and can be reversed on the lens for compact stowage. To be effective, hoods for telephoto lenses need to be comparatively long, as this one is. As well as minimizing ghosting and flare, the hood gives physical protection against knocks and scrapes to the front optical element.

Weather-seals used to be a real rarity on budget-friendly lenses but are now featured much more frequently. The Sony has a sturdy metal rather than plastic mounting plate, along with a rubber gasket which is one of several weather-seals fitted throughout the lens. Despite the extending inner barrel, the lens has good built-in protection against the ingress of moisture and dust.

Sony FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS: Performance

From a performance standpoint, the lens has plenty of pulling power, stretching to serious telephoto reach at its longest zoom setting. The overall zoom range of 100-400mm makes for excellent versatility with both full-frame and APS-C format cameras. In our real-world tests and under laboratory conditions, we found center-sharpness in the 100-300mm sector of the zoom range to be very good, even shooting wide-open at f/5.6. Indeed, lab test results for center-sharpness were slightly better than those we recorded for the pricier Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS lens, within the same 100-300mm range.

The images above and below demonstrate the comparative telephoto reach when stretching from the shortest to longest available zoom settings. There’s a slight dip in center-sharpness at the long end of the zoom range but even here, the lens matches the lab results of the pricier lens mentioned above. There’s a caveat, however, as sharpness is less impressive away from the central region of the frame. It’s merely average in the ‘middle’ area surrounding the central region and becomes comparatively mediocre out at the edges and corners of the frame.

Autofocus speed is swift, able to snap onto subjects very quickly and track moving targets effectively. Although it doesn’t have the super-fast quad XD (extreme dynamic) linear motors of the top-end Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5 GM OSS, Sony says that the dual linear motors featured in this lens are compatible with burst shooting at up to 120fps, when mounted on the Sony A9 III camera body. I found that autofocus also worked well in conjunction with the various subject recognition and tracking options of the Sony A7 V.

An unexpected bonus is that the lens has a pretty short minimum focus distance for its class, especially towards the long end of the zoom range. This enables comparatively close-up shooting, with a maximum magnification factor of 0.41x. As such, small objects can be reproduced on the image sensor at nearly half life size, enabling huge enlargements when viewing the resulting images on screen or in print.

In my tests, I stuck to using the widest available apertures nearly all of the time. I think that wide-open performance is a crucial factor, simply because the aperture rating of this lens is fairly ‘slow’ at f/5.6-8. Super-telephoto zooms are favored for action, sports and wildlife photography, which often demand fast shutter speeds to freeze motion. With that in mind, I wouldn’t generally want to go narrower than the widest apertures this lens has to offer, otherwise I’d have to start bumping up my camera’s ISO setting in anything other than bright sunlight.

On the plus side, while f/8 is only a medium aperture width, its combination with a focal length of 400mm does enable quite a tight depth of field when shooting at anything less than long focus distances. The resulting bokeh in defocused areas looks pleasantly soft.

The lens exhibits good control over color fringing and distortion, which look pretty negligible even with automatic correction disabled. With in-camera correction applied, these aberrations become complete non-issues.

Sony FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS: Sample Images

The example shots in the following gallery were taken in the English city of Wells, in and around the Bishop’s Palace and Gardens. Autumnal weather conditions ranged from overcast to direct sunlight. I used the widest available apertures throughout, coupling the lens to a 33-megapixel Sony A7 V camera body for testing.

If you’re feeling particularly eagle-eyed and fancy a quick game of ‘spot the difference’, some of these images were taken in pairs, at the shortest and longest zoom settings, for the sake of comparison.

Sony FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS: Lab Results

We run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.

We use Imatest SFR (spatial frequency response) charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the center of the image frame, corners and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths. The tests also measure distortion and color fringing (chromatic aberration).

Sharpness:

Even when shooting wide-open, center-sharpness is excellent in the 100-300mm sector of the zoom range and only drops off a little at the longest focal length of 400mm. Wide-open sharpness is an important consideration, due to the modest f/5.6-8 aperture rating of the lens. Away from the central region, sharpness is merely average, and becomes fairly mediocre at the extreme edges and corners of the frame.

Fringing:

Color fringing peaks at the 300mm zoom setting but remains pretty negligible and will usually be hard to spot, even out at the edges and corners of the image frame. It’s entirely within the remit of automatic in-camera correction, which eliminates lateral chromatic aberration completely.

Distortion:

Unusually for telephoto zoom, the Sony exhibits mild barrel distortion rather than pincushion at most focal lengths, apart from at the 200mm mark where there’s very minimal pincushion. Distortions at all zoom settings are fairly minimal with little reliance on automatic in-camera correction.

Sony FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS: Verdict

There’s a lot to love about the Sony FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS but the thing I love most is that there’s so little of it. It’s amazingly small and a relative featherweight for this type of super-telephoto zoom lens. Indeed, I’ve had standard 24-70mm zoom lenses that weighed nearly twice as much. The upshot is that the lens is easy to carry and a joy to use, for even long periods of handheld shooting.

The aperture rating of f/5.6-8 is relatively sluggish but optical steady-shot does well to ensure a good hit rate, even with fairly slow shutter speeds, especially when working in tandem with the in-body stabilizers of recent Sony cameras. However, you’ll often find that you need to bump up your camera’s ISO setting to enable sufficiently fast shutter speeds for freezing action, rather than overcoming camera-shake. Ultimately, the modest aperture rating is simply the price you pay for the relatively compact and lightweight build.

And sticking with ‘the price you pay’, the lens is remarkably affordable for an own-brand Sony 100-400mm lens, also undercutting the cost of competing Sigma and Tamron 100-400mm zooms, in most world regions. The Sony’s handling, weather-sealed construction and performance are impressive in almost all respects, except that edge/corner-sharpness could be a little better.

Alternatives

There is something rather special about vintage Leica glass, and while modern lenses might deliver extraordinary sharpness and technical perfection, there's a reason photographers are still willing to spend thousands of dollars on optics that are more than half a century old. Now, Artizlab is looking to capture some of that magic with the launch of its new Classic-M 50mm f/1.4, a modern reinterpretation of the legendary 1961 Leica Summilux 50mm f/1.4 E43. Designed for Leica M-mount cameras, this beautiful little lens promises the character, craftsmanship, and distinctive rendering of the original, but with a considerably more attractive price tag of just $399.

For those familiar with the original Leica Summilux E43, the inspiration is immediately obvious. Artizlab has gone to considerable lengths to recreate the classic appearance of Leica's iconic 50mm prime, complete with its distinctive scalloped "pineapple" focusing ring, compact metal barrel, and wonderfully retro hammer-tone lens hood. Constructed from precision-machined aluminum and brass, the Classic-M weighs just 189.3g and features a 43mm filter thread, making it an appealing companion for Leica rangefinder photographers who appreciate a compact, traditional setup. It's available in both black and silver finishes, with the distinctive lens hood included as standard.

However, Artizlab hasn't simply recreated the appearance of this much-loved optic. Underneath that vintage exterior sits an optical arrangement of seven elements in five groups, inspired by the original Summilux E43 design, together with a 12-blade aperture intended to produce beautifully smooth bokeh. Rather than chasing the clinical sharpness and almost flawless rendering of modern lenses, Artizlab says it has concentrated on preserving the warmth, gentle tonal transitions, and natural color reproduction that made vintage Leica glass so desirable in the first place. And I think that's rather refreshing, because sometimes photography is about more than achieving the sharpest possible image. It's about the atmosphere, character, and feeling that a particular lens can bring to a photograph.

One area where the Classic-M improves considerably on its inspiration is its minimum focusing distance. While the original 1961 Summilux E43 could only focus as close as approximately 1m, Artizlab's modern interpretation can focus down to just 0.45m, opening up considerably more possibilities for portraits, detail photography, and everyday shooting. There is one important distinction, however, as the rangefinder coupling operates from 0.7m to infinity, meaning photographers wanting to focus closer will need to use live view or another suitable focusing method. The lens can also be adapted to mirrorless cameras from Sony, Nikon, Canon, Fujifilm, and other manufacturers, making this vintage-inspired optic potentially appealing to photographers beyond the Leica system.

Sample images

Of course, the real attraction here is the price. Original Leica Summilux E43 lenses have become increasingly desirable among collectors and photographers, with good examples commanding thousands of dollars on the used market. At just $399, the Artizlab Classic-M 50mm f/1.4 offers a considerably more accessible opportunity to explore that classic style of photography, although whether it can truly reproduce the optical character of its legendary inspiration remains to be seen.

Personally, I love seeing manufacturers revisit historic lens designs, particularly when they celebrate the imperfections and individual characteristics that helped make those lenses so memorable. The Artizlab Classic-M is currently listed as sold out through the manufacturer's website, with further availability expected, and I suspect this is one little lens that could attract plenty of attention from Leica enthusiasts and vintage lens lovers alike.

See our guide to the best Leica M lenses

Sirui has added two new lenses to its Aurora series of full-frame optics for Sony E and L mount cameras. The new 15mm f/1.6 and 24mm f/1.4 optics line up alongside the existing 35mm and 85mm Aurora lenses.

Aurora 15mm f/1.6

With its wide 109.3-degree angle of view, the 15mm f/1.6 has been designed with landscape photography, astrophotography and interiors in mind. Sirui says optical distortion is around 1.4%, helping ensure natural reproduction of geometric subjects, while a 0.3m minimum focus distance adds extra compositional versatility. The weather-sealed, all-metal lens barrel measures a relatively compact 106.4mm long, 82mm in diameter and weighs 550g. It features full electronic contacts for lens-body communication, along with a physical aperture control ring with iris lock and switchable de-click, plus a customizable function button that can be used as an AF lock.

Inside is a 17-element optical stack arranged in 12 groups, including 3 aspherical elements to help reduce distortion, along with 3 extra-low dispersion elements to control fringing, and a trio of high refractive index elements to further reduce aberrations while also maintaining a compact optical design. An 11-blade aperture diaphragm is said to produce rounder, more natural-looking bokeh. The lens incorporates stepping motor AF for fast, accurate and quiet autofocus, and works with the subject detection and tracking modes of compatible cameras.

The Sirui Aurora 15mm f/1.6 is available for pre-order, priced at $599/£529.

Aurora 24mm f/1.4

The Aurora 24mm f/1.4 shares similar handling characteristics to its 15mm sibling; it also weighs around 550g, and is almost the same length. Its slightly longer focal length makes it more suitable for street or still life photography, with the fast f/1.4 aperture meaning the lens should be particularly handy in low light. Its 14-element optical design includes 3 aspherical, 4 ED and 3 HRI elements. Like the 15mm f/1.6, the 24mm Aurora gets stepping motor autofocus with subject tracking and eye-detection capabilities. Sirui also says the lens has been designed with video recording in mind, as it combines low focus breathing, a de-clickable aperture, and quiet, accurate autofocus.

Expect to pay $499/£439 for the E mount or L mount versions of the Aurora 24mm f/1.4, with Z mount and X mount versions reportedly coming soon.

I’ve been largely impressed with Sirui products over the years, and it’s been quite a few years at that. The company launched in 2001, becoming a well-known brand for tripods within five years. In 2015, Sirui branched out into anamorphic and cine lenses, as well as diversifying into the lighting market in 2022. On the lens front, Sirui is still most widely known (and highly regarded) for its cine lenses but the one I’m reviewing here is a full-frame autofocus lens for stills cameras, although of course that encompasses video shooting nowadays.

From the relatively recent Aurora range, this 35mm is currently one of two lenses on offer, the other being an 85mm prime that matches the 35mm for its fast f/1.4 aperture and has mostly the same handling characteristics. Both lenses aim high in terms of features, handling, build quality, performance and value for money, the 35mm intending to be among the best street lenses on the market.

The two lenses are available in a wide range of mount options, comprising Sony E (FE), Nikon Z (FX), L-mount and Fujifilm X. Although full-frame compatible, the 35mm lens has an ‘effective’ focal length of just over 50mm on APS-C format cameras, serving as a ‘nifty fifty’, which is naturally the only option with the Fuji X-mount edition.

Sirui Aurora 35mm f/1.4: Specifications

Sirui Aurora 35mm f/1.4: Price

The Sirui Aurora 35mm f/1.4 has a list price of $549 / £549 / AU$889, which makes it particularly affordable for a lens of this type. By comparison, the own-brand Sony FE 35mm f/1.4 G Master weighs in at a whopping $1,498 / £1,429 / AU$1,999, although Nikon makes a relatively budget-friendly (and more basic) Nikkor Z 35mm f/1.4 for $677 / £649 / AU$1,099. Independent Chinese competition includes the even faster Viltrox AF 35mm f/1.2 Lab at $999 / £869 / AU$1,649 and there’s the Japanese Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG II Art for $1,059 / £849 / AU$2,049. Whichever way you look at it, the Sirui Aurora 35mm looks great value at the price.

Sirui Aurora 35mm f/1.4: Design & Handling

The Sirui Aurora 35mm f/1.4 is a sight to behold, even before you get it out of its packaging. It’s beautifully presented in a full-color printed box, complete with fabric lift-up tab and ID card. Inside that, the lens sits resplendent in its own posh soft case, reminiscent of the ones that up-market Sigma lenses come in, but in blue, silver and black instead of just plain black.

The lens itself follows suit, with a black anodized aluminum barrel, a full set of switches and function buttons, bright blue Sirui badge and an Aurora logo in a script font that makes the lens look like it’s been signed by hand. But as they say, looks can be deceiving, so I’m hoping not to be disappointed.

When you lift the lens from its padded case, the first impression is that it’s a high-quality item. Everything looks and feels up-market, from the weather-sealed metal base to the fluorine coated front element. It’s pretty lightweight for a 35mm f/1.4 prime as well, measuring 3x4 inches and weighing in at 490g, or a smidge over one pound.

Like most lenses for mirrorless cameras nowadays, the Aurora has an autofocus system that’s based on a linear stepping motor. Typical of the breed, it’s quick and virtually silent in operation, and is electronically coupled to a manual focus ring. As is also generally the case, there’s no focus distance scale apart from the one you might have as an option in your camera body’s electronic viewfinder or rear screen.

Swapping between autofocus and manual focus modes is a simple case of operating the AF/MF switch on the side of the lens barrel. That saves any time and effort faffing around in camera menus to make the change. Just above the switch is a customizable function button that I tend to use for AF-hold, although a range of other options is generally available depending on the camera body.

Like all the other switches and controls, the aperture ring is clearly marked, this time on one-third f/stop increments, all the way from the widest aperture of f/1.4 to the narrowest of f/16. That’s all well and good if you’re shooting in Aperture-priority or Manual shooting modes, but there’s also an A (Auto) position for camera-driven adjustments and for shooting in Program and Shutter-priority modes.

I don’t consider myself to be clumsy but I do find that it’s all too easy to nudge an aperture control ring from its Auto position to a narrow aperture setting by accident. The Aurora guards against this with the provision of an Iris Lock switch. I’m very much in favor of that.

Catering to both stills and video, the aperture ring also features a click/de-click switch, thus allowing for precise, one-third incremental steps or smooth and silent aperture transitions respectively. It’s another nice touch that is sure to find favor with hybrid shooters and content creators who alternate between stills and video.

One final word on aperture is that the lens has a particularly well-rounded diaphragm, based on no less than 13 curved blades. This helps to maintain the quality of bokeh when stopping down from the widest aperture of f/1.4. There’s plenty of quality glass in the optical path as well, with three aspherical elements, two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements, one Special ED element and two HRI (High Refractive Index) elements in the chain.

Like the lens itself, the hood feels a quality item, with an efficient petal-shaped profile, a grippy rubber handling ring, a ridged interior surface and a lock/release button. As usual, it also has a bayonet-fit design and can be reversed on the lens for compact stowage.

