Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM lens at Bhphoto. Adorama. Amazon. Calumet Germany. WexUK.

Marc Alhadeff tested the new Sony 24mm GM lens. This is his conclusion:

The Sony 24mm F1.4 GM is a new masterpiece from Sony and well deserve its GM label. It is certainly one of the best 24mm if we consider all criteria together

• Excellent sharpness wide open across the full field, even wide open (Note : for close distance corners are “only” very good at F1.4/F2)
• Fast and accurate AF with very good Eye AF performance
• Small and light
• Excellent bokeh and very smooth background blur 
• Fast Aperture : F1.4 : perfect for low light 
• Very small focusing distance + F1.4 = perfect for small depth of field
• Very good contrast and 3D effect at F1.4 for people portraits
• No field curvature
• Very low distorsion
• Very low coma (suited for Astrophotography)
• Suited for video thanks to click less aperture ring
• Very good color rendition (but Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4 is excellent)
• Very well built, weather sealed

There are however a few area where it is not “perfect”

• Very small amount of CA
• Resistance to flare is good but not excellent
• Vignetting at F1.4 & F2 (a future Lightroom Lens profile will correct it)
• Price (but in line with GM price range)

The lens is very versatile and will be the perfect choice for landscape, street photography, , low light, architecture, people reportage, full body portraits, astrophotography, and this  both in photo and in video

Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM lens at Bhphoto. Adorama. Amazon. Calumet Germany. WexUK.

Voigtlander Color Skopar 21mm f/3.5 E-mount lens at Amazon and BHphoto.

Photographyblog tested the new Voigtlander FE lens and the conclusion is:

The super-compact and very lightweight Voigtlander 21mm F3.5 Color-Skopar is an excellent wide-angle prime lens that delivers great image quality. Shooting at the maximum f/3.5 aperture does reveal a very minor reduction in sharpness in the centre of the frame, but this is quickly resolved by stopping down to f/4. The edges aren’t quite so sharp, though, with f/8-f/16 producing the best results.

In addition to the edge sharpness, there are a couple of other image quality drawbacks to the Voigtlander 21mm F3.5 Color-Skopar. Vignetting is obvious wide-open at f/3.5, and still fairly evident at f/5.6, although in real-world use it’s less of a problem than when photographing a white wall/test-chart. The lens also suffered from some rather obvious purple and green fringing in high-contrast shots. The Voigtlander 21mm F3.5 Color-Skopar does deliver nice sun-stars though thanks to its ten-blade aperture.

The Voigtlander 21mm F3.5 Color-Skopar is a veritable pleasure to use, thanks to its superb build quality, smooth focus ring and tactile aperture ring. As this is a manual-focus only lens, you’d expect this aspect of the operation to be intuitive, and so it proved. Together with the A7R II’s excellent Peaking and Manual Focus Assist features, the Voigtlander 21mm F3.5 Color-Skopar delivered a very high percentage of keepers. The 20cm minimum focusing distance also makes the lens surprisingly versatile when shooting close subjects.

We did miss having a de-clickable aperture ring, though, which recent Voigtlander lenses designed from the ground-up for the Sony FE system have offered, making this lens less suitable for video use.

In summary, the Voigtlander Nokton Classic 35mm F1.4 is a very compact, extremely well-built and affordable wide-angle prime lens for full-frame E-Mount Sony owners. Highly Recommended!

Voigtlander Color Skopar 21mm f/3.5 E-mount lens at Amazon and BHphoto. In Europe at PCHstore.

The lens is in Stock at Amazon US, Amazon DE, Amazon FR, Amazon UK, Amazon IT, Amazon ES.

Marc Alhadeff tested the new 7Artisans 35mm f/1.2 E-mount lens. This is his conclusion:

The 7Artisans 35mm F1.2 (159 euros) is a little more expensive than the other  7Artisans lenses priced at less than 100 euros but this lens is certainly one of the best they have produced and is my favorite so far in their line up

The lens is really good for portrait taken at F1.4  to F2 with a very nice color rendering and beautiful background blur. sharpness is excellent as of F2.8  

Pro’s

• For portrait good sharpness wide open at F1.2 and very good as of F1.4
• Good sharpness for the corners as of F2.8
• Very good blurry background and Bokeh balls
• Good color rendition
• Clickless aperture for video
• Easy focusing ring

Average

• Build quality
• Vignetting
• Chromatic Aberrations
• Field curvature

Con’s

• High distorsion ,
• Resistance to flare are really below average

–

The lens is in Stock at Amazon US, Amazon DE, Amazon FR, Amazon UK, Amazon IT, Amazon ES.

