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Posts Tagged ‘gear’

Gear of the Year 2019 – Rishi’s choice: Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM

23 Dec
Photo: Dan Bracaglia

I love shooting wide. No, really: I made a whole video about how I even shoot portraits with wide-angle lenses. Wide-angles provide a sense of depth, dramatic perspectives, a glimpse into the subject’s surroundings and even provide an intimacy to portraits by giving the perspective of an observer standing very close to the subject. So you may be surprised by my choice of Gear of the Year: the Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM.

Perhaps it’s just that I needed something different. Spice up my life, venture beyond 35mm, you know, my favorite ‘telephoto’ lens. Or, maybe Sony just made an amazing lens in the 135mm GM. Perhaps it’s a bit of both.

135mm F1.8 allowed me to focus on my backlit subject, and nothing else. Look at that creamy background.

I took the Sony FE 135mm with me on a recent trip with family and friends, enjoying time together at a cabin and celebrating three years of keeping our daughter alive.

135mm really allows you to isolate your subject, and make it about nothing else, even if some of the environment is included. Rather than jumping around the frame from one point of interest to another, the viewer’s eye can just focus on one story which, below, is a simple one of one sibling looking up to another.

The ‘tunnel vision’ a long focal length paired with a fast aperture provides allows you to create simplistic images that tell just one story, like the love shared between these siblings.

That’s not to say that 135mm doesn’t allow you to portray your subject against its surroundings, it’s just that things are a bit different compared to a wide angle composition. Rather than include an expansive view of your subject’s surroundings with an enhanced sense of depth, the longer focal length allows you to compress your subject against only an isolated – and magnified – portion of its environment.

Take the image below: A wide-angle lens would have included the foliage, the sky, the ground, and other potentially distracting elements, all situated at different depths. This creates a more complex image with an enhanced sense of, well, depth. That can certainly be nice, but sometimes I like the simplicity of the subject and the background essentially appearing at just two different focal planes.

The 135mm focal length allowed me to ‘compress’ the scene, bringing the trees in the background closer to my subject(s), and allowing me to frame my subjects against the green foliage. The long focal length allowed me to magnify only a small portion of the background, allowing me to exclude distracting elements like the sky above or the ground below my subjects.

Technically, the FE 135mm GM lens is superb. Optically, the lens is literally the sharpest lens our friend Roger Cicala at LensRentals has ever tested. That’s at least in part due to the XA (extreme aspherical) element designed to minimize spherical aberration.

The Super ED and ED glass used in the elements in the front group replace traditional large and heavy negative elements commonly used to suppress longitudinal spherical aberration. The result is very little, if any, longitudinal chromatic aberration, commonly seen as purple and green fringing in front of, and behind, the focal plane, respectively.

The 135mm focal length allowed me to easily isolate my subject in this otherwise small and busy indoor space. And thanks to the excellent optics, there’s no distracting green fringing in the high contrast ‘Title’ text behind our subject, despite the fast aperture.

Sony’s 10 nanometer mold precision and other recent improvements ensure smooth aspherical surfaces, meaning that onion-ring bokeh is non-existent. An 11-blade aperture ensures circular out-of-focus highlights, and generally smoother bokeh, even when shooting stopped down. Sure, there’s some mechanical vignetting that leads to a ‘cat’s eye’ effect, but that’s to be expected of a lens of this type, and isn’t severe enough to result in swirly bokeh in the family portrait above.

Just as important as optical quality is the focus performance: especially for candid portraiture. And here the FE 135mm GM is industry leading: focus is lightning fast thanks in part to its four XD (‘extreme dynamic’) linear induction motors. These motors are far faster than the previous piezoelectric design of Sony’s ‘Direct Drive SSM’ system, and are capable of moving larger, heavier elements.

Paired with the excellent autofocus system of Sony’s recent cameras such as the a7R Mark IV, focus is fast enough that I could easily nail focus on the eyes of erratically running toddlers, even with the aperture wide open at F1.8:

This boy was running through a wading pool and momentarily smiled at the camera. Real-time tracking (with Eye AF) coupled with the extremely fast autofocus speeds of this lens allowed me to nail this moment effortlessly.

