20 Best Lenses For Street Photography (2023 Updated)

Wanted to love this lens but my tests showed the following compared to Sony 35mm f/1. 8. I set both lenses in the same F stop: 2. 8. Same white balance. Put the resulting video in Catalyst Browse and that is what catalyst reported: 35mm at f/2.

8 Shutter speed ended up as 1/1000. 24mm at f/2. 8 shutter speed ended up 1/500. Plus 24mm had way more vignetting in video, jpegs, and RAW compared to 35mm. And 35mm lens is not even a G lens. That 24 mm lens does not deserve G mark at all.

It is losing the whole stop of light compared to 35mm lens at the same F stop 2. 8, so Sony lied. I was taking videos and pictures of a completely white wall. Plus coloring was way off for 24mm. The resulting image was blue-ish while 24 mm resulting image was true white.

There is no good 24mm compact lens for Sony at all. Viltrox? Nope. Samyang? Nope. I have not tried Sigma one. Should I?.

What a little gem. I’ve got two top class G Master lenses which are great but hefty. That makes the whole package a bit much for lugging around in the mountains. This little lens, and it is ‘wee’, both in physical dimensions and weight, works so well for me.

An A4R has become my always with me, barely know I’m carrying it choice of weapon. Optically and mechanically the lens is wonderful. I’m sure it might be possible to nit pic through critical evaluation and comparison but I’m very impressed and I’d normally be a bit of a pixel peeper.

I angsted about the focal length but 24mm is proving to be wide enough for me without and problems of framing / distortion.

Love renting from Lensrentals. I live in an area where there are no rental shops available within less than a 2-hour drive, so I started using Lensrentals. Receiving and shipping orders is made incredibly easy with the provided label and tape.

The gear always arrives on time. The equipment is always in great condition. There’s a wide selection of gear available to rent and it’s always fairly priced. You can’t beat it! Thanks Lensrentals!.

This lens delivers exactly what we should expect from this third generation Canon wide-angle zoom: high quality and strong performance all the way to the corners. My main use is for family and, as to be expected, the lens will have a rather strong fisheye effect at the widest zoom and barrell at the narrowest.

The lines are very straight at about 24mm. All deformations are very continuous and easy to correct/photoshop after shooting. Great all-around piece of equipment.

Just some background information, I am a landscape photographer and I have been using this lens since it came out with the 5DSR. The major strength of this lens is that it is incredibly sharp corner to corner.

I’ve also heard and read that this lens is a significant improvement over its predecessor. My personal problem with this lens (which DEFINITELY doesn’t apply to everyone) is its heavy vignetting wide open.

During the day of course it’s easily fixed by stopping down or in post. However, the problem becomes much more obvious at night. I enjoy shooting a lot of astrophotography and was excited to find out that this lens renders stars very well-sharp, no evidence of coma.

But due to the combination of the vignetting and the camera’s limited dynamic range at high ISOs, any attempt at correcting the vignette in post would render unusable corners. In my case with the 5DSR, the corners become very very purple.

After some testing and research, I found that the corners of the lens produce near 4 stops of vignetting! Another thing to take note of, I use this with a LEE filter system and the vignetting does get worse.

So in conclusion, it’s not a jack-of all trades landscape lens. If you shoot mainly during the day at low ISOs, then by all means, you will be incredibly satisfied with this lens. However, if you are like me and likes to venture out at night, then I would suggest looking somewhere else.

Perhaps the new Tamron 15-30mm, which I don’t own but has read raving reviews about.

I usually rent the Nikkor 200-400 f/4 for Chicago’s Air & Water show, but this year I wanted more reach with a little less cost because I wasn’t sure how much time I’d be bale to dedicate to shooting over the weekend of my rental.

For an air show, the zoom range was great. If/when the planes got too close I could zoom out from 600mm to frame them nicely. The sharpness was decent. When you’re tracking jets flying 300-600+mph a tiny bit of motion blur – even with an extremely fast shutter – can masquerade as softness.

The softness in a few photos did give me a good excuse to try Topaz Labs’ AI sharpening software a try and I was blown away by it. Long story short, the lens is plenty sharp for Topaz Labs to make the resulting photos pin point tack sharp.

But back to the lens. For an air show the auto-focus is a bit slow. And I didn’t like that it doesn’t have a focus memory button. On the Nikkor I previously used, I could set a focus memory button – I’d set it to infinity – so I could easily find the airplanes farther out to continually track them as they got closer to show center before engaging the AF.

With this lens, I found the the AF would hunt for focus – and if I momentarily looked away to focus on something distant it would take me a few seconds to find/lock back onto the plane which caused me to miss some shots – thankfully none of the critical ones! Overall I liked the zoom range and was pleased with the sharpness, but the AF speed and lack of a focus memory button was a con of this lens used in this application.

This is a great lens that is made all the more wonderful by its somewhat more obtainable price compared to the camera manufacturer lenses (yes, I know Sigma also makes cameras). I adapted the rental to my Fuji X-T4 to see if there is such thing as an adapter that would make one of these beauties work for moving wildlife (answer = nope).

For still images though the results were great. I had a huge test matrix to go through to figure out if I would keep one of the adapters and then buy the lens and while it was ultimately a fail – it did leave me stunned by the image quality.

I had an old Nikon 500 f/4 and I would be hard pressed to tell the difference. This actually produced better images on my X-T4 than the old Nikon did on a D500 (which is probably the fairest comparison as both are using the best parts of the lens and ignoring the edges).

The one thing I can’t say is how this will actually perform on a Canon – but it is worth the rental to see if you like it. Worst case scenario – you will walk away with some keeper images. Side note – I love Lensrentals.

These are customer focused people who are friendly, considerate, and willing to jump in and help when needed. If you are just getting into renting you will be thrilled.

After using the Sigma 18-35mm on the Sigma SD Quattro for a year I can say that it is outstanding. In hand it feels like a quality product, robust, weighty with smooth focusing, beautifully machined and well balanced.

