Because most consumers demand very compact, lightweight equipment, the majority of lenses are designed with a relatively small aperture: f/4 to f/5.6, for example. That makes sense because the same focal length with a wide aperture would be larger, heavier, and more expensive due to the oversized optical elements and barrel. Even so, many photo enthusiasts really appreciate an...

Technical Specifications

Lens Construction: 18 Elements in 14 Groups
Angle of View: 27.9 ° - 9.5 °
Number of Diaphragm Blades: 9 Blades
Minimum Aperture: F22
Minimum Focusing Distance: 100cm / 39.4 inches
Maximum Magnification:...

While searching for a new portrait lens I saw Sigma's APO MACRO 150mm f/2.8 on their website. But wait, you say, this is a macro lens, not a portrait lens! Here's my thinking: Any portrait photographer out there worth his light meter will gladly extol the virtues of a long, fast lens for portraiture. The reasons are simple--limited angle of view to get rid of...

There's one lens that's part of my 35mm/digital SLR system that I have used longest, continuously now for about 40 years. It is a homemade single-element soft-focus lens inspired by the Rodenstock Imagon lens for large format cameras. There are more images in my library of photographs made with this lens than any other. But why in this modern, high-tech world of...

Best known for selling over a million of the various versions of their 28-200mm zoom, Tamron makes a broad variety of lenses. In zooms, these range from highly affordable models to those intended to satisfy the professional photographer. Most...

If you go way back you remember the first telephoto zoom lenses as heavy, ungainly things that were often more trouble than they were worth. Travel a bit ahead in time and check out the wide-to-tele zooms, and you get the same thing, with...