I’ll admit I’d rarely shot with 135mm primes in the past, typically sticking to a trio of primes (24, 35, and 85) for weddings, or 70-200mm F2.8 lenses for engagement and portrait shoots. I’ve found the 135mm F1.8 to be a different beast, requiring me to think and shoot differently, while often finding myself running further and further backward to get enough space in between my camera and my subject.

The results were, to me, very rewarding. The ‘tunnel vision’ effect of stepping back and using a longer focal length to isolate your subject and compress it against a small portion of its surroundings yields a unique look, particularly when paired with a fast enough aperture so that the background is pleasingly blurred and not distracting. Below, you’ll see my daughter surrounded by others in a park, but by herself in the wading pool happily marching to her own beat.

I couldn’t sum her up any better.

Marching to her own beat.

Note the exceedingly low magenta fringing (longitudinal chromatic aberration) around the water droplets splashing about in front of our subject, despite the magnifying glass the high resolution 60MP sensor of the a7R IV holds up to any lens’ optical aberrations.

Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM sample gallery

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* Of course I kid: my wedding kit always includes an 85mm, and I happily use 200mm for compression when I want to isolate my subject amidst its surroundings.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Lensrentals breaks down its most-rented photo and video gear of 2019

21 Dec

As it’s done for the past few years, Lensrentals has rounded up its most-rented photo and video gear of the year, breaking down the most popular cameras, lenses and accessories in rotation.

The data Lensrentals provides isn’t necessarily valuable for judging the photography industry as a whole, but as noted by a Lensrentals spokesperson in an email to DPReview, it is ‘the largest inventory of photography and cinematography equipment for online rental in the U.S. [and its] annual list has become somewhat of a barometer of the equipment creatives are creating or experimenting with.’

The full collection of data is available to peruse on Lensrentals’ website, but we’ve rounded up a few key insights worth pointing out.

First up, these are the top overall rental products for the 2019 year:

  1. Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II
  2. Canon 5D Mark IV
  3. Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II
  4. Sony Alpha a7 III
  5. Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III
  6. DJI Ronin-S 3-Axis Gimbal Stabilizer
  7. Canon 35mm f/1.4L II
  8. Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS
  9. Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM
  10. Canon 50mm f/1.2L

Year over year, not much has changed. In fact, Canon’s 50mm F1.2L lens, released in 2007, is still in the top ten list more than a decade later and the top three products remain unchanged from last year (although the Canon 5D Mark IV and 70-200mm F2.8L IS II did swap spots). Additionally, the 5D Mark III still remains in the top 25 most rented products, despite being over seven years old.

As for whether DSLR or mirrorless cameras proved more popular, it turns out it was almost split down the middle. According to Lensrentals, mirrorless and DSLR cameras accounted for 49.78% and 50.22% of rented cameras, respectively. This is a dramatic increase (21%) for mirrorless cameras compared to last year, where mirrorless cameras accounted for just 29% of rentals.

On the topic of mirrorless, Sony’s E-mount still rules the roost, with 26% of total rentals. Canon’s RF and Nikon’s Z systems remain dramatically behind at 4.91% and 2.26%, respectively, but year-over-year the RF and Z systems have increased rental volume by 600%.

Below are a few more breakdowns, provided to us by Lensrentals:

Top five lens rentals by system 2019

1. Canon EF 45.5% (up 1.5%)
2. Sony E 23.9% (up 18%)
3. Nikon F 14% (down 1.5)
4. Micro Four Thirds 7% (up 9.8%)
5. Fujifilm X 3.5% (up 14%)

Top camera rentals by system 2019

1. Canon EF 36.3% (down 7.5%)
2. Sony E 27.1% (up 7.4%)
3. Nikon F 13% (down 8%)
4. Micro Four Thirds 9.23% (down 7%)
5. Fujifilm X 4.3% (up 16.7%)

Top lens rentals by brand 2019

1. Canon 35.84% (up 5.5%)
2. Sony 15.4% (up 14%)
3. Sigma 13.9% (up 17%)
4. Nikon 8.8% (up 12%)
5. Tamron 4.3% (up 21.8%)