Maintaining the quality theme, even the lens caps look and feel nicely designed and well made. The front cap has a pinch-style release mechanism that makes it easy to fit or remove even when the hood is fitted to the lens in its business orientation.

Finishing up at the back end, there’s a metal mounting plate that features gold-plated electronic contacts and a rubber weather-seal ring. There’s actually a comprehensive set of weather-seals fitted through the whole lens. Another bonus is that the mounting plate includes a USB-C socket, which you can use for applying firmware updates.

Sirui Aurora 35mm f/1.4: Performance

After such high expectations based on the apparent quality, presentation and finish of the lens, performance turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag in my tests. Starting out with a positive, the f/1.4 aperture definitely delivers a tight depth of field along with attractively smooth bokeh, especially when shooting close-ups.

Producing soft defocused areas within images is certainly not a problem, but I found sharpness more of a challenge. I didn’t get the autofocus hit rate that I’m used to when using my Sony A7 III camera body and stepping motor-based lenses. Even manual focusing proved to be a bit hit and miss. When correctly focused, the lens still lacked sharpness towards the edges and corners of the frame, and that’s after stopping down to medium apertures of around f/5.6 and f/8. To demonstrate, the pair of images below show a full-frame image on the left, and an enlarged section from near one of the corners on the right.

Back on the plus side, there was little evidence of any axial or lateral chromatic aberrations during my testing, the latter being minimal even right out at the edges of the frame. Ghosting and flare were also kept to small amounts.

There’s no real problem in terms of distortion either and unlike many modern lenses designed for mirrorless cameras, the Sirui doesn’t rely heavily on automatic in-camera corrections.

One of the tests that I often run for ‘fast’ lenses is to shoot a phrenology head in my back garden, starting with the widest available aperture and stopping down to a medium aperture in single f/stop increments. The results give good indications of sharpness and the quality of bokeh for defocused areas. Moreover, fast lenses often suffer from axial/longitudinal chromatic aberration at the widest apertures, also known as bokeh fringing. This displays as color fringing around high-contrast transitions, just in front of and behind the plane of focus. The black lines and writing on the white porcelain of the phrenology head are a good test for this as well.

The following gallery contains shots taken at full f/stop steps from f/1.4 to f/8. The lens does well in most respects but if you zoom in to the images for an enlarged view, you’ll notice a serious lack of wide-aperture sharpness. I initially suspected autofocus inaccuracies but repeated the entire sequence, focusing manually with maximum magnification in preview, and got much the same results. Wide-aperture vignetting (darkened corners) is also very severe.

Sirui Aurora 35mm f/1.4: Sample Images

Images in the sample gallery below were taken on a bright, sunny morning at the ‘floating harbor’ of Bristol Docks in the south west of England. I used a selection of wide aperture settings for a tight depth of field when shooting close-ups, and narrower apertures where I wanted edge-to-edge sharpness for more expansive subjects.

Sirui Aurora 35mm f/1.4: Lab Results

We run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.

We use Imatest SFR (spatial frequency response) charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the center of the image frame, corners and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths. The tests also measure distortion and color fringing (chromatic aberration).

Sharpness:

Sharpness in the center of frame is excellent, but it soon drops off as you move towards the corners. Even in the mid-frame image quality is very soft, and it's downright dire as you reach the corners.

Fringing:

There's visible fringing in the corners of frame when you stop down past f/2.8, but it's not severe.

Distortion: 0.75

The lens produces a touch of pincushion distortion, but not enough to be distracting.

Sirui Aurora 35mm f/1.4: Verdict

I think that the Sirui Aurora 35mm f/1.4 looks and feels a highly impressive lens. It’s beautifully presented and robustly built with an anodized aluminum barrel and comprehensive weather-seals. It also features a wealth of handling exotica, including an AF/MF focus mode switch, customizable function button and an aperture control ring with an iris lock and click/de-click switch.

All in all, the Sirui looks unfeasibly great value for money, but I found a sting in the tail when it came to actual performance. Autofocus accuracy proved a little inconsistent in my tests, and sharpness across the image frame was a moveable feast, even when the lens was correctly focused. All in all, I think the Sirui looks a great lens, but it’s not really as good as it looks.

Alternatives

The growth of the retro camera look has sparked a resurgence in disposable cameras – but one start-up is taking the lens from a recycled disposable camera and building a compact mirrorless lens with it. Bold Lens Co. is a Thailand-based company building mirrorless lenses from the lenses of old disposable cameras.

Bold Lens isn’t the first company to make a cheap mirrorless lens meant to mimic the look of a disposable film camera. But the Bold Lens BL-32, is unusual in that the budget lens still uses an adjustable aperture rather than a fixed opening. The company says it's the first disposable camera lens remake to use an adjustable aperture.

First, Bold Lens takes used Fujifilm QuickSnap disposable film cameras and pulls the optic from them. Then, it 3D-prints the lens housing, complete with six curved 3D-printed aperture blades. The final lens is assembled by hand.

The result is a 32mm lens with an f/5.6-f/22 adjustable aperture built for APS-C cameras. Focusing is all manual, with an adjustable focus ring. The lens is built from four major components, without any electronics: a 3D-printed body, the recycled lens element, the aperture blades, and the camera mount.

Sample images shared by Bold Lens illustrate a soft look that feels reminiscent of the imperfect disposable film camera. The narrow f/5.6 aperture encourages a higher ISO, which can create the grain that also feels like a more old-school look.

Like many budget lenses, there are no electronic contacts on the lens, so the aperture needs to be adjusted directly from the lens, and some cameras will need to enable the “shoot without lens” setting.

The hand-assembled lens is being sold in small batches, but it's available for several different mounts, including Fujifilm X, Sony E, Nikon Z, Canon EF-M, Canon RF, and Micro Four Thirds.

Because the lenses are made in small batches – around 15 a month – orders are checked for stock and international shipping availability. The lens sells for $49 – about £36 / AU$70 / CA$69.

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Take a look at the best disposable cameras for that real film look, or dive into the best pancake lenses.

Tilt-shift lenses are the darlings of architectural photography. The shift function can correct the perspective error that makes tall buildings look like they’re leaning inwards towards the top. But that’s only half the story. The additional tilt function also makes them popular with landscape photographers and special effects creatives, who enjoy being able to monkey around with depth of field, independent of focal length, focus distance and aperture setting. Indeed, you can typically get anything from a huge depth of field for keeping near and far areas simultaneously sharp in landscape and cityscape images, to an ultra-thin depth of field for the ‘toytown’ effect.

The forthcoming Laowa 24mm f/2 Zero-D Tilt-Shift has an ideal focal length for architectural and cityscape photography. Very much more so than the recent Laowa FFII TS 100mm f/2.8 Macro 1X, the main strength of which I think is extending the meagre depth of field that you typically get in ‘full macro’ photography. And it doesn’t stop there. Venus Optics is so renowned as a purveyor of esoteric lenses that I feel Laowa would be top of the list if Inspector Gadget took up photography.

Other oddball lenses include the Laowa 8-15mm f/2.8 FF Zoom Fisheye, Laowa 24mm f/14 2x Macro Probe, Laowa Aksen 5-10x Ultra Macro APO and Laowa 200mm f/2 AF FF, to name but a few. Okay, the last of these isn’t quite so ‘out there’ but 200mm f/2 lenses aren’t exactly run-of-the-mill.

Back to the new 24mm. Headline attractions include a generous +/-10 degrees of tilt and +/-12mm of shift, along with a similarly generous 108.8-degree wide-angle perspective. In keeping with modern lens designs, the Laowa is relatively compact and lightweight for its type. Unlike most, however, it claims to be a ‘Zero-D’ lens, with minimal optical distortion rather than relying on automatic in-camera correction.

The relatively fast f/2 aperture is another string to its bow, coming to the fore for the likes of twilight cityscape photography and architectural interiors, when lighting is low. Indeed, the Laowa claims to be the fastest tilt-shift lens ever made.

The Laowa is full-frame compatible and more besides. As such, it’s available in Canon RF, Nikon Z and Sony E and L-mount options for full-frame mirrorless cameras, while also delivering its full range of tilt-shift adjustability for select medium format cameras, thanks to Fujifilm GFX and Hasselblad XCD mount options. However, the L-mount version is incompatible with Panasonic Lumix S52, S52X, S1M2, S1M2E and S1R2 camera bodies.

Typical of tilt-shift lenses, there’s no autofocus facility but fancy glass includes five Extra-low Dispersion elements, two glass aspherical elements and four Ultra-high Refraction elements.

The Laowa 24mm tilt-shift lens goes on sale from today, November 5, with a US price of $1,249. Pricing in other world regions is yet to be announced.

Tilt-shift, or ‘perspective control’ lenses are often regarded as essential tools by architectural and landscape photographers, and more besides. Shift is arguably the killer feature of these lenses, especially for architectural shots. Shoot a tall building from ground level and you’re likely to have to point your camera upwards to fit it into the image frame. This makes the walls appear to lean inwards towards the top. The shift function can correct this, so your verticals stay vertical.

The tilt function shouldn’t be underestimated either. This gives you control over depth of field (of sorts), customizing which areas of a composition are focused or defocused. And that’s independent of focal length, aperture setting and focus distance. It’s all down to the ‘Scheimpflug principle’, Scheimpflug tripping off the tongue as my all-time favorite word in the vocabulary of lenses. Landscape photographers can take advantage, ensuring that everything from the close foreground to the distant horizon stays sharp. At the opposite end of the scale, you can create the trick ‘toytown’ or ‘miniature’ effect, with only a sliver of your composition in focus.

These optics really are amazing tools, so where are all the tilt-shift lenses for mirrorless cameras? Big hitters Canon, Nikon and Sony don’t make any tilt-shift lenses for their mirrorless cameras, and Fujifilm only makes them for its medium-format GFX system. There are still a few Canon and Nikon tilt-shift lenses around that are designed for DSLRs, which you can use via mount adapters. But that puts me in mind of another problem with older Nikon examples of the breed. These had no rotational axis so, for example, you could only use the shift function in landscape orientation and the tilt function in portrait orientation, unless you had the lens reengineered to swap the axes.

With all that in mind, the Laowa 24mm f/2 Zero-D Tilt-Shift that I’m reviewing here looks a very desirable lens for owners of many makes of mirrorless camera. It’s a fully tricked-up tilt-shift lens with 360-degree axial rotation, as well as being the fastest ever 24mm TS lens in the history of the breed. And it’s available in a wide range of full-frame compatible Canon RF, Nikon Z, Sony E and L-mount options, as well as in medium-format Fujifilm GFX and Hasselblad XCD versions. All in all, it aims to be one of the best tilt-shift lenses for mirrorless cameras.

Laowa 24mm f/2 Zero-D Tilt-Shift: Specifications

Laowa 24mm f/2 Zero-D Tilt-Shift: Price

The Laowa 24mm f/2 Zero-D Tilt-Shift costs $1,249 / £1,299 (AU$ TBA). So how does that compare? Well, it’s exactly the same price as the rather excellent Laowa 100mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift 1x Macro that I reviewed a while ago. The 100mm is less useful for architectural and landscape photography, but the tilt function is definitely a useful add-on to the full macro facility, enabling you to gain some much needed depth of field in extreme close-ups.

Relatively old designs of 24 tilt-shift lenses for DSLRs include the Canon TS-E 24mm II f/3.5L at $2,199 / £2,199 and the Nikon PC-E 24mm f/3.5D ED at $2,197 / £2,199. Both of them are getting on for twice the price of the Laowa. In the medium-format camp, there’s the fabulous Fujifilm GF 30mm f/5.6 T/S but it has a hugely hefty price tag of $4,499 / £3,899. On the face of it, the Laowa looks great value for money.

Laowa 24mm f/2 Zero-D Tilt-Shift: Design & Handling

Any tilt-shift lens is something of a mechanical marvel. Watch it go about its business, with the front section of the barrel literally shifting up and down, or tilting at significant angles to the left and right, and it’s a sight to behold. With all the complex couplings and gearings to enable the extensive range of movements, as well as the full 360 degrees of axis rotation in this case, it’s no surprise that there are no tilt-shift lenses that feature autofocus. It’s simply a bridge too far.

On the plus side, accurate manual focusing is relatively easy with mirrorless cameras, as I’ll come back to in a moment. For now, I’ll just say that any tilt-shift lens is quite a handful and can seem pretty tricky to manipulate, but at least the Laowa is relatively compact and lightweight for its type, despite stealing a lead for aperture speed.

Getting back to focusing, the Laowa is typical of manual-focus lenses in having a generous throw in its mechanically coupled focus ring. The ring operates very smoothly and enables very fine and precise adjustments. DSLRs are notoriously troublesome when it comes to accurate manual focusing, lacking the split-image focus screen or microprism of their 35mm film forebears. With mirrorless cameras, however, you can employ focus peaking or a magnified preview (my personal preference) in the viewfinder or rear screen for critical adjustments.

Sometimes classed as a ‘dumb lens’, the Laowa is of the type that has no internal electronics at all. You therefore need to adjust the aperture via the onboard control ring and this can’t be done from a command dial in the host camera body. It also means that you can only effectively shoot in aperture-priority or fully manual modes. Even so, automatic exposure metering is still available. The aperture control ring itself works effectively, with full f/stop click steps all the way from f/2 to f/22. The actual aperture diaphragm is particularly well-rounded, based on no less than 14 blades.

The control rings for aperture as well as focusing are calibrated and clearly marked, with the bonus of depth of field markers at f/4, f/8, f/16 and f/22. That said, DOF markers become largely irrelevant when you employ the tilt function. In its native 0-degree axis rotation, the tilt function directs the forward section of the lens barrel by up to 10 degrees to the left or to the right. The knob for adjustment is up on top in this orientation and clearly marked in single degree increments.

Sticking with the same default orientation, the shift knob is on the left hand side of the lens. 12mm of upward and downward travel is available, totaling 24mm in all. Again, there’s a calibrated and clearly marked scale, this time in individual millimeters with longer marker lines at the central 0mm position and at 5mm increments.

Like all tilt-shift lenses, the Laowa is a precision instrument and you generally need to exercise an equal degree of precision in setting it up effectively. As such, both of the tilt and shift functions have independent locking screws, which are placed directly opposite the control knobs on the other sides for the assembly. You can use these to ensure there’s no unwanted movement in either mechanism after careful setup.

The optical path is complex in its own right, even without putting all of the mechanical adjustments into the equation. There are 13 elements arranged in 10 groups, including two glass molded aspherical elements, five ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements and four UHR (Ultra-High Refractive) elements. The combination aims to deliver optimum sharpness and clarity, along with the minimum of unwanted aberrations. Those aberrations include color fringing and distortion, and for the latter, the Laowa claims to be a zero-distortion lens.

The lens isn’t really heavy enough to demand a tripod mounting collar but one is supplied anyway, sometimes alternatively referred to as a ‘shift foot’. It’s of more practical use to ensure that the lens stays fixed in position when making shift adjustments. In practice, it’s the camera body that shifts in position, relative to the lens which is fixed in place on a tripod. The tripod collar enables a full 360 degrees of rotation but its calibrated scale only extends as far as 90 degrees clockwise and anti-clockwise.

The more important ‘rotation’ aspect is that the complete tilt-shift assembly can be rotated through 360 degrees in relation to the camera body, rather than just the combined lens and camera rotating as one within the tripod collar. This essentially means that either tilt or shift functions, or a combination of both are available in every conceivable orientation of the lens. The axis rotation function is marked in 45-degree increments, on a scale at the rear of the lens. In most situations, you’d merely be selecting whether to use tilt or shift in either landscape or portrait orientation shooting.

Like the lens, the supplied hood is also pretty trick. It has an efficient petal-shaped profile, and there’s nothing unusual in that. What’s more unusual is that once you fasten the hood in place with its locking screw, you can then rotate it on the front of the lens in 15-degree increments, so it can offset any axis rotation of the lens barrel in relation to the camera body.

