Lens Reviews

What's the ultimate lens for street photography? What's the worst lens? Could the 24-70mm F/2.8 be both good and bad for shooting street? All these questions (and more) are answered in the below video from photographer Pierre T. Lambert.

What is the best prime lens for photography? According to photographer and YouTube star Peter McKinnon, it's the Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L USM and in the below video he tells you why.

Laowa’s newly introduced 100mm macro lens offers 2:1 reproduction ratio and a fast f/2.8 aperture. The specifications for this manual focus lens are impressive—but does it deliver, and does it deserve its $449 price tag? We put a sample (in Nikon mount) through the paces and made a couple interesting discoveries.

Tamron just introduced the 11-20mm f/2.8 Di III-A RXD fast-aperture, ultra-wideangle zoom lens for the Fujifilm X-Mount, and Shutterbug was able to take it for an extended spin. Although it covers more than 105° at the 11mm focal length, it features close-focusing down to 5.9 inches, prompting us to propose that it enables a wholly new type of photographic composition: Ultra-Wide Closeup.

Beauty is as beauty does. A Leica M with a 50mm APO Summicron attached is the iconic archetype of modern digital cameras with retro design. Using it is a prodigious experience comparable to, let’s say, playing a concert Steinway grand piano, or maybe setting the hands on a Patek Philippe timepiece. I’m only guessing here, ‘cause I’ve done neither. But I did use a Leica M and 50mm APO Summicron for a week. Did they perform? Read on…

In my heart I know that few readers can afford these kinds of expensive lenses, but there are always those who can and for the rest of us, it’s something to dream about.

If you own and use an M-series Leica, a Zeiss Ikon, or a bayonet-mount Voigtländer Bessa, Leica’s 16-18-21mm Tri-Elmar is so staggeringly desirable that it is almost easier to list the reasons for not buying one than to list its advantages—though these are easy enough to list, too. It is compact, sweet handling, sharp, contrasty, rangefinder-coupled, unbelievably convenient, and...