At 35mm wide open at f/1. 8, it performs extreme well with sharpness into the far corners of the frame. By f/2. 8 aperture image quality is impeccable. Excellent rendition and sharpness. Shooting at 18mm wide open at f/1.

8 it is very sharp in the center with just a hint of softness in the extreme corners. By f/2 it is extremely sharp across the entire frame and corners. This is an amazing lens with superb color rendition and excellent micro-contrast.

My only peeve is the position of the “AF to M” switch on the side, which is a bit stiff in changing from one position to the other. A great investment that should hold up well with an SA to L mount adapter.

I don’t hesitate to recommend this lens.

I used the lens in a BMPpro 6k. It is a weighty lens for its low zoom range. The use of the lens in a Gimbal makes it too heavy with all the set (DJI RS 2 Gimbal). You can move through the gimbal the focus, but if you buy the follow focus(DJI Ronin 3D Focus System) you won’t be able to use it, it does not work.

The main disadvantage of this lens is you can not use it with follow focus devices. The focus ring does not have a final stop. When the focus reaches the limits, the ring can move and move. This makes it impossible to use it with devices like (Tilta Tiltaing FF-T06 Mini Follow Focus) and be accurate.

The use of the rings for focus and zoom are heavy, so you must put more pressure to move them, causing camera movements. If you plan to use autoexposure on the f stops, it becomes a noisy lens; you can hear the ring moving in the recordings.

The quality image is ok, but I dont find it superior to any other standard lens.

For the quality of image this lens can produce, alongside its construction, I have no idea how this lens is so affordable. I just started using it with my GH5 and Metabones XL combination, and it works wonders! Never thought I’d see an image with so much depth of field and clarity on the GH5! I know people are hesitant about using the XL with this lens, given that it is an APS-C lens, and so there is bound to be some vignetting.

However, even when I was running handheld, the vignetting disappears past the 20-22mm mark! I think that’s an incredibly worthwhile trade-off, since I can now also make the maximum usage out of other full-frame lenses! All around, great lens, worth every cent; if you don’t already have it, I’d say get it!.

I’ve wanted to try this lens for some time. When B & H offered me the chance and I chose to take it, I had no idea I would receive the super lens that arrived. (I’ve owned many long telephoto zoom lens and many super telephoto prime lens.

Zooms have included the Canon EF 100-400mm L, EF 100-400mm L II, EF 70-300mm L, Tamron 150-600mm II, Sigma 120-300mm f/2. 8 Sports, and numerous 70-200mm models by Canon and Tamron. I have owned eight Canon super telephotos (one diffractive optics and seven L series.

) I also own Canon’s RF 600mm and 800mm diffractive optics lens. I own and have owned numerous 1. 4 and 2x teleconverters made by Canon, Sigma, and Tamron. Thus, I’ve had broad experience with which to compare my Sigma 150-600 mm Sports lens for Canon EF.

While I expected the Sigma 150-600 mm EF to be sturdy and sharp, I could not have imagined the quality of images it would produce, coupled with my Canon R5 and its EF lens adapter. Images from the Sigma compare favorably with ones produced by my Canon 600 mm f/4 L II, both without tele-conversion and with a 1.

4 teleconverter. (The R5’s ability to autofocus well above f/8 and its relatively low noise levels at high ISOs enable me to combine reasonably fast shutter speeds with the lens stopped down at least a stop for shooting birds and creatures.

Reviewing my captures on the R5’s super high definition LCD view finder, I can zoom them in as far as it will allow and still see incredibly detailed super-sharp images. (While the combination allows for stopping down, the lens produces incredible images even wide open.

) No other zoom I have owned is capable of capturing such fine detail at 840mm on a full frame sensor of 45 megapixels. The only arguable negative about this Sigma is its weight, but its extreme durability, reliability, and weather resistance easily offset that factor.

Zoomed in with the hood reversed it takes up much less space than a 600mm f/4; yet it can take the place of several telephoto primes while producing images comparable to such an assortment. For years I have felt that one must accept the bulk and weight of such primes to obtain the quality of images they produce.

All of a sudden I am forced to revisit and consider revising that opinion. I really hit the jackpot when I received my Deal Zone special!.

IMO zoom lenses will never compete with a prime lens but let’s face it who has upwards of £10. 000 to drop on a 600mm prime?? So it basically came down to 3 choices for me as I shoot Nikon exclusively.

1. Sigma sport, 2. TamronG2 or 3Nikons 200-500. (Each of my choices were made from the respective companies higher end products as weather sealing and a more robust build quality is a must for me) As a Nikon shooter you might think the Nikon 200-500 would be my go-to and you’d be right, it was but I felt it just didn’t perform the way I would have expected in terms of image quality so I sold it on and bought a 300mmpf prime.

This did for a while but I soon found I was missing reach so the search was on. I spent a lot of time deciding between the Sigma sports and the equivalent TamronG2 lens but went with the sigma based on various reviews which say the sigma is sharper at the long end and as I’m mainly shooting at the long end that’s what tipped it for me.

I’ve shot with this lens using both a Nikon D850 & Nikon D5 and I have no regrets at all. It has its own set of issues as do all the others, this one mainly being the weight but if weight is not really an issue then it’s a clear winner.

Again this was just my own experience and my own opinion.

This lens produces amazingly sharp images once it has been properly calibrated to your camera body, using the Sigma dock and customization software which does not come with the lens. This process is very time consuming and requires a methodical approach to set the lens up for 16 different focal length/distance combinations, but the end result is worth it.

In addition to reading the calibration instructions that come with the dock and software, I suggest reading several on-line write ups that will give you good perspectives on how to set up your calibration protocol.

Lens features that I really like: the zoom lock switch that prevents lens focal length creep when carrying the lens, two detent positions that let you feel when your camera has been rotated into either the portrait or landscape orientation, the ability to zoom by either rotating or sliding the lens barrel – which ever works best for you, a very solid build quality for all parts of the lens including the aluminum lens hood, a very nice and substantial carrying case.

The only negative I have come up with so far is the weight of the lens – about 7 pounds, which necessitates a tripod or monopod for truly sharp images at longer focal lengths and reasonable ISO settings.