The hood is fairly short so I tend to leave it attached to the lens permanently. It’s easy to fit or remove the pinch-style front cap with the hood in place, where it helps to combat ghosting and flare as well as offering physical protection against bumps and scrapes to the front glass element. The only downside is that you need to be careful not to accidentally nudge the hood a click or two in its rotational adjustment, as this can cause severe vignetting in one corner of the image frame when you’re using a large amount of shift.

Moving from front to back, the lens has a sturdy metal mounting plate, in keeping with the metal build of the lens barrel and tilt-shift assembly. With no internal electronics, the physical shape of the mounting plate is the only significant difference between different mount options of the lens, engineered for various types of camera system.

Laowa 24mm f/2 Zero-D Tilt-Shift: Performance

At its core, the lens delivers impressive sharpness, clarity and contrast, along with natural color rendition. Bokeh looks nice and smooth in defocused areas, and remains of good quality when stopping down, helped by the very well-rounded 14-blade aperture. Naturally, some effort is required in manual focusing, as well as applying tilt and/or shift. Both of these adjustments tend to wander unless the locking mechanisms are tightened. I found the rotating petal-shaped hood to be more of a problem, accidental nudges along its rotational click-step path resulting in vignetting when using a lot of shift.

The shift mechanism works as advertised, giving a generous overall range of +/-12mm. For comparison, the image above was taken of the intricate front façade of Wells cathedral in South West England, using no shift at all. Consequently, the camera is pointed upwards to fit the entirety of the architecture into the frame, and the perspective error is clear to see with the outer walls appearing to lean inwards towards the top.

By contrast, the second image immediately above was shot with a few millimeters of shift, sufficient to frame the façade with the camera remaining completely level. The result is that the perspective error is corrected and the outer walls remain parallel all the way up from bottom to top.

Tilt is the other main arrow in the Laowa’s quiver. The +/-10 degrees on tap gives plenty of scope for playing around with areas of a composition that are focused or defocused. The close-up shot above shows the effect of using tilt to align the plane of focus approximately parallel to the side of the model car. Focusing on the front fender, you’ll see that the passenger seat behind the gullwing door is equally sharp, and the back end of the car isn’t too blurry either. For the shot below, I used the opposite extreme of tilt, which throws the plane of focus more at odds with the side of the car. Focusing on the same spot, the passenger seat is now defocused, the back of the car more so. Conversely, the far side of the front of the car has come back into focus. Such is the magic of tilt-shift lenses.

Laowa 24mm f/2 Zero-D Tilt-Shift: Sample Images

The following collection of example shots was taken in and around Wells Cathedral, in the city of Wells in South West England. Most of the images are in pairs, taken of the same subject, first without and then with shift applied for perspective correction. There’s also a couple of pairs with tilt being applied in opposite directions, so you can see the effect that this has on relative areas that are either focused or defocused.

Laowa 24mm f/2 Zero-D Tilt-Shift: Lab Results

We run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.

We use Imatest SFR (spatial frequency response) charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the center of the image frame, corners and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths. The tests also measure distortion and color fringing (chromatic aberration).

Sharpness:

Sharpness in the central region is excellent, even wide open at f/2. Sharpness is less impressive as you move out towards the corners of frame, but these scores are to be expected from a lens with a relatively short focal length positioned close to our large test chart. Real world corner sharpness is better than these lab results imply.

Fringing:

Fringing is well controlled at all apertures. It is only just visible in real world images, and even then only in the corners of frame.

Distortion: -0.3

There's a trace of barrel distortion, but the lens is still worthy of its 'Zero-D' name.

Laowa 24mm f/2 Zero-D Tilt-Shift: Verdict

As I said in my news piece about this lens, Venus Optics doesn’t really do ‘ordinary’. Most of the company’s catalog comprises oddball lenses, like the Laowa 8-15mm f/2.8 FF Zoom Fisheye, Laowa 24mm f/14 2x Macro Probe and Laowa Aksen 5-10x Ultra Macro APO. This tilt-shift lens is of a similarly ‘off the wall’ nature compared with regular lenses, and actually does a stellar job of photographing walls in an architectural context.

The Laowa has generous tilt and shift ranges, plus a full 360 degrees of axis rotation. The upshot is that you can correct perspective when shooting tall buildings, either inside or out, and use the tilt function to govern which areas of a scene appear focused or defocused within images. The axial rotation completes the picture, enabling either tilt or shift, or both functions, in landscape, portrait or any other orientation you choose to use.

Unlike the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift 1x Macro lens, this 24mm lens is pretty much perfect for architectural and landscape photography. The fast f/2 aperture makes it similarly ideal for low-light photography indoors or at twilight, and even puts astrophotography on the agenda. Build quality and image quality are both excellent, making the lens a bargain at the price. Meanwhile, the wide variety of mount options spreads the love.

I found that the tilt and shift mechanisms moved a little too freely for my liking when ‘unlocked’, but that’s what the locking knobs are for. Similarly, the rotating petal-shaped lens hood seemed to have a habit of getting nudged to a random angle, giving rise to vignetting when large amounts of shift were applied. However, if you exercise an appropriate level of care and attention to detail when setting up the lens for tilt-shift photography, it’s capable of delivering excellent results that simply can’t be replicated with a regular lens.

Alternatives

Photographer, videographer and all-around curious chap Max Adams (@max_madeit) has released several Instagram Reels of a jaw-dropping macro setup involving multiple extension tubes, teleconverters and a 400mm super-telephoto lens.

The setup is so long that it requires two tripods just to hold the whole thing aloft!

In the video (above), he breaks down the components: a Sony A1 Mark II, the Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 L IS USM, a 2x teleconverter, a 1.4x teleconverter, and no less than 7 extension tubes, before photographing a tiny flower.

The problem is that the 400mm minimum focusing distance means that the subject has to be set back about 10 feet in order to focus.

Max rectifies this situation in another video (above) by swapping out the 400mm optic for a 100mm f/2.8 macro lens. This time, the subject (a grain of rice) is positioned just six inches from the front element.

The result is an extreme close-up of the grain’s surface; so large is the grain of rice, it’s obviously beyond 1:1 macro.

What I did find rather hilarious was some of the comments. In the very first video showing the setup, one commenter wrote: “Perfect for street photography,” and another said: “Nice for handheld stacks”. Yeah, right!

Still, as amazing (and ridiculous) as using seven extension tubes may be, the record remains held by YouTuber Nicolas Grant who stacked an even more ludicrous twenty of them together.

If anyone is feeling bold, and feels like surfing the Black Friday camera deals for cheap tubes, there's bound to be a Guinness World Record in this somewhere…

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Looking for more wacky photography projects? This photographer used a glass vase as a camera lens – the results are otherworldly! Perhaps you’d prefer to just pick up one of the best macro lenses. Plus, here’s the latest camera news.

A remarkably rare Leica prototype lens has sold for an astonishing $20,001 at a Goodwill charity auction in the United States, having started with a bidding price of just $35. The Leica / Hughes Leitz 17mm f/2 fisheye lens, which was discovered at Goodwill of the Great Plains, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is believed to be one of only a handful of examples ever produced, making it an incredibly unusual find.

While we're used to seeing rare Leica cameras and lenses fetching extraordinary prices at specialist auctions, finding something of this significance at Goodwill is certainly not something you see every day.

However, this is no ordinary Leica lens, and it certainly isn't something you'll be attaching to your Leica M anytime soon. Manufactured in Canada by Hughes Leitz Optical Technologies, the enormous 17mm f/2 fisheye was reportedly developed specifically for Electrosonic, a company specializing in audiovisual technology and installations. The Hughes Leitz name dates back to 1990, when Hughes Aircraft acquired Ernst Leitz Canada, before the business was subsequently sold to Raytheon in 1997. This places the production of the lens somewhere within those seven years, making it a fascinating piece of Leica's lesser-known optical history.

What makes this lens particularly interesting, aside from its rarity, is its sheer size and unusual optical design. Weighing approximately 26 pounds (12kg), the 17mm fisheye offers an enormous 163-degree field of view, while its f/2 optical design features fixed focus and no adjustable aperture diaphragm. Unlike the photographic lenses we're familiar with today, this particular optic was designed for specialist industrial or projection applications, where capturing or projecting an exceptionally wide field of view was essential. It is an extraordinary example of just how far Leica's optical expertise extended beyond the world of conventional photography.

Interestingly, this isn't the first time we've seen one of these enormous lenses appear for sale. Back in 2021, Leica Store Lisse in the Netherlands offered what was believed to be a one-of-a-kind example for approximately $47,200, while another listing had previously appeared on eBay in 2018 for around $24,500. The Goodwill example appears almost identical to the one previously documented, although its C530-0004 identification differs from the earlier C530-0007 example. This suggests that at least two examples were manufactured, although exactly how many were produced, or how many survive today, remains unknown.

For me, what makes this story so fascinating is that such an extraordinary piece of Leica history has managed to find its way into a charity auction rather than the hands of a specialist camera dealer or collector. Despite its $20,001 selling price, the lens was offered in "as is" condition, meaning its actual optical performance and working condition remain uncertain. Nevertheless, considering the rarity of the lens and the considerably higher asking prices associated with previous examples, the winning bidder may have secured something rather special. It just goes to show that even in today's world of online auctions and specialist collectors, there are still some remarkable photographic treasures waiting to be discovered in the most unexpected places.

Thypoch has announced a new lens in its Simera-C cine lens range. The Simera-C 100mm T1.9 is the longest entry in the now seven-strong line-up, complementing the existing 16mm, 21mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm and 75mm Simera-C lenses. The new 100mm telephoto prime is compatible with full-frame Sony E and Leica M cameras, and Thypoch also produces adaptors to convert the M-mount version to Canon RF, Fujifilm X, Nikon Z, L Mount, Arri and other cameras.

The 100mm Simera-C shares an identical mechanical design and positioning of its geared aperture/focus rings to the other lenses in the series, meaning it can integrate seamlessly into follow focus rigs. Thypoch has also taken care to ensure the 100mm is a similar weight to other Simera-C lenses to further improve common handling characteristics: the 100mm weighs just 477g in E-mount form, making it slightly lighter than the 16mm and 12mm lenses. The lens's 67mm front filter thread also matches that of the 75mm Simera-C.

The lens’s optical stack consists of 11 elements arranged in 8 groups and features a unified optical design that includes the series' low-saturation blue coating to ensure uniform color matching across the lens range. The longer focal length of the 100mm makes it easier to shoot close-ups with a shallow depth of field to better isolate your subject, while a 0.85m minimum focus distance increases shot versatility. Bokeh should also be super-smooth, as the lens is equipped with an iris consisting of no fewer than 16 blades. Focussing is manual only, but that's fairly standard for a cine lens that's likely to spend much of its time in a rig.

You can pre-order the Simera-C 100mm T1.9 now from B&H. Expect to pay $879 for the E-mount version, while the M-mount edition is priced at $959.

15 camera lenses from Pentax, Olympus, Fujifilm and Nikon are disappearing from the market, with some officially ending their production cycle while others are listed as discontinued by major Japanese retailers, including Yodobashi and Map Camera.

The list includes everything from fast professional zooms and telephoto lenses to compact primes. While retailer listings alone don't confirm a global discontinuation, such changes at Japanese retailers can be an early indication that availability in other markets may soon follow.

Some lenses remain available in the US and UK, although stock is becoming limited and harder to find, while others have successors or alternative options. Here's a breakdown of all 15 lenses, what's known about their status, and where photographers can still buy them.

Discontinued lenses

Pentax

• HD Pentax-DA* 16-50mm f/2.8 ED PLM AW
• HD Pentax-DA 21mm f/3.2 AL Limited
• HD Pentax-D FA* 50mm f/1.4 SDM AW
• HD Pentax-D FA* 70-200mm f/2.8 ED DC AW
• HD Pentax-D FA 28-105mm f/3.5-5.6 ED DC WR
• HD Pentax-D FA* 85mm f/1.4 ED SDM AW
• HD Pentax-D FA 24-70mm f/2.8 ED SDM WR
• HD Pentax-DA 16-85 mm f/3.5-5.6 ED DC WR
• SMC Pentax-DA 18-135 mm f/3.5-5.6 ED AL [IF] DC WR
• HD Pentax-DA 35 mm f/2.8 Macro Limited
• SMC Pentax-DA* 300 mm f/4 ED [IF] SDM
• HD Pentax-D FA 150-450 mm f/4.5-5.6 ED DC AW

Ricoh officially confirmed that the 12 lenses are discontinued, following on from the announcement that production is stopping on all current DSLR cameras.

Olympus

• Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45mm f/1.8

The Olympus silver version is now listed as discontinued at major Japanese retailer Yodobashi. There are OM System branded version of this lenses still available in black, however.

Fujifilm

• Fujifilm XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR

The Fujifilm XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR is now listed as discontinued at major Japanese retailers, including Map Camera – hopefully a Mark II version will be announced soon.

Nikon

The Nikon AF-S 105mm f/1.4E ED is listed as discontinued at US retailer B&H.

Nikon never released a direct mirrorless successor to the telephoto prime. Alternatives are the Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S or the Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena.

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7Artisans, the Chinese budget lens manufacturer, has released its long-awaited ultrawide AF 10mm f/4 APS-C pancake lens, and this thing is so light you might forget that it’s even attached to your camera.

Coming in at just 2.5oz (71g) – yes, you read that right – the new 7Artisans lens is just half an ounce heavier, if you can even use that word here, than the TTArtisan AF 24mm F3.8 Mini, which, weighing approximately 2oz (57g), is the lightest AF pancake on the market.

Acccording to Chinese technology news publisher, ITHome, The new 10mm f/4 APS-C pancake launched today, October 29, for Sony E-mount and Fujifilm X-mount, with a price tag of ¥699 (approximately $100 / £75) on the Chinese e-commerce site JD.com (unfortunately tricky to access outside of China).

Tucked inside its insanely light, 1.2-inch (33mm) body are nine optical elements in seven groups, including one extra-low dispersion (ED) element, one high-refractive-index element, and two aspherical elements. There’s also a stepping motor (STM)-driven AF system that has a minimum focusing distance of 0.6ft (0.2m).

But considering the inherently massive depth of field that an ultrawide focal length like 10mm boasts, AF might seem unnecessary. And, in all honesty, it may well be.

While AF definitely brings added convenience, when shooting at this focal length, almost the entire frame stays in focus simultaneously, arguably making precise autofocusing redundant unless taking close-up shots.

AF has increasingly crept into wide-angle pancake lenses over the last few years, with recent APS-C releases like the TTArtisan AF 27mm f/2.8 and Viltrox AF 28mm f/4.5 touting the feature. So, no doubt a driving force behind the decision to include AF in the 7Artisans 10mm f/4 pancake was competitiveness.

Still, if you’re not a fan of manual focusing, then, regardless of necessity, the STM AF in the new 7Artisans 10mm f/4 pancake will surely be a welcome feature. But we’ll have to wait for a wider release to find that out for sure.

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To all intents and purposes, the new Viltrox AF 35mm f/1.4 Pro is exactly the same size and weight as its existing Viltrox AF 50mm f/1.4 Pro and Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.4 Pro counterparts. All three lenses also have identical handling characteristics, with the same set of control rings, switches and buttons. That’s undoubtedly more by design than accident, resulting in a threesome of ‘Pro’ f/1.4 primes with highly desirable focal lengths, that don’t interrupt your creative flow when swapping between them.

Typical of Viltrox, the 35mm gives you a lot of bang per buck. Optical highlights include two Ultra Precision aspherical elements, three ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements and four HR (High Refractive index) elements in a layout that comprises 16 elements in total, arranged in 12 groups. There’s an especially well-rounded 11-blade aperture diaphragm and HD Nano multi-layer coatings, the overall aim being to deliver ‘Pro-grade’ image quality.