Top camera rentals by brand 2019

1. Canon 36.2% (up 1%)
2. Sony 26.2% (up 8%)
3. Nikon 9.7% (up 6.1%)
4. Panasonic 7.66% (up 2.8%)
5. BlackMagic 4.8% (up 130%)

Top five NEW products 2019

  1. GoPro HERO7 Black
  2. Blackmagic pocket cinema camera 4K (the 6K made the top 20 list)
  3. Sony FE 24mm f1.4 GM
  4. Sony Alpha 6400
  5. Nikon Z6

Overall, things remain mostly consistent, aside from movement within the full-frame mirrorless market, which is still in its infancy for both Canon and Nikon. You can dig deeper into all the information over on Lensrentals’ blog post and check out the 2018, 2017 and 2016 posts as well.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Gear of the Year 2019 – Dale’s choice: Laowa 15mm Zero-D

20 Dec
Photo: Dan Bracaglia

I feel like I’m stretching the rules a wee bit for my 2019 gear of the year by choosing a lens that was technically launched a couple years ago. However, Venus Optics released the Laowa 15mm F2 Zero-D in Nikon Z-mount and Canon RF-mount this year, and since I’ve been using the Nikon version I’m going to call it a 2019 product.

Before you protest, let me review the rules for our gear of the year selections:

  1. The gear you enjoyed using most this year.
  2. If there’s any ambiguity, refer to rule #1.

OK, with that out of the way let’s do this.

If you’ve been visiting the site for a while you may have noticed that over the past few years I’ve become a keen aurora borealis photographer. No matter how many times I see the northern lights I never get tired of them. It’s addictive, and I mean that in a good way. In the process I’ve experimented with a lot of different gear in an effort to find my ideal kit, and I’m really loving this Laowa lens.

Processed to taste in Adobe Lightroom.
ISO 10,000 | 2 sec | F2

I should clarify what ‘ideal’ means in this context. What it doesn’t mean is absolute technical perfection. I know there are hardcore astrophotographers who care very much about technical perfection, and for good reason, but that’s not me. My goal isn’t to create technically perfect images. It’s to create art, to tell a story, to share a unique experience with others.

Yes, I want good technical quality, but I also care about factors like weight, cost and my enjoyment when using the equipment. Why? Because like everyone else I have a budget. Also, when I photograph aurora I often carry three cameras (‘carry’ being the operative word), but that means I have to carry three lenses, three tripods, yada yada yada… It starts to add up pretty quickly, so keeping things on the small side is really helpful. My back appreciates it more every year.

Processed to taste in Adobe Lightroom.
ISO 5,000 | 6 sec | F2

One of the advantage of mirrorless cameras with short flange distances is the ability to create smaller lenses at wide focal lengths, and the Laowa leverages this fact. My other favorite lens for this type of work, the Sigma 14mm F1.8, is both larger and heavier.

In terms of absolute image quality, I think the Sigma 14mm F1.8 – which I picked as my gear of the year a couple years ago – is a bit better. It’s also slightly brighter. The downside? It’s pretty freakin’ big. Three of them in my pack would be noticeably heavier and more crowded than three Laowas; enough so that it matters to me.

The Laowa 15mm F2 (left) is significantly less bulky than the Sigma 14mm F1.8 (right).

Another thing I love about this lens is its build quality. I would describe it as feeling dense; despite its all metal construction and small size it’s still a bit heavier than it looks. It reminds me a lot of my old manual focus Nikkors, including the very nicely damped focus ring.

Speaking of which, it’s entirely manual focus, but I’m shooting the night sky and it’s not like the stars are running an AF test on a bike. (I’m not suggesting Richard Butler isn’t a star in his own right, but you know what I mean.)

Is it perfect? No. There’s definitely vignetting wide open, and even for a couple stops beyond, but the lens profile in Lightroom does an admirable job of correcting it. If I really needed perfection corner-to-corner that would bother me, but I don’t.

Processed to taste in Adobe Lightroom.
ISO 5,000 | 2 sec | F2

Similarly, there are some minor ‘angel wings’ on stars in the corners due to coma, but all things considered it’s not bad. Fortunately, most people aren’t focused on the stars in my photos, but rather the lights.