If you use an Arca Swiss tripod head, you will need to buy an adapter for the lens foot that comes with the lens. I should mention that this is my second Sigma 150-600mm Sport Lens. The first one I bought second hand and was not able to calibrate it correctly.

I returned the first lens and bought this one new from B&H and I am very happy with it.

I got this lens in two days (thanks BH Photo!) about a month after I preordered. I also bought Hoya NXT UV filter for it. Some of initial impressions I found online did scare me but after trying it out I am very happy with this lens.

This lens, like some other RF lenses (and many new lenses from other brands) must be optimized digitally to bring out the best image quality possible. It seems to be the norm now. even RF 15-35mm 2. 8 and 14-35mm F4 L lenses will need to be digitally optimized to be distortion free.

So yes, the raw images from this 16mm lens are mildly distorted. and I believe the raw image is more like 15mm lens. and after correction it becomes a 16mm lens. I compared with Tamron 17-28mm 2. 8 Sony lens and the final image from this lens is definitely wider than tamron at 17mm.

Adobe currently do not have this lens profile. I did read some people using RF 24-240mm lens profile with some success. So to get the best output you will need to use canon digital photo professional 4.

0 (with most recent update) or just make sure you also save jpg in camera. Having saying all that, I’m very pleased with the images. very sharp. and low to little chromatic aberration. (unfortunately there are heavy chromatic aberration in raw format).

With R6 this lens and body combo is light. The video is good too with just IBIS but if you shake it too much your video will wobble more than shake. but normal waking and up and down stair you would see a very clean and stabilized image in the video.

Vlogging will be great because you don’t need to extend your arms that far out and the weight is inviting. This lens may have some compromise but in return you get such a small package and a great low price.

I definitely highly recommend it to anyone. It’s a great option over 14-35mm or 15-35mm if all you really want is a clean sharp image at wide end and will use it for travel. But then it’ll be good for everything else too (it’s also a macro lens!).

The promise of mirrorless, among other things, was reduced sized camera bodies. But, that promise is compromised by the fact that more electronics equals more weight. And while my R5 is a much smaller body than my 5D, there’s only about 6 oz less weight.

Take away the mirror assembly, shrink the body, but the added wizardry doesn’t shrink the weight by all that much. The RF lenses are a correlating example of the same thing: I believe each of the RF lenses is better–better glass, better technologies–than their EF counterparts.

I own many of the similar lenses, RF and EF, to be able to make that comparison. And my goal to reduce carried size and weight is difficult when the offering is the RF 15-35 2. 8, and it weighs a ton.

Sure, the 14-35 4. 0 came out and did a superb job of reduced both size/weight, but it’s still not small. This 16mm 2. 8 is small. Elfin. I’ve only had it a few weeks, and walked through a house the other day taking snapshots–not setting things up, not leveling the camera or using a flash to make direct comparisons with either the 14-35 or my EF 11-24 w/the adapter–and I have to say this: inside, there’s a lot of distortion I could not correct in LR.

Outside, where the view is wide and the lens doesn’t have to strain within its own confines like it does indoors, I am impressed. I carried an EF 20mm on the RF adapter through Grand Canyon earlier this year, the one lens I carried for five days inside the Canyon, and I was looking to buy one for myself, it was that good.

This lens was announced and I waited, and I’m glad I did: no adapter, RF qualities I’m finding in all these lenses, tiny size and minuscule weight, and the vista shots are looking very nice. Not sure I trust it like I did the 20mm, but maybe by the next trip into the backcountry I’ll have used it enough to know: it’s the only one I need.

I had high expectations for this lens, and I was still surprised with this lens. My wife and I have used the Tamron 150-600 G2 on 7D Mark II cameras for years, two copies of each. We have learned to live with the “spray and pray” approach at 10 fps and select the sharpest photos and hope you still caught the action.

We have since switched to the R5 body for various reasons, but mostly for the new focusing system. Using one R5 body, I tested hand held shots with both lenses using VC 1, targeting a small sticker on my neighbor’s camper, 75 ft away in good light.

I cranked off about a second duration at 12 fps for each lens at 1/2000 s shutter speed. I examined each frame at the pixel scale. The Tamron at 600 mm f/6. 3 provided expected results, with various levels of sharpness, most acceptable, and I assumed it was diffraction limited on the best shots.

I was wrong. The Canon at 500 mm f/7. 1 had no variation on focus and each was tack sharp, that is crisp delineation between the black lettering and the white back ground, and that was still with a smaller scale due to the 500 mm vs.

the 600 mm on the same sensor. In looking closer, it looks like the main difference is that the CA in the Canon lens was slightly, but noticeably, better than the Tamron. Secondly, I did not change the shutter speed, and both appeared nearly identical in brightness, meaning I did not lose much if anything going to the f/7.

1 from the f/6. 3. When I showed my wife she was so happy. Better performance, smaller lens, and less weight; I doubt her 150-600 will ever get used again. When framing and focusing, the VC in both performed well, but the Canon VC seemed slightly better.

That said, it could also be just the difference in weight and weight distribution. For years we have taken many satisfying photos with the Tamron, and if price is a limiter, then you will be fine with the Tamron.

If you can swing the higher price tag, the Canon lens will take you to the next level with less work in frame selection (higher keeper rate) and post processing. If size and weight are a factor then the Canon wins hands down.

Lastly, B & H was great to work with, as they have been in the past. With the lens being back ordered (Nov 2021) I was hesitant to place the order. The staff person told me that had two large quantity orders from Canon, so I went with it.

I was placed in line with about 960 customers in front of us and was still nervous about how long it would take, but we received the lens in less than four weeks. They were great in satisfying the order we placed.

These guys can handle tremendous volumes!.

Rented this lens for a trip to photograph the bird migration of Sandhill Cranes, Canadian and Snow geese along with a variety of ducks and raptures at Bosque Del Apache in New Mexico. Honestly with the widest aperture being f/4.

5 I was concerned about shooting in low light conditions during very early morning hours when the birds lift off in mass. For those conditions it really didn’t do the job I wanted even with the EOS R5 body and high ISO noise reduction set.