Build quality is similarly high-end, with a sturdy metal barrel and mounting plate that feature a comprehensive set of weather-seals and a fluorine coating on the front element. The same applies to pro/enthusiast-grade handling characteristics, including a dedicated aperture control ring with a click/de-click switch, a customizable function button and an AF/MF focus mode switch. Autofocus itself is courtesy of a fast and virtually silent Hyper VCM (voice-coil motor) system, going one step beyond the more standard linear stepping motor.

Although new, the Pro isn’t the only Viltrox 35mm party in town. We’ve been previously impressed by the compact, lightweight and budget-friendly Viltrox AF 35mm f/1.8 Evo II, as well as the top-end and super-fast Viltrox AF 35mm f/1.2 Lab, both of which are also available in Nikon Z and Sony E-mount options. The new Pro prime sits between these two lenses in the line-up, both in terms of size and weight as well as price.

And speaking of price, the AF 35mm f/1.4 Pro launches at $829 / £739 / AU$1,299. The price tag is a bit weightier than for the Viltrox AF 50mm f/1.4 Pro at $549 / £525 / AU$889, or the Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.4 Pro at $598 / £569 / AU$999, but the 35mm still looks potentially very good value for money nonetheless.

For some arcane reason, I was taught Latin at school, so here’s one for you… omne trium perfectum. According to the ancient Latin ‘rule of three’, things that come in threes are complete or perfect. As if to prove the point, the new Viltrox AF 35mm f/1.4 Pro for Nikon Z and Sony E completes a trilogy of full-frame compatible prime lenses with classic focal lengths and fast f/1.4 apertures. The existing dynamic due comprised the Viltrox AF 50mm f/1.4 Pro and the Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.4 Pro.

The triplet 35mm, 50mm and 85mm primes deliver my favorite focal lengths for everyday shooting, product photography, still life and portraiture. As well as having the same desirably fast f/1.4 aperture rating, all three lenses are virtually identical in terms of size, weight and handling characteristics. Does that matter? Well, to me it does. It means I can chop and change between lenses and everything feels the same, so there’s no interruption to the creative flow while I’m adjusting to a ‘different’ lens.

In a nutshell, the new 35mm Pro aims to be one of the best lenses for Nikon Z system cameras, best lenses for Sony E-mount cameras and best lenses for street photography. Let’s see if it can deliver on its promise.

Viltrox AF 35mm f/1.4 Pro: Specifications

Viltrox AF 35mm f/1.4 Pro: Price

The Viltrox AF 35mm f/1.4 Pro lists for $829 / £739 / AU$1,299. How much of a bargain is that? For context, the directly competing own-brand Sony FE 35mm f/1.4 GM sells for $1,498 / £1,429 / AU$1,999, while the E-mount Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG II Art costs $1,059 / £849 / AU$2,049.

Over in the Nikon camp, the Nikon Z 35mm f/1.4 is a more basic, low-budget lens but still has an asking price of $678 / £649 / AU$1,129, whereas the faster Nikon Z 35mm f/1.2 S (S-line lens) has a gilt-edged price tag of $2,997 / £2,899 / AU$4,899.

All things considered, I’d say the Viltrox 35mm looks to be very competitively priced, although the previous lenses in the trilogy appear to be even better value for money, with the Viltrox AF 50mm f/1.4 Pro at $549 / £525 / AU$889 and the Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.4 Pro at $598 / £569 / AU$999.

Viltrox AF 35mm f/1.4 Pro: Design & Handling

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Viltrox looks to have taken this advice onboard, so the new 35mm Pro lens adheres to the same winning formula as its 50mm and 85mm forebears. All three lenses look, feel and work exactly the same. The 35mm lens measures 85x112mm / 3.3x4.4in and weighs in at 795g / 28oz, making it essentially indistinguishable from the other two lenses. To be really picky, it’s one-tenth of an inch shorter than the 85mm lens and 0.2 ounces lighter, but nobody’s going to notice that.

Staying on trend, the 35mm inherits the same HD Nano multi-layer coatings and fluorine coating on its front element. All three lenses also have the same 77mm front filter attachment thread. That’s naturally good news if you like using screw-in filters, as you can share one set of filters between all three lenses, without the need for using any step-up or step-down rings.

Another filter-friendly fact is that all three lenses have fully internal focus mechanisms (more on that in a moment), so the filter thread neither extends nor rotates during focusing, ideal for using the likes of circular polarizing and ND grad filters.

The autofocus system itself again follows suit in the Viltrox Pro range, being of the Hyper VCM (voice-coil motor) variety. That’s a step up in quality and performance, compared with the kind of linear stepping motor that’s usually fitted to modern lenses. Voice-coil motors tend to be even faster for acquiring and tracking subjects while still enabling smooth autofocus transitions when shooting video. They’re also virtually silent in operation, which is another bonus for videography.

There’s an AF/MF (auto/manual) focus mode switch on the side of the barrel. I always much prefer this to having to delve around in camera menus when I want to make the change. It’s so much more immediate and intuitive. Another nice touch, so to speak, is that there’s a customizable function button just below the AF/MF switch. You can typically assign this to a range of actions, depending on the camera body, but a logical choice is AF/L (autofocus lock).

Towards the rear of the barrel is a dedicated aperture control ring. It’s clearly marked in one-third f/stops, going all the way from f/1.4 to the narrowest available aperture of f/16. Again, I prefer this arrangement to a ‘customizable’ aperture ring that can be used for various functions, but lacks any markings. With the dedicated option, you can literally see where you are, or at least what aperture you’ve set. Just off the scale at the narrow end, there’s an orange A (Auto) marking, for controlling the aperture from the camera body instead of using the control ring. It’s essential for shooting in Program and Shutter-priority modes. My only niggle with the aperture ring of this and other Viltrox lenses is that there’s no locking switch or button, to safely lock the ring in its Auto position.

Hybrid photography is all the rage nowadays and to keep in step, the lens is designed to deliver premium video performance as well as being eminently suitable for stills. Towards the rear of the barrel, behind the AF/MF switch and function button, there’s a Click off/on switch. De-click mode enables smooth, silent and step-free operation of the aperture control ring, ideal for videography, whereas the option of one-third f/stop click steps enables greater precision when shooting stills.

The optical path is relatively complex for a 35mm prime lens, based on 16 elements in 12 groups. There’s actually a difference in this respect from the 50mm and 85mm lenses, both of which have one less element and one less group in their configurations. High-tech glass includes two Ultra-Precision aspherical elements, three ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements and four HR (High Refractive index) elements. The overall aim is to optimize sharpness and clarity, while minimizing unwanted aberrations like color fringing.

HD Nano multi-layer coatings are on hand to combat ghosting and flare and the lens is supplied with an efficient petal-shaped hood. It’s actually exactly the same hood that’s supplied with the 50mm lens, whereas the 85mm lens has a circular profile hood.

Build quality feels very robust. Again, continuing the theme set by the earlier 50mm and 85mm lenses, the 35mm has a sturdy metal barrel as well as a metal mounting plate. Extensive weather-seals are fitted throughout the lens, including a rubber gasket on the mounting plate, to guard against the ingress of dust and moisture through the joint between the lens and camera body. The mounting plate also features a USB-C port, for applying firmware updates if and when needed.

For the journey, the lens is supplied complete with a high-quality drawstring pouch. Even if you don’t use the pouch for carrying the lens, it can come in handy for protecting other bits and bobs in transit.

Viltrox AF 35mm f/1.4 Pro: Performance

Having been mightily impressed by the companion Viltrox AF 50mm f/1.4 Pro and Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.4 Pro, I had high hopes for this lens. I wasn’t disappointed. After extensively using the other two lenses over the last few months, I felt right at home with this one. The exact same high-end handling characteristics made the lens feel instantly familiar, and I’d class the excellent ergonomics as a performance plus point, when it comes to actually ‘getting the shot’. That’s especially true when nailing a definitive moment in street photography, for which the 35mm focal length is ideal.

Sharpness is thoroughly excellent, as demonstrated in the images above and below, within the bounds of depth of field. You can be assured of capturing ultra-fine detail and texture, and sharpness remains on song right out to the edges and corners of the frame.

Clarity, contrast and color rendition are equally impressive. I found that the lens had plenty of bite even when shooting outdoors under very dull, flat lighting on an overcast day, and indoors with no artificial lighting, just a bit of dull daylight seeping in through the windows.

For front to back sharpness in street scenes (or on a railway platform in the image below), a medium aperture setting of f/8 enables a generous depth of field at moderate focus distance settings, thanks to the 35mm focal length.

Naturally, you don’t need to buy a ‘fast’ lens if you only want a large depth of field. The flipside is that the widest aperture of f/1.4 enables a really tight depth of field, especially for close-ups. Sharpness remains excellent while the quality of bokeh is beautifully soft and smooth, with a natural fall-off between focused and defocused areas. You’ll see this in the shot below, featuring a row of levers in a lever frame, for operating signals and points in a restored railway signal box.

Not exactly creating a ‘toytown’ photographic effect from a real-world scene, the following shot is of an actual model village. Again though, the f/1.4 aperture enables a tight depth of field, isolating the model train within a scene by blurring the foreground and background areas.

The quality of bokeh remains excellent when stopping down, helped by the lens’s particularly well-rounded 11-blade aperture. It’s yet another facet that it shares with the 50mm and 85mm lenses, and helps to ensure that ‘bokeh disks’ caused by defocused lights and bright spots don’t take on noticeable multi-sided shapes. Bokeh disks look nice and smooth as well, free of the ‘onion ring’ effect that’s renowned for giving rise to concentric lines within the disks.

There’s hardly any distortion to be seen, even with automatic in-camera correction disabled. That’s a marked difference to most modern lenses designed for mirrorless cameras, which often rely massively on auto correction to the extent that you can’t disable it in camera menus. The same goes for color fringing, which again is extremely negligible.

Viltrox AF 35mm f/1.4 Pro: Sample Images

The following gallery contains a variety of images shot at the East Somerset Railway in the south west of England, which was inaugurated in 1855 and has more recently been lovingly restored by volunteers, the working railway being run as a registered charity. My shots were mostly taken outdoors on a gloomy, overcast day with very flat lighting, posing a challenge to any lens in terms of delivering good sharpness, clarity and contrast. That said, the sun did break through and make a welcome appearance every now and then. The indoor shots were taken without any artificial lighting, relying solely on light coming in through windows. I used wide and medium aperture settings, to give a more comprehensive picture of the lens’s performance and pictorial qualities.

Viltrox AF 35mm f/1.4 Pro: Lab Results

We run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.

We use Imatest SFR (spatial frequency response) charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the center of the image frame, corners and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths. The tests also measure distortion and color fringing (chromatic aberration).

Sharpness:

For such a ‘fast’ lens, sharpness across the entire image frame is highly impressive at f/1.4. Edge-to-edge sharpness becomes completely excellent at a still wide aperture of f/2 and remains that way through most of the aperture range, only dropping off by a modest amount at f/16, due to the usual phenomenon of diffraction.

Fringing:

Lateral chromatic aberration is negligible throughout the entire aperture range, even at the extreme edges and corners of the frame. Longitudinal/axial chromatic aberration (sometimes referred to as bokeh fringing) is also minimal at f/1.4, which is a particular challenge for fast lenses at wide apertures, and can occur across the entire image frame where there are high-contrast transitions just in front of or behind the plane of focus.

Distortion: 0.89

There’s the slightest touch of pincushion distortion but even with automatic in-camera correction disabled, you’d be hard-pressed to spot it in real-world shooting.

Viltrox AF 35mm f/1.4 Pro: Verdict

I’ve been loving my Viltrox AF 50mm f/1.4 Pro and Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.4 Pro over the past few months. The former gives an entirely natural perspective, the latter is a pretty much perfect portrait lens. The only problem is that I tend to favor a 35mm focal length for walkabout and street shooting with a full-frame camera. This new 35mm fits the bill completely. I love that it’s a virtually identical size and weight to the other two lenses in the trilogy, so that if I’m on a shoot and need to swap between them, they feel the same and have identical handling characteristics, right down to the action and placement of the dedicated aperture ring and its click off/on switch, the AF/MF focus mode switch and the customizable function button.

Further similarities with the previous two lenses also make the 35mm a seriously pro-grade prime in its own right. These include Hyper VCM (voice-coil motor) autofocus, an 11-blade aperture diaphragm, a robust and weather-sealed metal barrel and high-end handling.

Image quality is the bottom line and it’s here that the lens really excels. It’s super-sharp with excellent clarity and contrast, even when shooting wide-open, while also delivering beautifully smooth bokeh. Meanwhile, color fringing, distortion, ghosting and flare are all negligible. It’s simply a fabulous lens that lives up to its ‘Pro’ billing on all counts, apart from its bargain price tag.

Alternatives

Best known for its affordable anamorphic lenses, Sirui is launching another range of more conventional autofocus lenses for mirrorless cameras. The Swift lens promises compact and affordable primes, and is being launched with both a 20mm f/2.4 and a 40mm f/2.2 which will go on sale before the end of the year.

The Swift 20mm F2.4 is described as an ultra-wide lens for landscapes, architecture, street photography and vlogging. Meanwhile the Swift 40mm F2.2 is touted as giving a natural angle of view for portraits, street scenes and everyday photography.

Weighing between 207g and 215 g, depending on lens and mount, the lenses are also described as being well-suited for APS-C mirrorless cameras as well as full-frame ones (hence why they will be available in Fujifilm X-mount).

The two lenses share the same outer shell, with a diameter of about 69.5 mm, a length of 60-62 mm, a 58 mm filter thread, and a nine-blade aperture. The 20mm has a minimum focus distance of 0.2m, whilst the 40mm will focus down to 0.4m.

The 20mm F2.4 is constructed from 11 elements in 9 groups, including two aspherical elements, two ED (extra-low dispersion) elements and two HRI (high refractive index) elements. The Swift 40mm F2.2 has 11 elements in 8 groups, with one aspherical element and two ED elements.

Each lens uses an STM stepping motor for autofocus, and has a clicked aperture ring, an AF/MF switch and a customizable Fn button for AF lock or other camera functions. A weather-resistant construction is designed to the lens against dust, stains and splashes.

The Sirui Swift 20mm f/2.4 and 40mm f/2.2 will retail for $149 / £129.90 each, and will be available in Sony FE, Fujifilm X, and L-mount options.

Nikon has officially announced the Nikkor Z 120-300mm f/2.8 TC VR S – a fast telephoto zoom with a built-in teleconverter – which will go on sale from the middle of November. The lens which will be become a must-have for professional sports photographers was teased as a development announcement by Nikon back in May.

The lens is the modern successor to the 300mm f/2.8, which was the standard lens of action photographers in years gone by, and is a full-frame Z-mount replacement for Nikon's own 120-300mm f/2.8E AF-S FL ED SR VR for its autofocus DSLRs.

The lens not only provides a constant aperture zoom range, but offers a 1.4x teleconverter that can be engaged with a flick of a switch - stretching the maximum focal length to 420mm (with the maximum aperture dropping to f/4).

Weighing in at 2735g, or just over 6 lbs, it is around 1.5 lb (705 g) ligher than its F-mount predecessor, despite the addition of the teleconverter.

It becomes the third pro telephoto lens in the Nikon Z lens range to come with this built-in teleconverter facility, joining the existing the Z 600mm f/4 TC VR S and the Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S.

