Lens Reviews

The Canon RF 50mm F/1.2L USM lens retails for about $2200 while the RF 50mm F/1.8 STM lens sells for just $200. So, what's the difference between these two 50mm lenses aside from about $2K? A lot, according to Jay P Morgan of the Slanted Lens who pits the two optics against each other in a head-to-head shootout in the video below.

Welcome back! Last week we covered lenses that are well suited for five of the most popular camera activities, including kids’ sports, travel and online auctions. If you missed that piece, you’ll find it here. This week—as promised—five more lenses for five more activities. These are sometimes thought of as being in the realm of more advanced hobbyists, but that ain’t necessarily so. Read on…

What do you get when you compare three classic prime lenses: the Canon 85mm F/1.2, 85mm F/1.4, and F/1.8? Photographer David Flores found out when he recently put the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, Canon EF 85mm f/1.4L IS USM, and Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM lenses through their paces in a portrait shootout on New York City’s Coney Island.

When shopping for a wide-angle lens, presented for your approval, is a collection of our favorite (mostly) zoom lenses to expand your view of the world.

I really like extreme lenses. Extremely wide, extremely fast, and extremely long lenses will all allow you to create unique images that stand out from the crowd. When I heard about the Sigma 8-16mm lens I wanted to get my hands on one and start shooting, so I asked my editor if I could borrow one from Sigma for testing. He wanted to know what I was going to do with it, so naturally I told him: take portraits. You might, as he did, find this a little odd—taking portraits with a wide-angle lens, and a very wide lens at that. After all, don’t photographers usually use long lenses for portraits?

Why are photographers taught to use long lenses for portraits? There are four basic tenets behind this reasoning: narrow angle of view, shallow depth of field, flattering perspective, and a comfortable working distance between you and your subject. However, flip these “rules” on their head and you’ll see why I like working with wides: wide angle of view, great potential depth of field, unique perspective, and, oddly enough, working right in your subject’s face. In short, I use the special nature of a wide lens to give my portraits a new and unique look.

As we said in the review of the new Zeiss Ikon (ZI) 35mm rangefinder (April 2006 issue of Shutterbug or online at www.shutterbug.com), we received six of the seven Zeiss ZM-mount lenses announced at photokina 2004: 15mm f/2.8, 21mm f/2.8, 25mm f/2.8, 28mm f/2.8, 35mm f/2, and 50mm f/2. The 85mm f/2 (listing at $2759, plus $127 for the lens shade) still wasn't available as we...