However for all other shooting it’s an awesome lens, very versatile, fairly light weight for the focal length it offers. In slightly brighter conditioned it’s fast enough to freeze movement and get tack sharp detail.

I typically shoot from a tripod but was able to capture amazingly sharp detail and clarity even with handheld shooting. Stills and video photos are amazing with the lens. Bottomline, I would certainly purchase this lens because of quality, focal length reach, tack sharp clarity and price.

At 1/4 the price of a RF 600mm prime it offers a great option as a everyday lens for wildlife.

I’ve done three shoots with the lens since receiving it this past week. One music video, one interview and one portrait shoot. I used it on an X-T4. Right out of the box, it has a very nice feel to it.

The difference in grip materials on the zoom ring and focus ring is a nice touch that makes it very clear what you’re about to turn when you’re looking through the viewfinder. The aperture ring has a rather soft click to it, which is not my preference.

My Fujifilm 35mm 1. 4 and X100F have a more substantial feel that confirm your movements with a tactile response that this lens just doesn’t match. The lens hood is fine, but the mounting system doesn’t inspire me with confidence that I’m not miss threading it during installation.

Like most of my lenses, this doesn’t mount to the body easily unless my aperture ring was set to A (auto) prior to mounting. For the uninitiated, as you rotate the lens into place on the body, you’ll often end up only rotating the Aperture ring until it stops and then the rest of the lens will rotate before locking in place.

I wish there were more distance between the flange and the aperture ring, but I wish that about all of my Fuji lenses. Optically, I’m enjoying this lens a lot. I’m really happy with how sharp it is wide open, and it looks optically perfect at f/4 and 40mm in my portraits.

This is my first zoom lens on Fuji’s system, and I’ve noticed some things that could be improved on the camera’s optical correction. Mostly, it’s just slow. You can really see the corrections taking effect if you make a quick adjustment from 23mm to 55mm for example.

It’s honestly close to nauseating if you’re looking through the viewfinder. I’m used to DSLR cameras and looking through mirrors where this effect doesn’t exist. Just another trade off of moving to a mirrorless system I suppose.

What I would like to see changed in future iterations is an internal zoom function like Canon’s 24-70mm. Earlier today I was framing up a shot at 55mm with a jewelry stand in the foreground to create some sparkling bokeh, but I kept bumping into it because the lens is so long at that focal length.

It would also improve the look of the lens and make it useable in a matte box with filters. To wrap it up, it’s a solid lens optically, but not my favorite functionally. And to me that’s a disappointment since it is designed to be a function forward lens.

Will it stay in my camera bag? Absolutely, at least until there’s a new an improved version. For now, I’m making do.

IšverstiShow in original languageI purchased mine brand new in the box specifically for shooting professional portraits with my Canon EF 5D full frame camera. PROs: 1. Affordable – can’t beat the price for what it does.

2. Flexible – great for family photos, portraits, wildlife/nature. 3. Accurate – the focal length, clarity and sharpness makes this lens best for portraits IMHO. 4. Nice, smooth manual focus ring! 5.

Quiet auto focus/manual focus motor! 6. Canon quality at its best. CONs: None so far!.

IšverstiShow in original languageI use this lens on a 6D, and it’s my new favorite lens. My first impression was great, it feels solid and has a huge piece of glass up front, but it’s also compact. I was instantly at home with it; the working distance is ideal for me when I’m shooting people, and I couldn’t be happier with the image quality I get with it.

I was very happy with how fast it autofocuses. It’s easily sharp enough for my uses wide open and you can really throw the background out of focus with a little planning, and by F4 or so, the subject is quite sharp.

The depth of field can be pretty narrow, so I have to be careful to make sure entire faces are in focus when I’m at F1. 8. I have seen some of the purple fringing people sometimes mention in reviews, but there are a lot of ways to avoid it by just being smart about how and where I shoot, and it’s mostly not hard to fix in Lightroom.

For me, it only becomes noticeable under fairly extreme circumstances, like maybe a backlit subject under high desert afternoon sun plus a wide open aperture. (Which I wouldn’t even be doing if I wasn’t testing a new lens.

) The accessory kit that was included was better than I expected. The filters are handy even if you just put on the UV one to protect the glass, the cleaning kit is really decent quality and small enough to just keep in the bag, and it’s great to have a third party hood since this lens doesn’t come with one from the factory.

I didn’t expect much from the accessories and was pleasantly surprised with all of them. All in all, an outstanding value.

This lens has very high image quality, at a relatively low size/weight/cost. My only regret, is that I did not purchase this lens a year ago!! The image quality and versatility exceeded my already high expectations.

While reviewing my first batch of photos taken with this lens, I realized I had a big grin on my face. I heard myself say out loud oh yeah. I’ve owned a few lenses I did not like, I own some lenses I like, and I own just a few lenses I love.

This is one I love. Indoor photos of buildings, indoor photos of large groups of people with mediocre lighting, outdoor photos of building and landscape – They all exceeded my expectations for image quality.

F2. 8 was very good, F4 to F8 was great. I have not tried F8 yet. Did I absolutely NEED this lens – it is debatable and a matter of perspective (no pun intended). Did I want this lens the day it started collecting good reviews – Absolutely.

Am I happy with this lens now that I have tried it – YES! No regrets. Alternatives I considered: ===================== 1) 14mm or 16mm prime (full frame) lens. I decided 14mm was too wide for most of my needs, and 17mm (this lens) was good enough.

On very rare occasions where I want wider than 17mm, I can pan the camera and take 2 photos then stitch them together with editing software. I wanted the flexibility of an ultra-wide zoom that gave me the option of getting to 35mm equivalent field of view by cropping when I edit the photo files.

2) Other non-Sony ultra wide zoom lenses. This lens is better bang for the buck, better image quality, and smaller/lighter/lower cost. 3) Sony native G or GM ultra wide angle zoom. F2. 8 options are much larger/heavier and more expensive than this lens, with only marginal improvement in image quality for most use cases.