Specifications

Mount: Nikon Z
Full frame: Yes
Autofocus: Yes
Stabilization: Yes (up to 6.5 stops)
Lens construction: 30 elements in 24 groups
Angle of view: 20° 20′ to 8° 10′ (14° 40′ to 5° 15′ with teleconverter)
Diaphragm blades: 9
Minimum aperture: f/32 / 45
Minimum focusing distance: 2m at 300mm, 0.98m at 120mm
Maximum magnification ratio: 0.14x / 0.2x
Filter size: 112mm (plus 46mm rear drop-in)
Dimensions: 5.1 x 14 in / 128 x 1,353.5mm
Weight: 96.5oz / 2,735 g)

The lens uses a Silky Swift VCM (SSVCM) autofocus motor which Nikon claims is its most advanced AF motor, driving focus elements with extraordinary speed, accuracy and quietness.

An anti-reflective Arneo coating developed by Nikon has been used in conjunction with Nano Crystal Coat, to further reduce ghost and flare effects caused by incident light entering the lens vertically. This this is allow for the outstandingly clear capture of images even when a light source is located within the frame. Diagonal incident light, meanwhile, is dealt with using a Meso Amorphous coating on the lens.

Pricing

Nikon Z 120-300mm f/2.8 TC VR S is available to pre-order from to day for $13,999 / £13,999 / AU$21,999 and is expected to start shipping from mid November.

🇺🇸 Pre-order at BH Photo for $13,999

🇬🇧 Pre-order at London Camera Exchange for £13,999

🇦🇺 Pre-order at Teds Cameras for AU$21,999

Zeiss has reminded the photography world that it is still making lenses for the Leica M-mount, and while that might sound like good news for rangefinder enthusiasts, I can't help but feel that it also highlights just how little has changed in more than two decades.

According to Leica Rumors, the German optics manufacturer recently took to social media to remind photographers that its ZM lens lineup is still very much alive, offering a respectable selection of optics for Leica's legendary M system. And while I am certainly pleased to see another established name supporting the M-mount, I do wonder whether Zeiss has become a little too comfortable relying on its past successes, rather than looking toward the future.

To put things into perspective, the Zeiss ZM system dates all the way back to 2004, when lenses including the Biogon T* 21mm f/2.8 ZM were first announced. That was 22 years ago, and while the range has seen some additions over the years, including the excellent Distagon T* 35mm f/1.4 ZM introduced in 2014, the overall lineup has remained remarkably familiar. Today, Zeiss still offers everything from the ultra-wide Distagon T* 15mm f/2.8 to the classic Planar T* 50mm f/2, providing Leica photographers with a healthy selection of focal lengths. However, when you consider just how much the camera industry has evolved since 2004, it does feel as though Zeiss has largely been standing still, particularly when it comes to developing something genuinely new for the M system.

Of course, there is absolutely no denying the optical quality of Zeiss lenses. The company has built its reputation on producing exceptional glass, and its ZM lenses are no exception, offering excellent sharpness, contrast, beautiful rendering, and the sort of mechanical construction that feels perfectly at home on a Leica rangefinder. Perhaps more importantly, they deliver much of what photographers love about Leica lenses without the considerably higher price tag that often comes with that famous red dot. For anyone looking to build a Leica M system without spending a small fortune on native optics, Zeiss remains a compelling alternative, and I would certainly never discourage anyone from considering one. After all, a great lens doesn't suddenly become a bad lens simply because it is getting older.

However, as someone who shoots with Leica M cameras regularly, I can't help but feel that the ZM system is beginning to show its age. Leica has continued to refine its optical designs, introducing close-focusing capabilities and making the most of modern digital M cameras, while other third-party manufacturers have been pushing the boundaries of what affordable rangefinder lenses can offer. Zeiss, meanwhile, seems content to keep offering essentially the same familiar designs, with little indication of a major refresh on the horizon. I would personally love to see a new generation of ZM lenses, perhaps with more compact designs, improved close-focusing capabilities, or even entirely new optical formulas that take advantage of today's increasingly demanding digital sensors. Zeiss certainly has the expertise to make it happen, which makes its apparent lack of ambition in this particular corner of the market all the more frustrating.

Then again, perhaps I am missing the point entirely. One of the greatest attractions of the Leica M system is that it doesn't demand constant technological reinvention, and a lens designed more than two decades ago can still produce incredible photographs today.

There is something rather refreshing about a manufacturer continuing to support products that have already proven themselves, rather than replacing them simply for the sake of having something new to sell. As the old saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," and perhaps that is exactly the philosophy Zeiss has adopted. Nevertheless, while I am delighted that Zeiss hasn't abandoned the Leica M-mount, I would love its next announcement to be about an exciting new lens rather than another reminder that it still makes the old ones.

Because after 22 years, surely it is time for something new?

Check out our guide to the best Leica M lenses

Retro camera designs are a longstanding trend in photography. But while photographers have multiple options for retro-inspired digital cameras, a retro-inspired lens is arguably much harder to find.

That’s what grabbed my attention when Sigma announced a new “CL” lens series last week, which will debut in 2027 with the L-Mount and E-Mount Sigma 50mm f/1.4 CL DG Contemporary.

The upcoming 50mm lens looks quite retro with its metal exterior and focal distance scale. But Sigma seems to hint that the new CL lens isn’t just about a retro look to the lens itself, but to the image that it creates too.

Sigma describes the images coming from the lens as a “gentle softness within the in-focus plane” and a “soft rendering of texture that helps the subject stand out.”

Sigma has so far only announced the development of the lens for a Spring 2027 launch, but Australian photographer Mitch Lally tested an early sample at a portrait shoot and described it this way: “The subject remains sharp and detailed, but the transition into the out-of-focus areas has a softer, less clinical quality. Wide open at F1.4, the backgrounds have a softness and character that adds to the overall feel of the image.”

That “less clinical quality” grabbed my attention. Retro cameras and photographs that look like they were shot on film are trending – but the lens is half the equation to getting that look and often forgotten.

Modern camera lenses have made significant strides forward in creating tack-sharp subjects and fighting off flare and ghosting with modern coatings. But at what point does a lens become too technically perfect?

I want a reasonably sharp subject, but not so sharp that I can count the pores in my portraits. This feels particularly true lately: toss an overly sharp, “perfect” image on the internet today, and watch the AI accusations roll in. I’ve even started toning down the skin edits in my portraits. Skin without texture isn’t human.

And then, there’s lens flare. Many modern lenses brag about using coatings to prevent lens flare, but I actually love lens flare most of the time. Yes, there are scenarios when I want full clarity in challenging backlight, but most of the time, I’d rather have streaky golden light.

I’ve adapted old film lenses to my modern mirrorless camera in order to really try to get a more film-like look on digital. But I want to have my cake and eat it too – I want lenses that have both character and modern features. I’ve taken to using a warm diffusion filter on a majority of my portraits so I can get warm tones and glowing light, but on a modern autofocus lens.

Looking at the sample images from the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 CL DG Contemporary, I’m drawn to the soft colors and smooth bokeh. The subject still looks sharp, but not overly so, and there’s a nice fall-off to that soft background.

While Sigma has already shared a full set of technical specifications, the development announcement lacks a key detail: Price. The upcoming CL will be smaller and lighter than Sigma’s 50mm f/1.4 Art. I think if it’s also more affordable, it may draw a lot of photographers who prefer a softer, more retro style.

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Take a look at the best nifty fifty lenses or the best retro cameras.

The last DSLR lens Nikon announced, back in 2019, was the Nikon AF-S 120-300mm f/2.8E FL ED SR VR. Its spiritual successor leaked online before Nikon revealed official images or specifications, fuelling speculation about the much-anticipated lens. Now, major US retailer B&H has listed the Nikon Z 120-300mm f/2.8 TC VR S as "coming soon".

What's also "coming soon" is the price of Nikon's latest professional-grade S-line telephoto zoom. Its DSLR predecessor launched at around $9,500 / £9,500 six years ago, but photographers online speculated that the new Z-mount version would cost significantly more.

Rumored to be the most expensive lens in Nikon's Z lineup, the optic has attracted price speculation as high as $16,000 / £12,000. Now, Nikon Rumors report that "the US price of the upcoming Nikon Nikkor Z 120-300mm f/2.8 TC VR S lens will be $13,999" – around $2,000 less than some photographers had expected.

However, even at this rumored price, Nikon's new lens remains out of reach for many photographers, especially those who don't work full-time professionally and there's another catch…

Nikon's most expensive S-line telephoto lens?

To date, Nikon's most expensive S-line lenses are the Z 600mm f/4 TC VR S, priced at $16,196.95 / £14,999, and the Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S, available for $14,696.95 / £13,499. Both optics are currently discounted at B&H in the US, with savings of up to $2,000.

The Z 120-300mm f/2.8 TC VR S is rumored to be announced on October 28 or 29, so we could soon find out the retail price of Nikon's highly anticipated telephoto zoom.

The Z 120-300mm f/2.8 TC VR S will feature an integrated 1.4x teleconverter, extending its maximum focal length to 420mm while reducing the maximum aperture to f/4.

Nikon has already incorporated the same teleconverter technology into its Z 600mm f/4 and Z 400mm f/2.8 fast telephoto prime lenses.

The Z 120-300mm f/2.8 TC VR S is expected to be produced in very limited quantities, and Nikon Rumors reports that long waiting times are expected.

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Are you a Nikon fan? Check out the best Nikon cameras and the best Nikon Z lenses. Also, here's the latest camera news.

If you've been looking for a stunner of a lens, for both general shooting and extreme close-ups, the Nikon Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S is now available for just $896.95 at B&H – and you get a free filter kit on top.

With this new low price, you save $250 on its previous price of $1,146.95 – and top-tier primes are not coming cheap, so this deal offers a great discount on what we've called in our review "one of the finest Nikon Z lenses that we've seen."

Short: The Nikon Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S is a top-tier lens for performance and versatility. It's one of the finest Nikon Z lenses that we've seen to date, and that’s really saying something.

The Z MC 105mm is great for capturing wildlife photography, through portraiture and landscape, to extreme close-ups, where its 1.0x magnification factor reveals near-microscopic levels with clarity and depth.

And it's not only about sharpness (though it's razor-sharp from center to the edge), it's also about how effortlessly it lets you create.

With lightning-fast pinpoint autofocus and 4.5-stop optical VR, it partners beautifully with Nikon's Z-series cameras for incredibly stable, high-impact images – handheld or on the go.

From the customizable control ring to the multifunction OLED display and weather-sealed construction, this lens has it all. And yes, it costs more than the Z MC 50mm – about 50% more – but the performance leap is undeniable.

As mentioned, top-tier primes are not coming cheap, making this deal even more interesting. By investing in the Nikkor Z MC 105mm, you get a pro-grade build and image quality that borders on flawless.

Browse the best Nikon cameras and the best macro lenses.

Enthusiast and professional photographers often seek to supplement their standard zoom lens with one of the best 70-200mm lenses, when adding telephoto reach to their outfits. The relatively fast and constant f/2.8 aperture rating is a major selling point, but these lenses don’t come cheap and they tend to be relatively big and heavy. Tamron is renowned for offering great glass at competitive prices, and sure enough, it launched its current budget-friendly, ‘alternative trinity’ Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 for Sony E-mount cameras back in 2023, following up two years later with a Nikon Z-mount version in 2025.

That 2-year offset also applies to the most cut-price Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III RXD, a more traditional low-budget telephoto zoom released for Sony in 2020 and for Nikon in 2022. The more powerful Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD also follows suit, Sony and Nikon editions launching in 2022 and 2024 respectively.

The 50-300mm lens that I’m reviewing here is yet another budget-stretching Tamron telephoto zoom, released in the summer of 2024, but so far there’s no Nikon version. In terms of technical prowess, performance and price, it sits between the Tamron 70-300mm and 50-400mm zooms, aiming to be one of the best budget telephoto lenses and one of the best lenses for Sony cameras, at least if you’re wanting to keep your costs down.

Tamron 50-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD: Specifications

Tamron 50-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD: Price

What price a budget telephoto zoom? The Tamron 50-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD lists at $699 / £629 / AU$1,158, substantially undercutting the ‘alternative trinity’ Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2, which sells for $1,099 / £999 / AU$2,349. It’s also less expensive than the Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD, which delivers longer maximum telephoto reach at a price of $1,299 / £999 / AU$2,399. The flipside is that the more down-market Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III RXD with its relatively basic autofocus system and no optical stabilizer is cheaper to buy at $399 / £399 / AU$999.

Tamron 50-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD: Design & Handling

If you don’t feel the need for the extra 100mm of reach delivered by the Tamron 50-400mm zoom, this 50-300mm will save you a fair chunk in size, weight and cash. It’s very travel-friendly for a telephoto zoom, measuring a compact 75x150mm / 3x5.9in and weighing in at a mere 665g / 1.5lb. Ultimately, it’s very lightweight for carrying around all day and for handheld shooting, as well as being small to stash away when you’re done.

Despite being a bit of a lightweight (in a good way) the Tamron packs quite a lot of glass into its optical path. The arrangement comprises 19 elements in 14 groups, including two LD (Low Dispersion) elements and two XLD (eXtreme Low Dispersion Elements) with a view on enhancing sharpness and clarity while minimizing color fringing. Tamron’s high-tech BBAR G2 (Broad Band Anti-Reflection, Generation 2) multi-coating is applied, to add extra resistance against ghosting and flare.

Although a touch under 6 inches long in its shortest configuration, the Tamron is typical of budget telephoto zooms in having an extending inner barrel. The upshot is that as you stretch through the zoom range from 50mm to 300mm, the lens physically grows in length to a maximum of just over 8 inches, as shown in the images above and below.

The act of zooming itself is based on a large, forward-mounted control ring. It has a grippy, ridged surface and the ring operates smoothly and precisely, without any stiff or jerky spots along the way. It’s conveniently marked at focal lengths of 50, 70, 100, 135, 200 and 300mm.

Typical of autofocus lenses, the manual focus ring is rather smaller but it’s still bigger than in many similar lenses. The chances are that you might never even use it, as the lens has a particularly fast, virtually silent and consistently accurate autofocus system. Indeed, it’s based on a VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme Drive) motor, rather than the more run-of-the-mill linear stepping motor that’s often featured in modern lenses. A further bonus for close-up photography is that you can focus right down to 22cm / 8.7in at the short end of the zoom range (as measured from the image sensor in the camera body) enabling up to 0.5x macro magnification.

Despite the budget-friendly price of the lens, it features a ‘Focus Set’ function button on the side of the barrel. You can customize the button’s action by using the Tamron Lens Utility software (more on that later), selecting options that include focus preset, A-B focus, a focus range limiter and AF/MF focus mode selection.

One bugbear with any zoom lens that physically extends through its zoom range is that it might tend to stretch out when you’re carrying it around. This makes it more awkward to live with and more likely to get bumped somewhere along the line. To keep it restricted to its minimum length, the Tamron features a zoom lock switch on the side of the barrel.

A petal shaped hood is supplied with the lens. It does its job simply and effectively, having the usual bayonet-fit mechanism. Also as usual, you can reverse-mount it on the lens for compact stowage.

I always tend to fit a hood when using a lens, if one is available. Apart from reducing the risk of ghosting and flare when shooting against the light, they always give physical protection to the front glass element.

As I mentioned earlier, you can use the free Tamron Utility software to apply firmware updates and to customize the lens, linking it to a computer with a USB-C cable. A more elegant and portable solution is to invest in the Tarmon-Link Bluetooth Module, which is tiny, weighs next to nothing and sells for $50 / £59 / AU$80. You can plug this into the lens’s USB-C port at the rear of the barrel and work your customization magic from an app on your smartphone, when you’re out and about.

Although compact and lightweight, the Tamron feels robust and nicely engineered. The mounting plate is made from metal rather than plastic and features a rubber weather-seal gasket to guard against the ingress of dust and moisture through the joint between the lens and camera body. Further weather-seals are incorporated into the lens barrel to ensure a weather-resistant construction.

