Lens Reviews

Professional travel photographer Mitchell Kanashkevich gets asked one photography question more than anything else: what is the best lens for travel and documentary photography? The answer’s not so simple as he explains in the below video.

Location, location, location. That's what someone who is just getting started in wildlife photography will tell you is the secret to the trade. Certainly, the wildlife available in the remote Sahara of Africa is far more interesting to those who are used to the rolling hills of Ohio, but there are two other key components to successful wildlife photography: preparedness and luck.

Shutterbug, a member of the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA), once again joined forces with 30 other member magazines from around the world to choose the winners of the annual TIPA Awards for the best photo/imaging products in 40 different categories. The award process began in early 2017 with an initial selection of a wide range of products conducted by TIPA’s Technical Committee, on which Shutterbug’s Editor-at-Large George Schaub serves. 

Another year has come and gone, which means it’s time for Shutterbug to once again pick our favorite cameras and lenses of the past 12 months. With so much great photo gear to choose from in 2017, it was a difficult task. The below list though is a good summation of the cameras and lenses Shutterbug’s editors and writers most enjoyed shooting with last year.

Sigma’s 100-400mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM lens ($799) is part of their Contemporary series that the company says blends “refined optical design” with “compact and lightweight construction.” The lens is available for Canon, Nikon, or Sony DSLRs. Although as a DG lens it is designed for full-frame DSLRs, it can also be used with APS-C sensor cameras, where it produces an equivalent field of view of 150-600mm.

Nikon launched an intriguing new lens this summer though you might have missed it. For whatever reason, the AF-P Nikkor 70-300mm F/4.5-5.6E ED VR, which was announced the second week of July, slipped under most photographers’ radar and that’s a shame. I recently had a chance to test out this surprisingly lightweight and compact wide-ranging zoom lens from Nikon while shooting with it from the field level press area at a Major League Baseball game and came away impressed.

The Lensbaby Twist 60 is a very modern rendition of a 175-year-old optical design, and true to the designer, Joseph Petzval. But does it satisfy our creative expectations when used in the field?