Category Archives: Lens

A quick look at the new Sony 18-105 f/4 G

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I took the new Sony SELP18105G for a test ride.

First impression: The lens is solid, well built and has two rings – one to zoom and one to focus. What makes here stand out from other lenses is a small lever which can also be used to zoom.

It looks like it was thought for videographers: The zoom lever for video, the constant aperture of f/4 through the whole zoom range and finally: The length does not change its length when zooming, which makes it easier to use with matte boxes.

As a photog it was the constant aperture and zoom length which draw me to this lens. From what I have seen until now it could be a good travel lens or even used for portraits.

18mm @ f/4

Actually it is a really big lens. And by big I mean long and wide. Although the filter thread is 72mm the lens feels balanced on the Nex-7. I would say that it is definitely not heavy.

The 18-105 f4, the 50 f1.8 and Mr Washington

The 18-105 f4, the 50 f1.8 and Mr Washington

The lens has a wonderful circular aperture which produces the kind of bokeh I like.

Bokeh 90mm @ f/4

I also like the tele end of the lens at f/4. I am curious how the HDRs will work out.

Misty View 105mm @ f/4

If you want further images you can find them on my flickr stream in the album SELP18105G-sooc.

Contact me, if you want to buy me a coffee 😉 or leave a comment and tell me and the other readers why you would or would not buy this lens.

Review of Sigma 30mm f/2.8 EX DN Sharpness

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So I made some further observations after the first review yesterday. I also got a message telling me that other and more detailed shots are needed to see. So here we go. Below you will find the corner and center crops from shots I took today in the morning. The shots were made handheld and the ISO was limited to 100. First the center shots of a street scene using apertures 2.8, 4 and 8 As you can see, the center gets sharper at f/4 to soften up at f/8. Next you will see the details in the upper right corner. As you can notice there is a slight purple fringing which gets softer when the lens is stepped down. Strangely enough the shot at f/4 is not sharp. I think the branch has moved in the wind, but the wall looks sharper.You can find the full SOOC shots here. As a conclusion I have to say, that for me the lens is very fine wide open. I haven’t considered if I prefer f/8 or f/16 for my night cityscapes. What still is strange to me is that the lens falls in to a resting position when turned off with a hearable soft *tock*. What I have not tested by now is the fact, that the lens seems to take long to “boot” – the Iris is closed and opens wide only to get stepped into positions. I will save this for the next blog entry. If you have questions you can also leave a comment. @Edit20120420: A reader mentioned that he thinks the blurriness at f/4 in the corner could be due to the exhaust of the truck you see. This sounds reasonable as everything is a little bit blurry in that corner.

Quick review of the Sigma 30mm 1:2.8 EX DN for Sony Nex E-Mount

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When I first took it out of the packaging I thought it was broken. But the lens element is not fixed if the lens is not “on”, aperture is closed.

Size is smaller than the 18-55 kit lens, I would say it is as if someone cut the kit lens between zoom and focus ring. Build quality is high and solid plastics. It feels good and I like the smooth focus ring. I tried some shots, could not find any odd things. I doscovered some very soft magenta streaks in very high dynamic regions when pixelpeeping. Concerning the quality I would say that this is a no-brainer for Euro 199,-.

For those of you who like pixelpeeping I have some testshots in f/2.8, f/4 and f/8 at my ge.tt acount, for all the others: A wallpaper in Full-HD.

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