Tamron 50-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD: Performance

As I’ve come to expect from many of Tamron’s current lenses, the voice-coil motor autofocus system is very fast and consistently accurate. While testing the lens with my Sony A7 III camera body, I found that autofocus snapped into position almost instantaneously, with all but the trickiest subject matter or the gloomiest of lighting conditions. Autofocus was also well able to keep up with swiftly moving subjects in continuous AF mode. Similarly, Tamron’s proprietary ‘Vibration Compensation’ system works very well, although it doesn’t have the switchable modes of some of the company’s more exotic lenses, including the Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD.

I feel it’s good that optical stabilization is included, even if all but Sony’s first generation of Sony Alpha full-frame cameras feature IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilization). An upside is that optical or ‘in-lens’ stabilization tends to work better than IBIS at long telephoto focal lengths. Furthermore, the lens is easily compact and lightweight enough for use with Sony’s A6000-series of APS-C format cameras, on which it has a powerful ‘effective’ zoom range of 75-450mm, taking it into ‘super-telephoto’ territory. Historically, most of Sony’s APS-C cameras didn’t feature IBIS, making optical stabilization even more of a must-have feature.

I’d class the actual zoom range of the lens as a performance factor. Unlike the 70-300mm lenses of old, as well as Tamron’s relatively new edition that has an identical zoom range, this lens kicks of at a completely standard focal length of 50mm, which gives an entirely natural perspective. The practical value is that when alternating between standard and telephoto compositions, you’re less likely to have to keep swapping the lens on your camera body. Not only is this more convenient, it also enables you to capture fleeting, definitive moments instead of missing important shots altogether, because you were swapping between different lenses. The images above and below demonstrate the extremities of the zoom range, taken of the same scene from the same position, using 50mm and 300mm zoom settings.

Levels of sharpness are impressive, both throughout the entire zoom range and across the whole image frame, from the center to the extreme edges and corners. Clarity, contrast and color rendition are also very good, optical performance benefitting from the LD and XLD optical elements that I mentioned earlier. Conversely, bokeh is nice and smooth, which I’ve generally found to be a common trait of Tamron lenses. Despite this one not having a very fast aperture, longer focal lengths enable a tight depth of field.

As well as delivering very respectable sharpness, the lens does well to suppress color fringing. Again, this holds through throughout the whole zoom range, right out to the corners of the frame. Pincushion distortion can be a bit noticeable, especially at longer zoom settings, but this can be virtually eliminated by automatic in-camera correction, along with any visible trace of color fringing.

Not just a telephoto zoom with long reach, the lens is also advertised as having a 0.5x macro facility at its 50mm focal length, for extreme close-ups. When trying this out, I found that images were nice and sharp at the center of the frame. However unlike ‘proper’ macro prime lenses with a flat field design, the Tamron gets really blurry towards the edges of the frame, when shooting flat subjects head-on. You’ll see this in the 0.5x macro shot below, taken of a row of color pencils on a sheet of paper.

Tamron 50-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD: Sample Images

The following gallery of example images was shot on a mostly overcast morning in the area between Underfall Yard and Bristol Marina, part of the Floating Harbour in Bristol, South West England. I used various focal lengths to give an idea of image quality throughout the zoom range. Some of the pictures were taken in pairs, shot of the same scene from the same position using the shortest and longest focal lengths respectively, to demonstrate the quality at both extremities of the zoom range.

Tamron 50-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD: Verdict

I feel that the Tamron 50-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD gives a lot of bang per buck. I’m impressed with the speed and accuracy of its VXD voice-coil motor autofocus system, and the effectiveness of its VC optical stabilizer. They combine to ensure an excellent hit rate when shooting tricky subjects in action, sports and wildlife photography, to which this telephoto zoom is ideally suited.

Sharpness, clarity and color rendition are all very good, and the lens also delivers smooth bokeh along with good suppression of distortion, color fringing, ghosting and flare. In practical terms, I also like that the lens is compact and lightweight, making it easy to carry around and comfortably convenient for even long periods of handheld shooting.

All in all, I think that the Tamron is a very wise buy for both full-frame and APS-C format Sony mirrorless cameras, giving a powerful ‘effective’ 75-450mm zoom range on the latter. I just wish it was also available for other makes of camera, instead of just for Sony.

Alternatives

There are certain names in the world of cinematography that need very little introduction, and Cooke Optics is undoubtedly one of them. The British lens manufacturer has spent decades helping filmmakers capture some of cinema's most recognizable images, and now it is bringing one of its most celebrated lens families into the modern era.

The new Cooke S4 FF/i series takes the character of the legendary S4/i Super 35 lenses and reimagines it for full-frame cinema cameras, offering filmmakers that unmistakable Cooke look without being restricted to smaller sensor formats.

The new collection consists of six prime lenses, covering 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm focal lengths, all featuring a fast T2.0 maximum aperture. However, these aren't simply the original lenses with a larger image circle. Cooke has developed an entirely new optical design intended to preserve the characteristics that made the S4/i series so popular, including natural skin tones, subtle warmth, and beautifully controlled contrast.

The company also promises expressive lens flares and a softer, more organic rendering that avoids the overly clinical sharpness sometimes associated with modern cinema optics. For filmmakers who value character just as much as technical perfection, that could be an incredibly appealing combination.

Of course, image quality is only part of the story, and Cooke has clearly considered the practical demands of modern filmmaking. Each lens features a consistent 87mm front diameter, while weights range from just 1.45kg to 1.8kg (3.2 to 4 pounds), making the new series approximately 29% lighter than the original S4/i Super 35 lenses.

This should make them particularly attractive for handheld shooting, gimbal setups, and Steadicam work, where every ounce matters. Close focusing is another impressive feature, with an average minimum focusing distance of approximately 385mm (15 inches) across the range, allowing cinematographers to capture intimate details without constantly reaching for a specialist macro lens.

Another fascinating aspect of the S4 FF/i series is the attention Cooke has paid to the way these lenses render light. Each features a nine-bladed iris with slightly curved blades, designed to produce beautifully rounded bokeh and smooth out-of-focus backgrounds. The company has also carefully engineered the lenses to produce layered, colorful flares that add atmosphere without overwhelming the image.

Combine this with consistent color matching across all six focal lengths, Cooke's advanced /i metadata technology, and compatibility with professional full-frame cinema cameras such as the Sony Venice, Red V-Raptor VV, and Arri Alexa LF, and you have a lens collection that feels very much designed for serious filmmaking.

Naturally, owning a piece of Cooke's legendary optical heritage doesn't come cheap. The new S4 FF/i lenses are available to preorder for $15,000 each in the US, or £13,2000 per lens in the UK, with PL and LPL mount options available. That puts them firmly in professional cinema territory rather than something most enthusiast filmmakers will be adding to their camera bags.

Nevertheless, I think there is something exciting about seeing a manufacturer like Cooke continue to develop lenses that prioritize character and storytelling rather than simply chasing sharper images. At a time when modern cameras can capture extraordinary levels of detail, these new full-frame primes are a welcome reminder that the way an image feels can be just as important as how technically perfect it looks.

Classic film lenses often sported a metal design with a focal distance scale – two features that will be part of an entirely new line of premium, classically-inspired lenses from Japanese lens maker Sigma. The Sigma 50mm F/1.4 CL DG Contemporary, expected to launch in the spring of 2027, is the first in what the company says is an entirely new CL lineage designed to “maximize the joy of shooting.”

The upcoming 50mm f/1.4 lens, which is coming to both L-Mount and Sony E-Mount, mixes a metal housing, hood, and magnetic lens cap with a design that’s meant to be lightweight and compact for an ultra-bright aperture prime. Adding to the retro look, the lens will be available in black or silver.

As a development announcement, the lens’ specifications are subject to change, but Sigma’s teaser hints at a design that’s about 2.1 inches / 54mm from the front of the lens to the mount for the L-mount version. The lens is expected to weigh about 13.2 oz / 375g. That’s about half the length of the existing Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG DN Art and about 45 percent lighter.

While the upcoming lens sports a focal distance chart much like retro manual-focus film lenses, the 50mm f/1.4 uses a newly developed RDD actuator motor for autofocus. Sigma says the new motor uses magnets and coils to move the lens’ focusing unit. The lens doesn’t have an internal focusing design, so the length of the optic changes as the focus adjusts, a move Sigma says was made to keep the overall size compact.

Turning the lens’ manual focus ring will also temporarily switch the lens into manual focus mode without needing to switch back and forth between auto and manual focus modes.

Sigma says the lens uses simulation technology to help control aberrations. “Through exhaustive simulations,” Sigma wrote in the development announcement, “aberrations have been intentionally controlled to achieve a gentle softness within the in-focus plane, smooth and attractive bokeh, and characterful background rendering that helps the subject stand out.”

The lens is built with nine elements in six groups, including three aspherical elements to help control flare and ghosting.

Sigma says the upcoming 50mm f/1.4 is the first in a new CL series of lenses that will use all-metal designs and depth-of-field scales. The lens also has dust and splash seals, as well as a front coating to repel oil and water.

As a development announcement, Sigma hasn’t yet shared a price for the Sigma 50mm F/1.4 CL DG Contemporary, which is expected to arrive in the spring of 2027.

Sigma announced the development of the new series alongside the launch of the new Sigma FP2, a compact hybrid full-frame mirrorless that now shoots up to 6K open gate.

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Explore the best L-Mount lenses or the best Sony lenses.

There is something rather special about a Leica Reporter camera. That understated military-green finish, combined with Leica's unmistakable design, makes it one of the most attractive cameras around. However, finding a lens that complements that distinctive aesthetic without spending a small fortune isn't always easy. Well, TTArtisan might just have the answer, as the company has introduced a gorgeous new green version of its AF 50mm f/1.8 Neo lens, and at just $89, it could be the perfect companion for Leica SL Reporter owners.

The new colorway joins a titanium finish, expanding the company's affordable Neo lineup beyond the original black version. While the green edition is particularly appealing for Leica's Reporter cameras, the lens is available in Leica L-mount, Sony E-mount, and Nikon Z-mount versions, making it an attractive option for photographers across several mirrorless systems. Personally, I think the green version is the standout here, especially when paired with Leica's rugged Reporter styling. It has that wonderfully understated, almost utilitarian appearance that I love, and for less than $100, it's hard not to be tempted.

Underneath its colorful exterior, the TTArtisan AF 50mm f/1.8 Neo remains the same compact, full-frame autofocus prime lens that launched earlier this year. It features a bright f/1.8 maximum aperture, making it a useful choice for portraits, street photography, and everyday shooting, while its STM stepping motor provides autofocus without the need to focus manually. The optical construction consists of 12 elements in eight groups, including two ED elements and four high-refractive-index elements, while a minimum focusing distance of 0.48m (1.57ft) allows photographers to get reasonably close to their subjects. Weighing approximately 156-167g, depending on the mount, it's also exceptionally lightweight, making it an appealing option for anyone who wants to travel light.

Of course, achieving that incredibly affordable price means making a few compromises. The Neo series takes a minimalist approach, with no physical aperture or manual focus ring, meaning photographers are reliant on their camera's controls and autofocus system. That might disappoint traditionalists, particularly Leica enthusiasts who enjoy the tactile experience of adjusting a lens manually. However, for photographers who simply want an inexpensive autofocus 50mm lens that looks fantastic on their camera, I can certainly see the appeal. After all, not every lens needs to be an expensive piece of optical engineering to make photography enjoyable.

The TTArtisan AF 50mm f/1.8 Neo in green and titanium is priced at just $89, with preorders available through B&H Photo at $89. A matching lens hood is included, completing the look. While I wouldn't expect this lens to challenge Leica's premium Summicron or Summilux optics, that really isn't the point.

What TTArtisan has created is a fun, affordable, and visually appealing alternative that gives photographers another reason to enjoy their cameras. And if I owned a green Leica SL Reporter, I'd certainly be tempted to add this little lens to my

Leica might be about to bring back another classic lens, and if the latest rumors are anything to go by, we could soon see a new Summaron-M 35mm f/2.8 joining the legendary M-mount lineup.

According to reports from Leica Rumors, subsequently picked up by Japanese photography website Digital Camera Life, Leica is reportedly preparing to revive the historic 35mm lens for around €2,000 ($2,240 / £1,685).

Now, as someone who has spent years shooting with Leica cameras and has always had a soft spot for the brand's older glass, this is exactly the sort of announcement that gets me excited. However, while I would absolutely love to see another classic Summaron return, there is one part of this rumor that I am finding particularly difficult to believe, and that is the price.

To put things into perspective, Leica already offers the beautiful Summaron-M 28mm f/5.6, a modern recreation of its classic 1950s design, which currently costs around $3,600 / £2,750. That is an extraordinary amount of money for a relatively slow, manual-focus lens, but then again, this is Leica we are talking about.

The company has never positioned itself as the affordable choice, and much of the appeal comes from its craftsmanship, heritage, and unmistakable approach to photography. So, while the idea of a newly manufactured Summaron-M 35mm f/2.8 arriving for just €2,000 sounds wonderful, I cannot help but think that figure is a little optimistic, especially given the pricing of Leica's existing 35mm lenses.

Interestingly, the secondhand market tells a rather different story. The original Summaron 35mm f/2.8, which was produced between 1958 and 1974, can still be picked up for around $1,500 / £900, depending on its condition and version. Meanwhile, its older and arguably more characterful sibling, the Summaron 35mm f/3.5, can often be found for as little as $550 / £400.

The latter was produced in much larger numbers, predominantly in the older Leica Thread Mount (LTM) screw fitting, although native M-mount versions were also produced in smaller quantities, and screw-mount examples can be adapted for use on modern Leica M cameras. For photographers who appreciate classic rendering rather than absolute optical perfection, it remains one of the most interesting and relatively affordable ways to experience vintage Leica glass.

And this is where my personal preference comes into play. While I can certainly understand the appeal of Leica bringing back the Summaron-M 35mm f/2.8, I would actually be far more excited to see a modern recreation of the earlier 35mm f/3.5. I have admired this lens for years, particularly for its wonderfully old-fashioned rendering, with that almost uncoated-looking character, gentle glow around highlights, and beautifully restrained contrast. There is something rather magical about the way these older lenses handle light, particularly when shooting black-and-white photography, where the flatter tonal profile can give images a timeless, almost cinematic quality. In a world where manufacturers are constantly chasing sharper corners, greater contrast, and clinical optical perfection, I find myself increasingly attracted to lenses that do precisely the opposite. In fact, I have often considered buying an original Summaron 35mm f/3.5 just to experience that character on my digital Leica cameras.

Which brings me back to that rumored €2,000 price tag. If Leica really is planning to introduce a more affordable classic Summaron, I would personally think a recreation of the slower 35mm f/3.5 makes considerably more sense. It would offer something genuinely different from the company's current 35mm lineup, appeal to photographers who love vintage rendering, and potentially sit at a more accessible price point without stepping too heavily on the toes of its modern Summicron and Summilux lenses. Better still, if Leica could preserve the original's wonderful optical personality while adding the convenience and build quality of a modern M-mount lens, I think it could be an absolute winner. At around €2,000, I would genuinely struggle not to be among the first to place an order.

Of course, if the rumors are correct and Leica really is preparing a Summaron-M 35mm f/2.8 instead, I would still welcome it with open arms. I simply cannot see Leica selling such a lens for €2,000 when its current 28mm f/5.6 costs considerably more. If I had to make an educated guess, based purely on my experience of the brand and its pricing over the years, I would expect something closer to €3,000 ($3,360 / £2,525) for a modern 35mm f/2.8 recreation. And if Leica somehow manages to surprise us all and bring it to market for less than that, I would consider it something of a bargain by Leica standards.

For now, though, we must take all of this with a generous pinch of salt. Leica has not officially confirmed that a new Summaron is coming, let alone which version it might revive or how much it would cost. The rumored specifications and pricing could change, or the lens might never materialize at all. Nevertheless, I love the idea of Leica continuing to celebrate its extraordinary optical heritage rather than simply chasing the next technical breakthrough.

