Laowa 28mm f/1.2 Argus review by SonyAlphaBlog: You either hate it or love it

Laowa 28mm at BHphoto and Amazon US&EU.

SonyAlphaBlog tested the fastest 28mm FF lens you can buy and concluded:

The Laowa 28mm F1.2 (750 euros) is the fastest 28mm available in the market. Like all extreme lenses F0.95/F1.2) comprises have been made to favour aesthetic over classical rendering.
The lens is very well built but is fully manual. A switch allow to have a clickless aperture ring for video
The sharpness is good wide open in the centre with a nice soft background blur at 50cm and a good color rendering. unfortunately the corners are quite bad and the lens suffers from strong field curvature, high vignetting and low resistance to flare. Also the bokeh at long distance is uneven : soft in the centre and quite busy in the corners due to the field curvature.
You like it for its character and unique rendering or you hate it

The next Viltrox winner: The 75mm f/1.2 APS-C E-mount lens is a great performer!

You can now preorder the new VILTROX 75mm f/1.2 APS-C E-mount lens at BHphoto, Amazon US&EU, Pergear, Viltroxstore.

I do now own the new Viltrox 16mm f/1.8 FE lens (my review here). And I somehow believe that Viltrox managed to get to a level of quality that is on par with Sony/Sigma/Tamron. And this for a half or even a third of the price of the competition! So I was curious to see how the new 75mm f/1.2 APS-C E-mount lens would perform and the reviewers seem to be pretty enthusiasic about it:

Phillip Reeve tested the lens and concluded:

Dedicated portrait tele lenses designed solely for the APS-C frame are rare, by which I mean this Viltrox 75mm 1.2 doesn’t have a real competitor in the APS-C world. Fuji “only” has a 56mm f/1.2 and a 90mm 2.0 for their X-mount, whereas Sony, Canon, Nikon and Sigma didn’t really bother to produce a similar lens like this at all. They would probably point at their fullframe lenses, but if they are comparable to this Viltrox lens they are far from being as affordable.
Therefore In the past, whenever someone asked me for an affordable longer portrait lens for their APS-C E-mount or Fuji-X camera, I usually recommended the Viltrox 85mm 1.8 Mk II. But from now on that recommendation will be changed in favour of this Viltrox 75mm 1.2 AF.
We don’t need a longer conclusion here: the image quality is outstanding, bokeh is nice, the build quality and controls hardly leave something to be desired and even the price is fair. What is not to like here?

And here more reviews from Dustin Abbott, Jason and Christopher Frost:

Images of the Samyang factory on South Korea

The French blog Phototrend (google translation here) visited the Samyang factory in South Korea. be sure to check out his website to see the images.

SonyAlphaBlog posted a full review of the new 35-150mm f/2.0-2.8 lens (with the equivalent Tamron lens comparison) and concluded:

Both lenses are very similar , the Tamron is however a bit better on the below aspects

AF a bit more reliable
AF in video when zooming
Sharpness in the corners on 61Mpix
More fluid zoom ring
More user friendly update process

Is that worth 500 euros more ? it all depends of what you do but for 80% of the users the Samyang will be “good enough”

Get the Samyang 35-150mm at Amazon US&EU.

New set of Explora articles to dig into the Sony FX/ZV series

Explora posted a series of articles that do dig into the FX/ZV camera series:

Sony FX30: How Super35 Is Still an Excellent Choice in Today’s World (Explora).
Sony FX3 vs. FX6 vs. a7S III vs. ZV-E1: Which Is Right for You? (Explora).
Sony FR7: How a Cinema-Quality PTZ System Can Revolutionize Your Production (Explora).
Building a Vlogging Kit with Sony ZV-Series Cameras (Explora).
Understanding the Sony VENICE 2 (Explora).
Sony FX6: The Sweet Spot in the Cinema Line (Explora).

Canon R6 II vs Sony a7 IV feat. Ted Forbes!

Chris:

The Sony a7 IV and Canon R6 Mark II are two of the most well-rounded full-frame cameras on the market. Both are capable of outstanding photos and video, but in which areas do they excel? Art Of Photography host Ted Forbes joined us up in Calgary for a no-holds-barred camera throwdown!