This is the 3rd lens in my kit, and I use my 24-70 and 70-200 lenses more often, so I was not looking for another large/heavy/$1000 lens. My use case: ========== I sometimes take indoor photos of a large group of people and can’t get enough distance to fit everyone in with a 24mm full frame field of view, and need brighter than F4 to avoid excessive ISO noise).

I sometimes take photos inside of buildings and can’t fit everything in the shot with a 24mm full frame field of view. I sometime want an ultra wide angle shot to capture the setting of an event, to compliment the rest of my photos which range from 24mm to 200mm.

In the past, I would take multiple sets of 3 or 4 photos while panning my camera and hoping that at least one set could be successfully stitched together in editing software. This is a real challenge when there are people moving around or the lighting is uneven.

I work as a wedding filmmaker and music video director. I had already been using sony 16-35 lens at work. I wanted to buy same lens personally but its pricy , then i came across this lens and took the tough decision and bought tamron 17-28.

I LOVED IT. you wont even notice the difference between two other than 1200 $ price diff. barrel of this lens in much less than sony 16-35 , 67 of tamron , it much compact and light weight. As some people said the mount on lens to tight when we twist on to camera , its tight but still okay on sony FX3 , but on sony a7r4 its verrry tight ,makes u feels like u may break the mount.

Other than that its GOOD LENS.

I bought this when it was on sale. I do not use this lens often. It can have a bit of distortion which is corrected in post. I suppose it is the nature of such a wide angle lens. The pictures are very sharp.

It is nice and light and easy to carry around, which was drew me to the lens. It has no stabilization which is not a problem since my Sony has it built into the camera. It lacks the bells and whistles of its more expensive competitors but also cost a lot less and is more convenient to carry around.

It is well built but not weather proofed.

I made a really dumb mistake when buying this fantastic lens. I thought this was a super premium 20-50mm 2. 8 not 200-500mm 2. 8. I’m a wealthy amateur pro wanna-be so the price wasn’t a problem at all.

More expensive is better in most cases. My butler was going to ship it back for a refund but instead I told him he’d lugging the lens around for me. My first thought was how a 200-500 would be ideal for certain street photos or portraits on the beach.

The portraits would be much better if the 2. 8 aperture was 2. 0 or even 1. 8. My 350 pound 7’2 butler can handle the extra weight. He was a pro wrestler before I hired him along with his husky muscular 230 pound 6’8″ wife.

Everyone says she’s not just tall but thick. In a pinch she could haul the lens if hubby is under the weather. I’m thinking about bidding on a Canon 1200mm 5. 6L IS at the next collectors auction that way I could use both husband & wife for lugging.

They do bicker a lot so those lenses would be lethal weapons if used the right way. Bottom line: you should buy this lens it has several worthy uses and they’re all fantastic.

Compared to my 1200mm Canon f/8 this is nearly compact. pocket sized even. It’s a joy as the ultimate walk around lens that everyone desires. I especially like using it for intimate events like births where discretion is key.

And it zooms in real close! It’s a bit heavy though, kinda pulls my pants down. :(.

extremely expensive but worth every penny. outstanding quality throughout the focus range, the sky is the limit. heavy to carry, you need to be able to lift 20 kg to handle it around.

I absolutely love this lens. Super lightweight, compact and a joy to use. The sharpness is excellent edge to edge and focusing silent. I shoot weddings, and was missing this focal length as I have the 24mm 1.

4 GM and 55mm 1. 8 in this focal length area. I found the 24mm a little wide for family formals and the 55mm too to tight. This lens is perfect for the job and many other types of subjects. I’m also getting into video and having done a few test shoots it’s fast becoming the lens I’ll keep on my A7R4 for the job.

Fast AF, silent and so lightweight. Love it!.

This lens is absolutely fantastic. The colours, contrast, and overall image quality is absolutely superb, even whilst at f1. 8. I originally sold this lens to get a 35mm compact camera, and almost immediately regretted it.

I bought this lens again, and have loved it ever since. Clients love the images it produces, I love the size and functionality of the lens, and what’s best? It’s a fraction of the price of the 35mm g-master.

If you are umming and arring over which one to get, definitely choose this one.

Light, small, impressively sharp wide-angle prime lens that delivers contrasty, crisp detail across the frame even wide open, with a super smooth bokeh. Good close focus performance, extremely fast to focus, negligible distortion Linear focus response / no breathing.

this is what preview tell about this lens : “Compared to the premium-priced ZEISS Distagon F1. 4, the Sony FE 35mm F1. 8 is much sharper at all apertures, and generally delivers prettier, simpler and more uniform bokeh.

The fact that the FE 35mm F1. 8 is almost as sharp wide open as our reference fast 35mm – the Canon EF 35mm F1. 4L II USM – is impressive. “.

I own the EF 75-300 lens and wanted to see what all the hooplah was about this RF 70-200. After I opened the box I immediately knew this would blow the EF out of the water. It sacrificed some range on the long end but the sharp pics and the autofocus is out of this world.

Not to mention the build quality and the sleek look of the gray/off white color. It just feels like a high end lens. You can use it for essentially anything and everything. I was reluctant to go with the f/4 over the f/2.

8 version but the ISO in the R6 has come so far that I don’t mind creeping into the 6400 range if need be to lighten up the exposure. I haven’t used the 2. 8 so I can’t knock it but for the difference in price and me being a casual shooter, I have zero regrets.

I also have an additional chunk of change from going the f/4 route that I can now put towards another RF lens so I am incredibly happy with this lens.

I have used this lens for two different studio sessions and have shot roughly 500 images with it up to this point. The other reviews are pretty much spot on with this lens. It is heavy, and after about 4 hours, you will know it’s there.

However, when mounted to an R5 with a battery grip, the overall weight doesn’t get in the way of doing things, it just tires you out a little bit. Optically, the lens behaves much like my previous EF 35mm f/1.

4L and EF 50mm f/1. 4L which I would use for location shoots. Using the RF 28-70mm gives me both of those focal lengths at nearly the same wide open aperture. Since I routinely shot at f/2 or tighter (for focus needs on a 5DS R), this lens will be great outdoors.