Whether that means a new Summaron-M 35mm f/2.8 or, as I am secretly hoping, a recreation of the gorgeous little 35mm f/3.5, I would be delighted to see another classic return. I just wouldn't get too attached to that €2,000 price tag quite yet.

Check out our guide to the best Leica M lenses you can buy right now

The Canon RF 28-70mm f/2 L USM is a popular pro lens thanks to an unusually bright aperture – but a recent patent indicates that the optical engineers at Canon are exploring the possibility of an even longer f/2 zoom.

A recent patent published in Japan details a design for a compact, high-performance zoom lens that uses three or more focusing groups rather than the current RF series’ more typical two. Tucked in among the different patent drawings for potential lenses with such a design is a 70-200mm f/2 lens.

The patent, published in Japan on October 16 and first spotted by Canon Rumors , details a design that uses three focusing groups in order to create smaller zooms. While the patent isn’t specifically for one lens, the drawings reference a potential 70-200mm f/2 among even lenses like a 50-85mm f/1.4.

The challenge of making a bright zoom is making it small enough to carry at the same time. Reducing the size of a zoom means bringing optical groups closer to each other. The problem with that, the patent says, is that it leaves no room for the autofocus groups.

The patent hints that using “three or more” focus units could help shorten that distance, making it possible to create a bright zoom lens while avoiding a significant increase in size to get that brighter aperture.

The patent isn’t Canon’s first to reference using more than two focus groups. Another patent earlier this year from Canon explored using three focus groups to increase focusing performance.

Using more focus groups isn’t a completely new idea for Canon either – the company’s Dual Nano USM lenses use two autofocus motors. The newer VCM or Voice Coil lenses often pair the magnetic VCM system with a second smaller Nano USM autofocus motor, like with the Canon RF 35mm f/1.4L VCM.

The recent patent details several potential designs that could use three autofocus groups in order to create a brighter aperture without creating an overly heavy lens. But the possibility of a 70-200mm f/2 is drumming up a bit of excitement, considering how popular the 28-70mm f/2L USM lens is.

The Canon 28-70mm f/2L USM uses an ultrasonic autofocus motor and cuts some of the wide angle off of a more typical 24-70mm – but the lens is still notably heavier than the 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM.

At 3.1 pounds / 1430g, Canon’s 28-70mm f/2L is actually heavier than the RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM. That’s a perfect example of just how challenging making a reasonably sized 70-200mm with a bright f/2 would be.

Canon’s patents hint at what the company is working on behind the scenes – but the existence of a patent doesn’t guarantee that such a design will eventually become a real product. Canon often sets records for the number of patents filed in a year, which means many of them don’t become actual products. That leaves the concept of a 70-200mm f/2 zoom as wishful thinking and rumors, for now.

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Take a look at the best Canon RF lenses for more inspiration.

Until now if you wanted to go really wide with a Fujifilm GFX camera, your widest option would have been the Laowa 15mm f/4.5R Zero-D Shift Lens, while Fujifilm's widest GF offering would be the GF20-35mmF4 R WR. But now AstrHori has absolutely smashed the wide-angle record for GF-mount lenses with its new MF 8mm F2.4 Circular Fisheye Lens. For context, an 8mm medium format focal length equates to just 6.3mm in full-frame terms, and it results in a colossal 220-degree field of view. That's so wide that this lens can actually see behind itself, and it also means you've even got to be careful when hand-holding the camera, as your own fingers may start encroaching into the image frame!

Obviously being a circular rather than rectilinear fisheye lens, this field of view means each shot will contain a circular image projection within a black frame, and distortion will be integral to the circular rendering, but that's all part of the fun.

Despite the immense field of view, the lens itself is surprisingly compact for a medium format optic, measuring just 62mm long and weighing in at 517g. Focussing is manual only, but that's really no issue with a lens with such a short focal length, as depth of field will be huge, even at the maximum f/2.4 aperture. This is also fast enough to make the lens suitable for astrophotography, should you want to capture more of the night sky than ever before in a single frame.

Inside the metal barrel is a 10-element optical stack arranged in 8 groups, containing two extra-low dispersion elements and two high refractive index elements to help reduce chromatic aberrations - vital on a lens with such a wide field of view. The aperture diaphragm is comprised of 10 blades, which has the potential for creating smoother bokeh, but you'll have to fully exploit the 0.1m minimum focus distance to create anything close to a shallow depth of field with a lens this wide.

The AstrHori 8mm f/2.4 Circular Fisheye Lens is available to pre-order now, in either Fujifilm GF or Hasselblad X mounts, each priced at $398, which is makes this one of the least expensive new medium format lenses available.

Pre-order now from B&H

All listed lens models in the latest Top 10 chart published by major Japanese retailer Yodobashi are zoom lenses. This might not be a big surprise, as zoom optics are a popular choice among photographers of all levels and all genres. While one manufacturer dominates the ranking, a third-party model, described as a "high-flying all-in-one superzoom," is the real showstopper.

Yodobashi shares that in the second half of September, the No.1 spot goes to the Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II, followed by the Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II and Sony FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS. The manufacturer dominates the chart with a total of four models, including the Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II at No.10.

However, the third-party lens that stands out – which is the only third-party zoom in the chart – is the Tamron 25-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III VXD G2 for Sony E-mount in fifth place. Here's why the optic is a great all-in-one travel solution and its catch.

Yodobashi's 10 best-selling lenses (2nd half Sep 2026)

1. Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II
2. Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II
3. Sony FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS
4. Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM Z | White | Black
5. Tamron 25-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III VXD G2 (E-mount)
6. Canon RF 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM
7. Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II
8. Nikon Z 24-120mm f/4 S
9. Nikon Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR
10. Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II

The "high-flying all-in-one superzoom"

Available for $899 / £729 for Sony E-mount, the Tamron 25-200mm f/2.8-5.6 Di III VXD G2 is a lens that can "genuinely replace a pair of standard and telephoto zooms," as DCW reviewer Matthew Richards states. And with the V3 firmware, you can also shoot macro subjects.

The only catch with this super-all-in-one solution is that it's only available for Sony cameras. Photographers working with other systems are missing out.

For Nikon shooters, the own-brand Nikon Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR would be a great choice. While this lens is not listed in the Top 10, it adds optical stabilization and has marginally more wide-angle coverage, available for $846.95 / £879.

The Canon RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM is an option for RF-mount, available for $949 / £959. While it features a slower aperture, it provides a wider focal length at the short end and a longer focal length at the telephoto end.

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Browse the best Sony lenses, the best Nikon Z lenses, and the best Canon RF lenses. We also curated a guide to the best standard zoom lenses and telephoto lenses.

Voigtländer is celebrating 100 years of its legendary Skopar lens with a rather beautiful special edition of one of its most recognizable optics.

The new Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 Skopar 100th model takes the tried-and-tested formula of the long-running Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 P II and gives it an elegant silver makeover, complete with a matching metal lens hood and a specially designed aluminum rear cap.

It's a fitting tribute to a lens name that has been part of photographic history for an entire century, and one that should certainly catch the attention of Leica rangefinder enthusiasts.

One of the biggest attractions of the Color-Skopar has always been its remarkably compact design, and this anniversary edition is no different. Measuring just 23mm in length, it's an incredibly slim lens that looks perfectly at home on a Leica M camera.

Despite its small dimensions, Voigtländer hasn't compromised on the handling experience, with a carefully shaped focusing lever that sits naturally beneath your finger and a beautifully tactile aperture ring with precise clicks. It's the sort of mechanical simplicity that makes shooting with a manual-focus lens so enjoyable, particularly for street and documentary photographers who appreciate a more considered approach to photography.

The anniversary treatment extends beyond the silver finish, with Voigtländer including a specially designed metal bayonet-mount hood featuring distinctive slits. Not only does it complement the overall appearance of the lens, but its design also helps minimize viewfinder obstruction when shooting with a rangefinder camera.

There's also a rather unusual three-piece rear lens cap, precision-machined from aluminum to provide a premium metallic finish without adding unnecessary weight. These might seem like small details, but they're exactly the sort of touches that make a commemorative lens feel a little more special.

Sample images

Underneath that elegant exterior, the Color-Skopar retains the traditional manual-focus experience that has helped make Voigtländer lenses so popular among rangefinder photographers.

Its all-metal helicoid focusing mechanism is precision-machined and carefully adjusted, while specially selected grease provides the right amount of resistance for smooth, accurate focusing.

The lens also features a high-precision rangefinder coupling mechanism, allowing photographers to focus accurately through compatible rangefinder cameras, even when shooting at wider apertures.

The Color-Skopar 35mm f/2.5 Skopar 100th model features a VM mount compatible with Leica M-mount cameras, although it can also be adapted for use with modern mirrorless systems.

Its full-frame image circle makes it suitable for both 35mm film and full-frame digital photography, while the compact design is particularly appealing to photographers who want to keep their camera setup as small and unobtrusive as possible.

For those who appreciate the craftsmanship, simplicity, and character of traditional rangefinder photography, this anniversary edition is a lovely reminder that sometimes the most appealing lenses aren't necessarily the biggest, fastest, or most complicated.

Check out our guide to the best Leica M-mount lenses

Back in July we reported on the announcement of Voigtländer's new APO-Lanthar 90mm F4 Close Focus VM; a compact medium-telephoto prime lens designed for full-frame Leica M-mount rangefinder cameras.

It was originally scheduled to arrive in August 2026, but after a slight delay we can now confirm that the lens available to buy from B&H in the US and Wex in the UK, either in black or silver finishes, both priced at $749 / £599.

The APO-Lanthar name denotes that the lens is derived from the Apochromat design. This manufacturing process was developed to reduce chromatic aberration in film photography, but the technology is claimed to still be effective for supressing fringing in digital photography today.

Inside the APO-Lanthar 90mm F4 Close Focus VM you'll find eight elements arranged in seven groups, with six elements made from anomalous partial dispersion glass which is said to deliver high resolution, strong contrast, and consistent performance across the frame.

Despite its advanced optical design, the lens measures just 54.8mm long and weighs only 235g. The compactness is helped by the relatively f/4 modest maximum aperture, which negates the need for the large elements which would be required for f/2.8 and faster optics. Another benefit of the smaller barrel size is it reduces viewfinder blockage when the lens is used with an optical rangefinder.

Image samples

Close-focusing performance is another major aspect of the lens’s appeal. The APO-Lanthar 90mm f/4 Close Focus VM can focus down to 0.5m, extending beyond the typical 0.7m limit for many rangefinder-coupled lenses.

At its closest setting, it offers a maximum magnification of 0.28x, while Voigtländer says the apochromatic correction helps maintain image quality even when photographing subjects up close.

The lens also includes a high-precision rangefinder coupling mechanism, an all-metal helicoid for smooth focusing, and a click that identifies the point where focusing moves beyond the coupled range.

A compact dedicated metal hood is included, extending by only around 9mm to reduce flare without significantly interfering with the camera’s framelines.

Can a lens ever be cute? Well, I think this Sigma is. It’s super-small, slender and lightweight, and looks a little beauty. And it looks pretty remarkable as well. I’ve known professional photographers who almost always shoot with prime lenses on their full-frame cameras. If they do have a zoom lens, it’s likely to be one of the best 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses. It’s a classic telephoto choice that combines a versatile zoom range with a fairly fast and constant f/2.8 aperture, making it one of the best choices of wedding and event photography lenses, and more besides.

Despite their huge popularity, I’m not totally sold on 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses, as I feel that they’re often big, heavy and very expensive to buy. As with wide-angle and standard zooms, we’re seeing more ‘alternative trinity’ telephoto zooms that retain the constant f/2.8 aperture but pack it into a much more conveniently compact, lightweight and affordable package. The Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 is a case in point, and one of my personal favorites.

The thing is, we don’t all shoot with full-frame cameras. There are particular advantages to crop-sensor cameras, and the APS-C format has long been a popular choice. Lenses tend to be smaller, lighter and less expensive, but that doesn’t mean we should have to compromise on quality or versatility. With that in mind, Sigma started making a set of alternative trinity f/2.8 zooms, kicking off with the wide-angle Sigma 10-18mm f/2.8 DC DN | C and standard Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C lenses, in Canon RF-S, Fujifilm X, Sony E and L-mount options.

The eagerly awaited follow-up is the Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C that I’m reviewing here. It follows suit in most of the same mount options, but not L-mount. I’m not surprised. Off the top of your head, can you think of any current APS-C format L-mount cameras? Anyway, the new Sigma tele zoom looks an absolute little gem. Let’s see if its beauty is more than just skin deep.

Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C: Specifications

Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C: Price

Splash out on a set of conventional, full-frame trinity zooms and you’ll need deep pockets to afford them and a deep bag to put them in. The APS-C format Sigma 50-120mm is comparatively small, light and affordable at $799 / £699 / AU$1,400. It completes the set, building on the previously launched Sigma 10-18mm f/2.8 DC DN | C at $729 / £649 / AU$1,178 and the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C at $659 / £479 / AU$807. If you want an even faster standard zoom, there’s also the Sigma 17-40mm f/1.8 DC Art at $919 / £799 / AU$1,650.

For further context, the full-frame compatible Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 DG DN OS Sports costs $1,649 / £1,499 / AU$3,040, while the Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VC VXD G2 sells for around $1,099 / £999 / AU$2,449. Equivalent APS-C format telephoto zooms with a constant f/2.8 aperture are very thin on the ground, but there’s the Fujifilm XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR, which is about twice the price of the Sigma 50-120mm in most world regions, at $1,899 / £1,449 / AU$2,399.

Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C: Design & Handling

The Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C is so small that it comes in a pint-sized little cardboard box (with fully recyclable packing, no less). It’s so lightweight that when I picked up the box, I thought it was actually empty and they’d forgotten to put the lens in it. Talking specifics, or rather specifications, the Sigma measures 67x99mm / 2.6x3.9in and weighs 390g / 13.8oz. So it’s less than 4 inches long and weighs less than a pound. Over in the heavyweight corner of the ring, the Fujifilm XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR is about 7 inches long and weighs 35oz (about 2.5x as much). Remarkably for a constant f/2.8 zoom, the Sigma also has a small 55mm filter attachment thread, compared with the Fujifilm’s 72mm thread.

The Sigma packs a complex optical path into its downsized design, comprising no less than 18 elements in 13 groups. Specialist glass includes 3 SLD (Special Low Dispersion) elements, one top-tier FLD (‘Fluorite’ Low Dispersion) element and 4 aspherical elements, the last of these enabling further physical shrinkage as well as enhancing image quality.

Before I get too carried away about just how small this lens is, I should point out that unlike most 70-200mm full-frame lenses, the Sigma physically extends at longer zoom settings. I say ‘most’, but not all full-frame lenses of the genre have an internal zoom mechanism, the Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM being a notable exception. But while the Sigma has an extending inner barrel, the total amount of physical extension is only about an inch, as you zoom from 50mm to the longest 120mm setting. You can see how that looks in real life by comparing the images above and below.

The zoom ring itself operates with smooth efficiency and has a nice tactile feel throughout its range. There are no stiff or jerky spots along the way and while only modest torque is required to rotate the ring, the lens doesn’t suffer at all from any zoom creep, even with the added weight of the hood being attached. Indeed, no zoom lock switch is featured in the design. There are also no switches for swapping between autofocus and manual focus modes, nor for switching the optical stabilizer on and off. In keeping with the compact design, these settings are deferred to menu options in the host camera body.

Further tech shoehorned into the lens includes an HLA (High-response Linear Actuator) autofocus motor, which is essentially a linear stepping motor by another name. It aims to deliver fast, snappy and consistently accurate autofocus for stills, along with smooth and virtually silent autofocus transitions when shooting video. As usual for this type of arrangement, the autofocus motor is also employed during manual focusing, being driven by the electronically coupled manual focus ring.

