Introducing Sabrina Weniger: A professional photographer based in Düsseldorf and Berlin and part of our very select group of early ZX1 testers. Join us as she talks about her first weeks with the new ZEISS ZX1 and how the camera affected her personal photography flow, all while walking the streets of Düsseldorf’s Little Tokyo in pursuit of that perfect picture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgBCINPV1u8
Botht the new A7III and 24mm GM make it into the list of the best gear of the year.
These are the first images of the real world and final production Nikon 58mm f/0,95 Z lens shared by Nikon photographer Yusuf Kathawala. As you know their whole marketing machine runs on this Z-mount size argument. And they need this lens to show of their serious intentions. But despite all these slogans the truth remains that this is going to be:
1) A huge lens (below you can see it compared with the already very big 105mm f/1.4 F-mount lens)
2) Manual focus only lens (good luck focusing with a few cm of depth of field)
3) The price is rumored to be around $6,000
Don’t get me wrong, this Nikon lens is a stunning piece of glass. But I am pretty sure Sony could so such an f/0,95 lens too. But I agree with Sony’s manager statement when he said that making an autofocus f/1.2 FE lens would be the more sensible choice.
Marc Alhedeff from Sonyalpha.blog tested the new version of the world’s fastest native E-mount lens. He writes:
The Kipon Ibelux 40mm F0.85 Mark II (1800 euros) is a nice upgrade of the Handevision 40mm F0.85 with mainly better color rendering and better resistance to flare which were 2 flaws of the V1 . I wished they had strengthen the dampening of the focusing ring but it has remained as it it
Pros
- Very good build quality
- Excellent sharpness in the centre as of F1.4, good at F0.85 and F1
- Spectacular portrait with creamy background at F0.85 / F1
- Superb background blur
- good color rendition
- good resistance to flare
- correct contrast at F0.85 (V1 was weaker)
Cons
- Difficult to focus at F0.85
- extremely heavy and unbalanced on Sony A6000
- very expensive (1800 euros)
- CA up to F1.4
- Long min focusing distance : 75 cm
You are supposed to use this lens most of the time at F0.85 / F1 as you have many options starting at F1.2.
Wide open and at F1 , this lens can produce very beautiful portrait and half body photos with a very smooth blurry background and sufficient sharpness but it requires some patience and a lot of trials/errors in the beginning, but you quickly improve to focus at F0.85
With the improved coating and better color rendition I would not hesitate to use it at F0.85 whereas for V1 as was closing down to F1.4 to neutralise the color cast
Dpreview compared the Sony A7III, Nikon Z6 and the Canon EOS-R. The conclusion:
[shopcountry 77622]Even without thinking about lenses, it’s clear that Nikon and Canon still have some work to do to catch up with Sony’s half-decade headstart. It’s not an insurmountable difference, though and both brands have brought their extensive experience of ergonomics and user interfaces, which Sony should probably be worried about.
All three cameras can produce excellent images but the Sony more readily adapts to a wider range of situations. The Nikon acquits itself well for certain types of photography, while also doing unexpectedly well at video, but the Z6 has the least dependable AF system of the trio, which counts against it. Canon has tried to make an easy-to-use camera, rather than simply mimicking its DSLRs, but, while we’re not fully convinced by the results of this first attempt, it’s still a very able camera.
Ultimately, though, the decision is likely to come down to what lenses you own, which lenses you plan to buy and how much faith you have in each company to produce camera bodies to match your needs, several years down the road. Because, if you’re trying to avoid major costs later, the camera body you choose now is likely to commit you to a new lens system for the foreseeable future.
You can get the new Laowa 10-18mm FE at BHphoto and at VenusOptics online store.
Phillip Reeve (Click here) tested the new Laowa 10-18mm 4.5-5.6 FE C-Dreamer lens:
The main selling points of this lens are the compact size and the widest focal length of 10mm. Laowa managed to produce a zoom lens that starts at 10mm – and at 10mm the resolution and vignetting figures look quite comparable to that of the Voigtlander 10mm prime – yet it is only slightly bigger and heavier (+120g) and you can zoom in all the way up to 18mm.
Laowa decided to do some things differently here compared to Sony with their latest UWA zooms: the emphasize is not on resolution but on giving you the widest possible lens in a small package, sunstars and usability with filters. Whether these main points appeal to you or not depends on your personal preferences.
If you are interested in a lens starting at 10mm but want something more flexible than a 10mm prime this lens might be for you.
If on the other hand you think you get a smaller and wider Sony FE 12-24mm f/4.0 G in a smaller package you will be disappointed, the 10-18mm won’t match it in the overlapping focal length range in terms of resolution and contrast.
The lack of exif data is quite a nuisance in a lens where electronic corrections (distortion and color cast) are necessary in many shots. I was using the lens mostly at fixed values of 10, 14 and 18mm to make post production a bit easier.
The biggest disadvantage for me is the flare resistance. With the sun in the frame I encountered ghosting and other artifacts quite regularly. Whether this bothers you depends a lot on what you shoot, but if this is something that bothers you I recommend to stick to the Voigtlander and Zeiss prime lenses.
Ted Forbes:
I recently had my Sony NEX 7 modified as a full-spectrum camera. Essentially this means the sensor will recognize the visual spectrum in addition to Ultra-violet and Infrared light. By using various filters on the lens, you can achieve some interesting results by limiting the light spectrum for both photography and video.