The beauty is in the studio where I have limited room and need the zoom. I’ve been using an EF 24-70mm f/2. 8L II with great results, but now I can get much softer focus in the studio with a zoom lens.

The weight might make me tired, but the benefit of being able to do a session without the need for changing lenses will make up for the extra fatigue. Maintaining the tempo and energy of the session will actually reduce the amount of time that you have to carry this lens.

My only gripe about this lens is the 95mm filter threads. I have a kit based around what used to be the largest 82mm filters with a Lee 100 filter mount. This lens will be a bit problematic to use in the landscape setting because I have yet to find an adaptor that will work for the Lee 100 system that doesn’t cause vignetting.

Of course, my few round filters don’t fit this lens at all. I do understand that to make this an f/2 lens, there was no way around this fact, so I’m not deducting any points for that feature, it is just a consideration which I knew going into the purchase.

First, this lens hasn’t come off my camera since the day I received it. This completes my full transition from the Nikon D850 system. I now have the Canon EOS R5 + RF 15-35mm f2. 8, RF 28-70mm f2, RF 70-200mm f2.

8, and RF 100mm f2. 8 macro. Secondly, I purchased the RF 28-70 f2 with the intent on covering the medium focal length range plus replace my Nikon 35mm, 50mm and 85mm primes. I’ve only had this lens for two weeks and so far I am very impressed.

Not sure if it will completely replace a f1. 2 prime like the 85mm for my work, only time will tell. The bokeh rendition is wonderful and the lens is extremely sharp. Having a zoom lens at f2 is so convenient.

Thirdly, the size and weight isn’t a big deal to me. Compared to a Nikon D850, gripped just to bring the burst speed to 9 fps + 24-70mm f2. 8, the weight of the Canon R5, un-gripped since it already has a high burst rate + RF 28-70 f2 is still slightly LESS than the Nikon, AND the overall size is smaller than the Nikon as well, so it’s a win win from my standpoint.

Attaching the Canon battery grip does bring up the weight, but I only do that when working in a studio, so no big deal as I regularly set the camera down as I adjust lighting, backdrop, model, etc. Forth, regarding filters, I use PolarPro’s square filter system on all my Canon lenses.

PolarPro’s Summit system already comes with two thread plate sizes (77mm and 82mm), so all I had to purchase was the 95mm plate. At $35 that was a no brainer. No need to purchase new filters!.

It may not be the best but very good value for the money I paid. It is very sharp after AF fine tune (+13 on D7200 for my copy). If somebody is looking for very sharp results and body doesn’t support AF fine tune, they may have to live with whatever they got.

Sharpness is poor in the corners wide open and it is noticeable as well. Tone, clarity etc – Overall the pictures looked very vibrant and pleasing. Editing raw files to my taste can change anything to what I want but I was able to get decent jpegs in the ‘standard’ picture control mode in D7200.

Audible noise, build quality – AF motor is noisy especially if travels through the full range. Generally that is not the case and shutter release is much more louder anyway. Build is decent (mostly plastic and rubber) and feels much heavier compared to kit.

Focus – I had front/back focus issues at f2. 8 because of the poorly built AF drive system of the lens. D7200 is very fast to focus on distinct patterns and it is often too fast for this lens mechanism to handle.

Final focus settles one or two centimeters before or behind the actual point. It happens randomly and I had to half press the shutter button once again (or twice) for a final adjustment from the position it previously stopped.

And this method worked quite well. Continuous AF mode also helped as I half press and hold it, camera readjusts the focus (you can hear the tick-tick sound it is correcting the position). Also I have no problems with focus in live view, it worked very well.

My copy is made in Vietnam.

Tamron 17-50mm: I bought this lens and after using it for almost a year, I can say the images aren’t that sharp, the focus is lost in many important pictures. It is really hard to get a completely focused picture.

I believe that, for the money, this is a solid alternative to the Nikon AF-S 17-55mm 2. 8. I purchased this because I did need a lens with constant 2. 8 aperture for some portrait work and indoor photography and could not reach for the Nikkor model.

I am not a pro, but have sold some photos along the way. My main complaint is that there are times when it does hunt a bit long before coming in to focus, primarily when it is darker than usual. I can, however, live with that as I have not missed any shots due to that.

That said, I have found that the quality of focus is generally very good throughout the range of the lens. The zoom is smooth throughout, no stickiness or tightness to it at all. For the most part, the images are quite sharp and the colors rendered are saturated nicely.

I have not noticed any vignetting nor chromatic aberration (CA), though, admittedly, I have only been using the lens for slightly over a month. The Bokeh (background blur) is generally very good, though on a small number of images I noticed it is not quite what I had hoped.

For those who are used to Nikons Silent Wave Motor the Tamron Built-In Motor might take some getting used to. It is not loud, at least on my copy, but it is a different sound. I have not experienced any issues with Tammy’s VC (Vibration Compensation), as everything has come out crisp and clear on both my Nikon D80 and D5100.

The build quality seems very good. It is definitely heavier than the kit lens but not a deal breaker by any means. If you have a kit 18-55 lens and need to have a bigger, constant aperture and cannot reach to the Nikon 17-55 right now, then this lens is a good quality alternative.

It is not perfect by any means, but is definitely above average in overall performance.

I have been through two Tamron 17-50 f/2. 8s They both had the same problems staying connected to my camera’s system They did not make good electrical contact and would shut down my camera in mid shooting.

VERY BAD! I needed a 17-50 anyway. For me it is my all around go-to lens. So While I was in the market for a new lens anyway I decided to look at this Sigma 17-50mm f/2. 8 EX DC OS HSM Auto Focus Wide Angle Zoom Lens.

I had a really good experience shooting with an old Sigma 70-200 /3. 5-5. 6 many years ago and I remembered the glass in a Sigma Lens. As far as I’m concerned, The APO (Apochromatic) glass that Sigma has used forever in their lenses closely hedges up behind a Carl Ziess in quality.