I’ll admit there’s one thing that drives me bat**** crazy. The metal lens hood doesn’t lock into position securely enough, and the slightest bump knocks it out of alignment, which is easy to miss in the dark. This results in some occlusion of the image in a couple corners. I did it by accident a couple times at first, but I’ve trained myself to be ever vigilant.

Processed to taste in Adobe Lightroom.
ISO 5,000 | 4 sec | F2

Some will argue that the wide angle Rokinons are better and even more affordable. Maybe they are, but in my experience it depends a lot on the particular copy you get. For what it’s worth I own two of them, and neither is as good in the corners as the two Laowas I’ve used.

Is it the best wide angle lens I’ve ever used? No. Do I love using it? Yes. It’s not the right lens for everyone, but it’s certainly a great lens for me, and that’s why it’s my gear of the year.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Gear of the Year 2019 – Dan’s choice: DJI Mavic Mini

18 Dec

A lot of awesome gear arrived on the scene in 2019 including plenty of ground-breaking and impressive cameras, lenses and accessories. But of all the releases, there was only one piece of gear I purchased for myself to enjoy outside of work: The DJI Mavic Mini.

Back in 2016 I picked the original DJI Mavic Pro as my gear of the year because I felt it represented a turning point in the drone market. It was the first mid-level unit that seemed to offer everything I wanted: a folding design, good stills/video, a user-friendly interface and a reasonably affordable price. It was a product I threw down my own money for and one that opened my eyes to a new way of creating stills and video.

There was only one piece of gear I purchased for myself this year: The DJI Mavic Mini

But three years on and my Mavic Pro is starting to seem, well, old. While the folding design was unique at launch, the drone itself now feels hefty in comparison to many newer models. This has made me less likely to take it along on trips or adventures, unless I’m certain I’ll be using it. And though the image quality from its 1/2.3″ sensor is still largely good enough for my needs, I find the JPEG profiles unappealing and the Raw files lack malleability. It also doesn’t help that several ‘oh crap’ moments have now led the camera’s lens to become de-centered. Oops.

Image quality from the Mavic Mini won’t knock your socks off, but it’s more than good enough for social sharing and Web viewing, especially if you take a little time to tweak the JPEGs.
Processed to taste in Adobe Lightroom.
ISO 100 | 1/40 sec | F2.8

Even before the Mavic Mini was launched this Fall, I’d put together a wish list in my mind for my next drone: It would have to be small enough and light enough for me to bring it with me wherever, without a second thought. It would have to offer similar or better image quality to my Mavic Pro (either with better out-of-camera JPEGs or more workable Raw files), it would hopefully be quieter/less intrusive to others, all while offering similar battery life and a just as easy-to-fly interface.

There’s no Raw capture on the Mini, so I pull the JPEG files into Lightroom and tweak them slightly, with good results

The Mavic Mini checks off all the boxes (which is why I purchased one shortly after its launch, sight unseen). It’s nearly a quarter of the weight of the Mavic Pro and about half the size. It uses the same-sized, 1/2.3″ sensor (essentially, a smartphone-sized sensor) but the JPEG output, including color and tone, looks significantly more natural and pleasing (to me at least). There’s no Raw capture on the Mini, but that doesn’t really bother me: I pull the JPEG files into Lightroom and tweak them slightly, with good results.

The Mini also sounds less like an angry swarm of bees compared to my Pro, which will hopefully lead to fewer angry glares out in the Pacific Northwest wilderness from all those passive aggressive Seattlites I encounter. And at $ 400 for the unit, controller and battery, the Mavic Mini is significantly less investment than the current Mavic Pro offerings (The Pro Platinum is $ 1150 at the time of writing). The lower price also leads to less anxiety about potentially losing it (though that’d still majorly suck).

Processed to taste in Adobe Lightroom.
ISO 100 | 1/40 sec |F2.8

I’ve only been flying the Mavic Mini for several weeks now, but after a few adventures – including one in Oregon wine country – I’m hooked. The impossibly small size is hands-down its greatest feature. Getting it into my 16L Lowepro bag without displacing other necessities is no problem at all. Which means this little sky camera can come with me everywhere I go.