Dpreview posted the final Nikon Z7 review. And overall recommends the Sony A7rIII compared to the new camera:

The most obvious and direct comparison on the mirrorless side is the Sony a7R III, another camera we hold in extremely high esteem. And the similarities between these two cameras are remarkable; spec for spec, they nearly mirror one another. But the Sony is a third-generation product, while the Nikon is a first, and it shows. While there are things we prefer about the Nikon (like more sensible menus, better operational responsiveness and a more comfortable grip), in terms of raw performance the a7R III manages at least match it in everything from Raw dynamic range, to video quality, to AF reliability. We also love Sony’s Eye AF. These differences aren’t huge, but overall, the a7R III will likely be the more capable option for most users.

Just an additional note: I keep reading that Nikon had it hard because it’s their first generation of mirrorless cameras. But I never heard the counter argument that in many aspects they actually had a much “easier” job to do than Sony. They knew in advance what they were competiting with, they knew in advance what people like and disliked from Sony cameras. To me this must balance the “first generation” argument. Sony had to figure out everything all alone in these years…

Zeiss 40mm f/2.0 CF lens preorder at Adorama and BHphoto.

Photographyblog posted the full Zeiss Batis 40mm FE lens review:

The Zeiss Batis 40mm f/2 is an outstanding short-standard prime lens. The novel 40mm focal length takes a little while to get used to, falling as it does between the more “normal” 35mm and 50mm focal lengths, but it quickly loses any real significance after you’ve used it for a while.

Sharpness is very high across the frame. Even with our A7R II test camera recording 42-megapixel images, detail is exceptionally sharp. Shooting at the maximum f/2 aperture does reveal a minor reduction in sharpness, but this is already resolved by f/2.8, and even at this aperture the lens is able to produce beautifully smooth bokeh.

Some vignetting is apparent when shooting wide-open at f/2, but quickly disappears as you stop down, while chromatic aberrations, distortion and flare are all very well controlled, and the bokeh is very appealing for this type of lens. The 24cm minimum focusing distance and 1:3.3 magnification ratio makes the lens versatile enough to shoot close subjects.

The Zeiss Batis 40mm f/2 proved to be a pleasure to use, thanks to its superb build quality, smooth focusing ring and innovative OLED display. When manually focusing, together with the A7R II’s excellent Peaking feature, the Zeiss Batis 40mm f/2 delivered a very high percentage of keepers, and it also proved to be very quick, quiet and accurate when auto-focusing.

There’s only one real drawback to the Zeiss Batis 40mm f/2 lens – the asking price. £1129.99 / $1299.99 / €1,299 is a lot of money to pay for a standard prime lens, even one as well featured and built as this.

Dpreview has selected the best E-mount lenses for our Sony camera. Let’s see if you agree with their choice :)

For Full Frame Cameras:
Best standard zoom lens: Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS ([shopcountry 76717]).
Best prime / single focal length lens: Sony FE 28mm F2 ([shopcountry 76730]).
Best wide-angle zoom lens: Sony FE 12-24mm F4 G ([shopcountry 76719]).
Best telephoto zoom lens: Sony FE 70-200mm F4 G OSS ([shopcountry 76720]).
Best macro lens: Sony FE 50mm F2.8 Macro ([shopcountry 76721]).
Best travel zoom lens: Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS ([shopcountry 76717]).

For APS-C Cameras:
Best standard zoom lens: Sony E PZ 18-105mm F4 G OSS ([shopcountry 76723]).
Best prime / single focal length lens: Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC DN | C ([shopcountry 76724]).
Best wide-angle zoom lens: Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS ([shopcountry 76726]).
Best telephoto zoom lens: Sony E 55-210mm F4.5-6.3 OSS ([shopcountry 76727]).
Best macro lens: Sony FE 50mm F2.8 Macro ([shopcountry 76721]).
Best travel zoom lens: Tamron 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 Di III VC ([shopcountry 76729]).

For me the best single focal lens is the 85mm f/1.8 FE. And the best macro lens is the 90mm FE. What do you think?

Max writes:

Today I compared 5 of the latest mirrorless cameras in regards of 4K low light high iso noise comparison. I test the Sony A7III, Blackmagic pocket cinema camera 4K, Canon EOS R, Nikon Z7, and Fujifilm X-T3. These cameras are a mix of full frame, APS-C and 4/3 sensors but the EOS R crops into a factor of 1.78 which results in decreased low light performance and the Nikon Z7 doesn’t use all the data from the sensor. Take a look at the side by side low light comparison footage between these cameras and let me know your thoughts in the description below.