That is only my opinion, But I am sticking to it. With the Flourine coating added to the lens elements, Sigma has developed lenses that are crisper and tack sharp. Chromatic aberration is almost totally eliminated and lens flareing is less pronounced when it does happen.

Sigma lenses stay crisp to the edge of the image. When my lenses arrived, I was a little chagrined. Everything was jostling around inside the shipping box. When I opened the box there was only one strip of packing bubbles between the three boxes.

I was getting worried. But when I opened the lens box I found a beautiful well padded and zipped lens carrying case. Very sturdy and rugged. The first thing I noticed was that this Sigma17-50 is nearly identical to the Tamron in lens barrel size and outside design.

The only real difference is the distance scales are different, and the Sigma Lens diameter is 77mm vs. Tamron’s 72mm. All the difference lies inside the bodies. Sigma’s Hypersonic motor faster and quieter.

And I already mentioned the glass. The best part of the whole deal was that I was able to purchase two premium quality Lenses; this Sigma 17-50mm f/2. 8 EX DC OS HSM Auto Focus Wide Angle Zoom Lens along with the 70-200mm f/2.

8 EX DC OS HSM Auto Focus Telephoto lens bundled with the 2x converter for less price than 1 Canon 70-200 f/2. 8LUSM IS The only difference between the Sigma Lenses and Canon series L lenses (besides price) is that sigma isn’t waterproof It’s all about the glass anyway.

A bit disappointed with this lens. Used on Nikon D5300. While capable of great results it is let down by poor focusing performance producing an unacceptable rate of pictures just not properly in focus.

I have checked that right focus point has been selected. I get far more consistent results from my compact (Lumix LX15).

Overall the Sigma 17-50mm F2. 8 EX DC OS HSM is a very good lens, especially as a kit lens replacement. This Sigma 17-50mm has a constant aperture of f/2. 8, whereas kit lenses drop to f/5. 6 at 50mm.

Sigma have given this lens an EX designation, which means the company considers this a superior product. DC means this lens was made for APS-C digital sensors, HSM means Hyper Sonic Motor, which quietly focuses the lens.

There is no OS (Optical Stabilizer) in this made-for-Sony copy, the camera body does the image stabilisation, and it seems to work adequately with this lens. Physically this lens is mostly plastic, but it still seems strong.

The focus ring is very smooth, but it has a very short throw. The zoom ring is stiff enough that it doesn’t need the zoom lock (active at 17mm). It uses 77mm filters, the front element doesn’t rotate during focus.

Similar lenses from other manufacturers have smaller filter sizes, I guess the designers gave away some of the benefit of a smaller front element in exchange for a better optical package. The lens hood is excellent, except I wish they put corrugations on the inside of it.

It has markings to help align the hood, either forward or reversed. On the other end of the lens, the mount is metal. The lens weights 565g according to Sigma’s website. Sharpness: Wide open images are sharp in the centre and a bit soft in the corners.

Lights in the corner of the frame at f/2. 8 show a fair bit of coma (shaped like bat wings), but for real world use I don’t see this as a problem. The corners are much better at f/4, and f/5. 6 is near perfect.

Vignetting: Wide open at 17mm has very strong vignetting (1. 5 stops), but ACR fixes it. Correcting barrel distortion removes a lot of the corners too, to the point where vignetting is not much of a problem at 17mm.

Vignetting isn’t really an issue at other focal lengths. Bokeh: At 50mm f/2. 8 the bokeh is good, bokeh balls fade away nicely. It’s hard to judge other settings because the bokeh size is small, especially at 17mm, but the bokeh effect is still pleasing.

See the 2nd picture for some bokeh samples. LCA (Lateral Colour Aberration): The lens displays some red/cyan (or maybe magenta/green) fringing at 17mm and 24mm, very slight CA at 35mm and none at 50mm.

Your choice of RAW converter should fix this easily. Flair: I found a bit of rainbow coloured flair at 17mm, but that was with the sun in the frame so it’s unlikely to be an issue. Operation: You must switch to MF to manually focus this lens.

Turn off the lock switch to zoom. In conclusion the Sigma 17-50mm f/2. 8 can providethe performance of professional lenses without the expence, but you have to work around small issues.

I have rented from lens rentals many times and always had a great experience. Their customer service is excellent and equipment has always been high quality. However, this time, the lens just would not focus tack sharp as I’m accustomed to with my own lenses.

It was only something you would see if you really zoomed in, but that’s important to me. I rented the exact same lens a couple of months ago and it was perfect and sharp. I contacted customer service and they did answer my emails and offered some tips to try, but I just do not feel as if it was my equipment- none of my other lenses had the same issue.

It just wasn’t the level of equipment that I’ve come to expect when paying to rent. I am very picky about the sharpness of my images and some might not have even noticed the “soft focus” that I found this lens to have.

Again, service was professional, the lens was usable, and I recommend lens rentals to others …. However, I only used this lens once for the month that I rented it due to the lesser quality images it produced.

I shoot Nikon D850 and been Pro for decades, mostly weddings and portraits. I hav lots of great glass, all nikon,including 20mm-50mm and 85mm Nikkor, as well as 70-200mm VR Zoom. Was in need of a great Nikon 35mm lens.

considered the Nikkor F/2 as well as 28mm F/2. 8. Then picked up the Sigma 35mm F/1. 4 Art. WOW, a wee bit heavy but amazing image quality and so sharp! Its truly a great lens. very sharp, great colors, and at $699 a bargain! HIGHLY RECCOMEND it to all who want really good build quality and stunning sharpness.

on a side NOTE, salesman gave me in the bag a CANON mount sigma lens NOT a Nikon even though he knew well I was shooting a Nikon, had to take 1 hour subway back to store to sort out issue. BH took care of it fortunately.

I recently brought a used one of these from WEX and i am stunned at how good this is, Twined with a Canon EOS R (Viltrox mount adapter) it is brilliant, i have used it to do still life and portrait/boudoir so far and this is the first lens i have used where i am happy enough with the out of camera quality to not even need to edit the photo.