Although handling feels broadly similar to that of Sigma’s sibling 10-18mm and 18-50mm zooms, the 50-120mm lens gains a dedicated aperture control ring. It’s clearly labelled in full f/stop increments, with one-third f/stop interim marker lines. As usual, it has an A (Auto) setting just off the narrow end of the scale, next to the f/22 setting, which enables the aperture to be controlled from the host camera. This is essential for using the camera in Program and Shutter-priority shooting modes. As with AF/MF and optical stabilization, however, there are no companion switches for the aperture ring, so you don’t get a de-click option for shooting video, nor a locking switch for the Auto position.

The lens comes complete with a circular-profile hood. This has the usual bayonet fixing and can be reversed on the lens for compact stowage. It feels a high-quality item, perfectly matching the lens itself.

The hood is tailor-made and only adds about an inch to the physical length of the lens. Using the hood not only helps to fend off ghosting and flare when shooting into the light, but also offers physical protection for the front glass element against any knocks and scrapes.

Build quality feels very good throughout. The construction feels robust despite its lightweight design, and features multiple weather-seals including a rubber gasket around the metal mounting plate.

A nice finishing touch is that the lens is not only supplied with front and back caps and a hood, but also with a neat drawstring pouch. It’s rather a featherweight compared with the padded soft cases that Sigma often supplies, but more in keeping with the relatively small and lightweight nature of this lens.

Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C: Performance

As advertised, the autofocus system proved rapid and consistently accurate in my tests. The lens is capable of a tight depth of field, especially when shooting wide-open at f/2.8 at short object distances or towards the long end of the zoom range. This makes consistently accurate autofocus all the more important. I also found that the autofocus system was well able to track fairly fast-moving objects.

An excellent hit rate is assured, not only by the autofocus system, but also by the optical stabilizer. I tested the lens with a Sony A6000 body that has no IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilizer) and that holds true for most APS-C format Canon EOS R system cameras, most back-catalog Sony Alpha cameras and some Fujifilm X system cameras. The Sigma’s optical stabilizer is definitely worth having, even if your camera does feature IBIS. Optical stabilizers tend to perform better than IBIS at telephoto focal lengths and this one’s worth from 6.5 stops to 4.5 stops as you stretch through the zoom range from 50mm to 120mm.

The ‘effective’ 75-180mm zoom range in full-frame terms isn’t quite a match for the 70-200mm of conventional ‘trinity’ telephoto zooms, but it’s not far off. The Canon RF-S mount actually comes a little closer at maximum telephoto reach, equating to 80-192mm in full-frame terms, thanks to Canon’s 1.6x rather than 1.5x APS-C crop factor. Using the Sony E-mount version, I didn’t notice any real difference at the short end of the zoom range, and if you desperately need that extra bit of reach at the long end, a little creative cropping can often suffice. Either way, the images above and below demonstrate the overall zoom range, taken of the same subject from the same position at focal lengths of 50mm and 120mm respectively.

I found that levels of sharpness and clarity to be excellent, both throughout the entire zoom range and across the whole image frame. Color rendition is also beautiful. I was less enamored that the aperture ring rotates with clearly audible click steps. That can be problematic when shooting video, as there’s no de-click option for the aperture ring. Naturally, due to the telephoto nature of the lens, you’ll need to stop down to medium apertures to gain sufficient depth of field, when shooting 3-dimensional objects that are fairly close by. At least, you will if you want most or all of them to look sharp, as demonstrated in the bicycle image below.

For this kind of lens, there’s another facet of performance comes to the fore, and that’s the quality of bokeh. It can be a struggle for APS-C format lenses to deliver a tight depth of field, as this is more dependent on the ‘actual’ rather than ‘effective’ focal length. Again though, the Sigma impresses with attractively soft and smooth bokeh in defocused areas, along with a natural looking roll-off between focused and defocused elements in a composition. The aperture diaphragm is particularly well-rounded, being based on 11 blades, which helps to maintain the quality of bokeh when stopping down.

Axial/longitudinal chromatic aberration (also referred to as ‘bokeh fringing’) is also well controlled around high-contrast transitions just in front of or behind the plane of focus. All of these facets are demonstrated in my test shot below, taken of a phrenology head at a focal length of 92mm, wide-open at f/2.8.

There’s fairly good control over distortion which is well within the boundaries of automatic in-camera correction, and there’s virtually no color fringing to be seen even with in-camera correction disabled. The lens also does well to maintain clarity and contrast while minimizing ghosting and flare, when shooting against the light. For the following image, I was shooting towards the sun, with lots of light coming in from the sky as well as bouncing off the sea. The lens maintains good contrast while keeping ghosting and flare very much at bay.

Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C: Sample Images

The following gallery comprises images taken on a sunny morning at Weston-Super-Mare, a popular tourist destination on the boundary of the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel in South West England. The first few shots in the gallery were taken in pairs, captured of the same scene from the same position, but at both extremities of the zoom range. This gives you an idea of the total zoom range on offer. I also shot a variety of other images, using various focal lengths and aperture settings, including the widest aperture of f/2.8 to show the quality of bokeh with the minimum depth of field.

Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C: Lab Results

We run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.

We use Imatest SFR (spatial frequency response) charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the center of the image frame, corners and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths. The tests also measure distortion and color fringing (chromatic aberration).

Sharpness:

Center-sharpness is very good wide-open at f/2.8, becoming excellent with just a single f/stop reduction to f/4, throughout the entire zoom range. Extreme edge-sharpness doesn’t look too great based on short-range shooting of our lab charts, but at more typical focus distances, it proved impressive in our real-world tests, as you can see in my sample images.

Fringing:

Both lateral and axial chromatic aberrations are entirely negligible. You’d hard pressed to see any color fringing anywhere in the image frame, even with automatic in-camera correction disabled. That holds true throughout the entire zoom and aperture ranges.

Distortion:

There’s a little pincushion distortion at 50mm, a little more at 70mm, and it can become fairly noticeable towards the long end of the zoom range. However, the Sigma relies much less on automatic in-camera correction for distortion, compared with many modern lenses for mirrorless cameras, especially those designed with compactness in mind. With auto correction applied, distortion becomes a non-issue.

Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C: Verdict

I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with ‘proper’ trinity telephoto zoom lenses. I love their versatility and usefulness for anything and everything from daily shooting to action, sports, wildlife and portraiture, and especially for weddings and events. But I hate that they’re typically big, heavy and very expensive to buy. The Sigma 50-120mm f/2.8 DC OS | C for APS-C format Canon, Fujifilm and Sony cameras gives me all of the good stuff, but miniaturized into an amazingly compact and lightweight package that’s also much more affordable to buy.

That ‘good stuff’ includes an effective 75-180mm zoom range (80-192mm for Canon), complete with fast, virtually silent and consistently accurate autofocus and effective optical image stabilization. Image quality is top-drawer, combining superb sharpness, clarity, contrast and color rendition with smooth and dreamy bokeh.

I like that the lens includes a dedicated aperture control ring, but I feel it’s a bit of a shame there’s no click/de-click switch, nor switches for auto/manual focusing modes and stabilization on/off. However, I’m happy to forego these in the pursuit of downsizing, and it also keeps the control layout relatively simple and straightforward. Ultimately, this Sigma makes a compelling case for using a crop-sensor camera instead of a full-frame body. It’s a proper pocket rocket!

Alternatives

The viral popularity of the compact camera has sparked a renewed interest in pancake lenses – and now budget lens maker TTArtisan has introduced an optic that fits an f/3.8 aperture and autofocus in a lens that weighs 57g / 2oz.

The TTArtisan AF 24mm f/3.8 Mini is a full-frame pancake lens coming to Sony E and Nikon Z mounts. Once mounted on the camera, the lens sticks out just 16mm / .6 inches. To put things in perspective, that’s about ten pennies stacked together or the measurement of one side of standard game dice.

Despite the compact size, TTArtisan has managed to fit a VCM, or voice-coil motor, autofocus inside. That autofocus can lock on to subjects as close as .3m / 11.8 inches from the front of the lens.

The lens fits in six optical elements in six groups, including two extra-low dispersion elements and two aspherical elements.

Even capping the front of the lens for storage doesn’t add to the lens’ size. The lens uses a built-in lens cover that’s deployed using a slider at the front. (A rear cap is also included in the box.)

TTArtisan also built a USB-C port into the metal mount for firmware updates.

The China-based TTArtisan is no stranger to building budget compact lenses, but the new 24mm Mini is smaller than the TTArtisan AF 27mm f/2.8 and AF 14mm f/3.5, which are both built for APS-C sensors.

The TTArtisan AF 24mm f/3.8 Mini is already available to order for the Sony E-mount, with the company saying that the Z Mount is coming soon. Orders are open through TTArtisan as well as retailers like B&H (US) and Clifton Cameras (UK). The pancake lens retails for $99 / £89 (about AU$142 / CA$136).

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The constant aperture f/2.8 zoom tends to be a lens category that’s both expensive and heavy, but there’s a growing number of options built specifically for APS-C that put that coveted f/2.8 into a zoom the size of a kit lens. The new Tamron 16-50mm f/2.8 A is one such lens.

Built for APS-C bodies across Sony E, Canon RF, Nikon Z, and Fujifilm X mounts, the lens comes in at a 10.8oz / 305g package. I twisted the lens on a compact Sony A6700 and took it on a fall color hike, and the price and aperture are going to make it a very tempting choice for everyday carry.

Tamron 16-50mm f/2.8 A review: Price and Availability

The Tamron 16-50mm f/2.8 A sits at a price point that feels excellent for APS-C shooters. It’s well under the price of first-party lenses like the Sony E 16-55mm f/2.8 G and the Fujifilm XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR II, but it also sits at a price that competes with other third-party optics like the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN Contemporary.

The lens price varies slightly by mount. The E-mount and X-Mount sit at $529 / £399 / CA$749, while the Z-Mount and RF-Mount sit at $549 / £429 / CA$749.

The E-Mount and RF-Mount ship first on October 29, with the Z-Mount following on November 19 and the X-Mount on December 17.

Tamron 16-50mm f/2.8 A review: Specs

Tamron 16-50mm f/2.8 A review: Build and Handling

The Tamron 16-50mm f/2.8 A is deceptively small. It looks small enough to be a kit lens, not a constant-aperture zoom. The 10.8oz / 305g weight and 3.2 inch / 79.6mm length make it an easy lens to take on long hikes.

The lens is an external zoom type, which means the lens does get slightly longer as it zooms in.

The lens itself carries a minimalist design – there’s no bank of control switches at all, just a focus ring, a zoom ring, and a USB-C port for firmware updates and Tamron Link support.

My only complaint about the design? I would have loved an aperture ring, but tiny lenses can’t pack everything, and that’s one of the sacrifices to get a lens this lightweight.

But Tamron didn’t sacrifice weather seals in order to bring down the weight and price. The lens has several weather seals throughout. I only had a sunny weekend with the lens, but I gave the lens a few squirts with a plant mister, and the lens (and camera) was unbothered.

The lens ships with a removable petal-shaped lens hood.

Tamron 16-50mm f/2.8 A review: Performance

I took the Tamron 16-50mm f/2.8 A on a weekend hike to photograph the fall colors. The lens squeezes an excellent range and bright aperture into a lightweight optic. Close focusing capabilities up to 6 inches / .15m on the wide end and 11.5 inches / .29m on the long end add to that versatility.

Images coming from the lens have decent sharpness, with subjects that are crisp but without being overly so.

Unaltered, the lens has some barrel distortion at 16mm and barrel distortion at 50mm, but using the lens profile inside Lightroom corrects this in a click for RAW files.

Some images have a light vignetting at the corners, more noticeable at 50mm than at 16mm. Again, the lens profile does a nice job of quickly cleaning up those corners.

Turning from leaf peeping to pixel peeping, I did spot some occasional purple fringing when shooting backlit, high-contrast scenes and viewing the photos at 100 percent. This chromatic aberration was stronger in the untouched RAW files than on the JPEGs, and wasn’t strong enough to notice without viewing at 100 percent.

That f/2.8 creates some lovely bokeh. Large points of light create round bokeh balls; through smaller, more distant bokeh does take on some onion ringing.

Shooting towards the sun, I was able to capture some lovely, hazy lens flare. Filtered through the leaves, this flare looked like added sparkle. On the flip side of that lovely flare, however, there are some occasional purple ghosting spots when shooting into the sun.

I had just a weekend with the lens to test it out ahead of launch – lab testing and more challenging autofocus tests are needed before I can give the lens an official rating. But my initial experience is that the lens delivers a solid balance of sharpness and bokeh. There’s some minor purple fringing, while the vignetting and barrel distortion correction rely heavily on the lens profile to correct.

Tamron 16-50mm f/2.8 A review:

The Tamron 16-50mm f/2.8 A is so small that it feels like a kit lens, yet it packs in a constant f/2.8 aperture. The lens is a fantastic option to replace a narrow-aperture kit lens, but the versatile zoom and close-focusing capabilities also make it a great everyday lens, as well as a tempting travel lens.

It’s a lens that's light enough to carry around for hours, while still offering weather-sealing. I missed the aperture ring a little, but that may be a worthwhile sacrifice for the weight savings.

The lens expertly balances image quality with portability and price. Images are sharp, and bokeh and flare are lovely. There’s some vignetting and barrel distortion corrected by the lens profile, and some occasional purple fringing to contend with, however.

The price is also highly competitive, coming in close to the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN Contemporary, with a steep price difference compared to first-party lenses.

Alternatives

The f/2.8 constant aperture zoom is considered the professional standard, but the category tends to sit at both a high price point and a heavier design. But Tamron has just built an f/2.8 zoom built for everyday carry – and for matching the compact size of APS-C shooters from Canon, Sony, Nikon and Fujifilm.

I took the Tamron 16-50mm f/2.8 A on a fall color hike. Weight-wise, shooting with the new lens felt like using a kit lens. The lens sits at just 10.8 oz / 305g and it’s only about 3.2 inches long (though the Nikon Z mount sits at 4.8 inches / 121.3mm and 11.2oz / 315g).

But while the weight felt like a kit lens, the bokeh from shooting at f/2.8 did not. Shooting at 50mm and the minimum focus distance of 11.5 inches / .29m on the long end created a lovely mix between sharpness and bokeh.

The 16-50mm doesn’t reach as far as competing 16-55mm lenses, but I thought the range was an ideal balance between versatility and keeping the lens lightweight. I was happy to fit some wide shots, longer shots, and close-ups – though not quite macro territory – all without swapping lenses.

Like a lot of modern lenses that prioritize size, using the lens profile is a must to avoid vignetting and barrel distortion. The one quirk that I couldn’t quite completely fix in one click was some occasional purple fringing when shooting backlit branches – minor enough not to spot when viewing the whole image, but detectable when pixel-peeping at 100 percent.

Another feature that didn’t feel like a kit lens? The Tamron 16-50mm f/2.8 A does have weather seals for shooting in rain and snow, as well as helping prevent dust buildup.

The new Tamron is built for budget as well as size, sitting between $529 / £399 / CA$729 and $549 / £429 / CA$749 depending on the mount - that converts to around AU$757-AU$786.

The Tamron 16-50mm f/2.8 A joins a growing list of lenses built for crop sensor shooters that mix a bright aperture with a compact design. Tamron’s biggest competitor here is probably the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN Contemporary, which is slightly lighter but also a bit less wide.

First-party competitors like the Sony 16-55mm f/2.8 G and the Fujifilm XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR II have a larger price gap, along with being heavier optics.

The Tamron 16-50mm is launching first to the Sony E-Mount and Canon RF Mount with an October 29 ship date. A Nikon Z mount is expected to follow on November 19th, and a Fujifilm X mount on December 17.

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Read the full Tamron 16-50mm f/2.8 A review. Or, take a look at the best lenses for travel.