However it is worth noting that this is the most modern lens i own. The only issue is when i first put it on my camera it had 2 large black rings on the photos, after a quick search on google this turned out to be a common firmware issue with the lens and can be very easily sorted in the camera settings if (like me) you do not have a sigma USB dock to update the lens.

I have already recomended it to a friend.

TranslateShow in original languageIch habe das Objektiv jetzt seit einer Woche und bin begeistert, die Möglichkeiten sind nahezu unbegrenzt. Zunächst habe ich klein angefangen, und vom Eifelturm aus das Brandenburger Tor fotografiert.

Die Freiheitsstatue konnte ich wegen der Erdkrümmung leider nicht direkt fotografieren, aber zum Glück hat die NASA auf dem Mond einige Spiegel platziert, sodass mir das Bild über den Umweg doch noch gelang.

Inzwischen habe ich mich aber mehr auf Astro-Fotografie spezialisiert. Ich habe zum Beispiel 17 neue erdähnliche Planeten entdeckt – und zwar in einer anderen Galaxie. Außerdem konnte ich ein scharfes Bild eines schwarzen Lochs schießen und der NASA mitteilen, dass der linke Reifen ihres Rovers leicht eiert.

Einen Stern Abzug gibt es aufgrund des fehlenden Warnhinweises, das Objektiv nicht auf die Sonne zu richten. Das Sonnenlicht wird dabei nämlich zu einem Laserstrahl gebündelt, der die Erde in zwei Teile schneidet.

TranslateShow in original languageWerkelijk waar een fantastische lens. Als beginnend modefotograaf probeer je toch vooral op de kleintjes te letten. Nu weten jullie misschien wel dat je als modefotograaf best veel moet reizen voor je werk.

Parijs, Milaan, New York en natuurlijk ons eigen Amsterdam. Voor volgend jaar Februari bespaar ik door deze lens bijvoorbeeld een retourticket naar New York. Als ik nog 17 keer gevraagd word voor de Fashionweek in New York heb ik deze lens al terug verdiend.

Als je niet van reizen houdt en de graag foto’s maakt vanuit het comfort van je eigen huis overal ter wereld dan raad ik jou deze lens ook aan. Je hoeft geen professional te zijn om met deze lens te werken.

Gewoon even doorrekenen hoeveel vervoerkosten deze lens jou per jaar bespaart en je zult zien deze lens is voor iedereen. Bedankt Sigma.

This lens is very unique and hard to place. At higher apertures it’s tack sharp, and in the case of my example seems to retain sharpness even into the extreme corners. At lower (wide-open) apertures anything out of focus can take on an almost dream-like view.

Sometimes this is fantastic and can make people look amazing in portraits. Other times it results in an almost painted-on bokeh from Narnia that makes me oddly uncomfortable. I seem compelled to use it, simply to see what I’ll get.

When the results are good, I’m almost floored. When they’re a bit too odd, I genuinely wish I got the 50mm GM. The autofocus is extremely slow, it would be slow even in 2010 which is unfortunate. On the other hand, it seems to be quite accurate, and is almost completely silent.

Manual focussing feels surprisingly good. The lens is extremely light, feeling very light both on camera and in a backpack. This makes it much more likely to be taken rather than left at home. Some people have complained that it feels ‘plasticy’, I think it feels well made enough, and I’d happily trade a little feel for some weight savings.

The focus ring on the other hand does feel a bit rough and cheap in movement if not tactile feel. The lens cap won’t work with low-profile filters whereas the official Sony caps do. Flare behaviour is similarly odd with the bokeh.

Sometimes you can get a small flare that you wouldn’t expect, other times there’s no flare whatsoever when most lens would have a huge streak across the frame. On the plus side, flaring in general is rather rare.

There is a case where flare can fill almost the entire frame – but it’s a big ball of white/yellow. This flare is brilliant, with a little control it can add amazing creative options you don’t get with other lenses.

I hate the typical green circles and smears you get with other lenses; they just look bad. But this lens has a unique glow flare that can be used to enhance your photos. At the time of writing this review, there is no profile in Lightroom Classic for this lens.

Fortunately, I’ve not experienced a need to correct any photos, and that includes one of a wall. There is some distortion and vignetting, but it’s very minor. I’ll use the profile when it comes, but in the meantime I’m happy to just leave uncorrected.

If anything, it adds to the character of the lens. And if anything, that’s my takeaway with this lens. A lot of lenses tend to be clinical, with uninspired bokeh, sharp centres, and CA that’s corrected by software either in-camera or in post.

This lens on the other hand has personality. This can be good, but it can also be bad.

I am glad to find that there are still manual focus lenses out there. This lens has a fine granularity to adjust the focus, which is essential for Astrophotography. For landscape, there is actually no need for auto focus due to the depth of field at smaller apertures where most of the scenery will be in focus anyway.

Besides that, the lens produces respectable sharpness and contrast and surprisingly for such a wide angle lens, the corner sharpness appears to be only slightly less sharp than the center at wide open aperture.

Stopping down one or two stops results in even sharper images. I have much more expensive wide angle lenses that are exceptionally sharp in the center but drop more in sharpness toward the corners than this lens does.

The quality optics is endorsed with a metal housing and a craftsmanship that reminds me of the good old Zeiss / Leica lens quality, build like a tank. Last but not least, the lens looks very esthetic, to my perception.

Good job Samyang!.

Having never owned a telephoto prime, I must say. I can’t believe that I had not done this sooner!!!! The image quality is superb. The build quality is fantastic. It is surprisingly light. Not really much optical distortion.

The low light capability is very good. And the sharpness is maintained across the entire frame. The autofocus is absolutely silent and quick. The only issue that one may have is the 135mm focal length in general.

It is deemed a long lens, yet it actually sits in between mid-telephoto and a long telephoto lens. So if you shoot film or video, this lens is one for distance, dialogue, subject isolation, or compression.

It is excellent for interviews, live events, weddings, concerts, documentaries, or deposition videos. If you have or work in limited space or need to track lots of movement, then I would suggest a wider focal length.

Outside of that, I highly recommend this lens!!!.