The impossibly small size is hands-down its greatest feature – this little sky camera can come with me everywhere I go

It’s also oh-so-easy to operate. DJI further simplified the flying experience for the Mini: It uses the new DJI Fly app, which is a pared-down and more user-friendly version of the standard DJI Go app (used by most of the brand’s other consumer drones). This is a change I welcome given the intended user is likely someone who is a beginner or intermediate drone flyer. Cleaning up the settings and options means there are less things to distract you while flying, but the experience is in no way dumbed-down. And perhaps most importantly, users still have full manual control over the camera’s settings.

Processed to taste in Adobe Lightroom.
ISO 100 | 1/60 sec |F2.8

I did have to give up some features by stepping down from the Mid-level Mavic Pro-series to the more beginner-oriented Mini, above and beyond Raw capture. One such feature is video quality: the max video resolution is 2.7K/30p compared to 4K/30p on my Mavic Pro (not a deal-breaker for my needs as a primarily stills shooter). The maximum flight range is also less than that of the original Mavic, a limitation I’ve yet to encounter, but I’ll report back if I do.

There is, however, one feature I wish the Mini had: Rear and front accident avoidance cameras. My Mavic Pro has a front avoidance camera and who would’ve guessed, all my crashes with it have been while going in reverse. But hopefully their absence will lead me to become a safer, more competent flyer (knocks on wood).

Access to a go-everywhere flying smartphone camera has put a big smile on my face

Ultimately, if you’re a photographer who’s been curious about drone capture and trying to decide when to pull the trigger and on which model, the time is now and the model is the Mavic Mini. At $ 400, it’s cheaper than a lot of other cameras accessories you can purchase. But it’s one that’ll likely change your perspective more than anything else you could put that money toward. Moreover, access to what is essentially a go-everywhere flying smartphone camera has put a big smile on my face, which is why the DJI Mavic Mini is my gear of the year.

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The results are in! Best gear of 2019 – winners and runners-up

17 Dec

Winners and runners-up: Best gear of 2019

For the past few weeks, our readers have been voting on their favorite photographic gear in three categories: Best camera, best zoom lens and best prime lens. Now that the first round of voting is over, it’s time to reveal the winners.

Remember, it isn’t over just yet! It’s time now to pick an overall winner.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to exercise your democratic right to vote for something that doesn’t matter in the slightest! Cast your ballot now!

Best prime lens – Runner-up: Nikon Nikkor Z 58mm F0.95 S Noct

Essentially a demonstration of just what the ultra-wide Z mount is capable of, the Nikon 58mm F0.95 is a reimagining of the classic ‘Noct Nikkor’ for the 21st Century. The first thing that most people notice about this manual-focus lens is its sheer size, and substantial weight. Nikon didn’t cut any corners with the Noct, and it shows.

Although we haven’t yet been able to properly test it, our early samples suggest that while clearly a very specialized product the new Noct is capable of doing things that other lenses simply can’t. Clearly you agree, since it took a close runner-up position in our poll.

Best prime lens – Joint-winner: Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM

We know you hate joint-winners, but when two products are separated by only 0.2% of the vote, what are we meant to do? Competition in this category was intense this year, and the first of our two joint-winners is the Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM – a reference prime for portrait photography fans and a superb option for Canon RF shooters.

Best prime lens – Joint-winner: Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM

Tied for the winning position was another superb prime lens – Sony’s FE 135mm F1.8 GM, taking 11% of the total vote.

Practically flawless in terms of common optical aberrations, and capable of beautiful rendering wide-open, this is another excellent option for a7-series and a9 photographers, especially those who are interested in portraiture. We really like this lens, and clearly you do too.

Best zoom lens – Runner-up: Nikon Z 24-70mm F2.8 S

Nikon has spent the year consolidating its Z-mount lens lineup, and the Z 24-70mm F2.8 S is one of the most impressive offerings yet, featuring a highly advanced optical construction including Nikon’s new ‘Arneo’ coating.

Fast and sharp, and capable of very good close focus image quality, the Z 24-70mm F2.8 S is exactly what a standard zoom lens should be: a reliable and versatile tool capable of everything from landscapes to portraiture.

Best zoom lens – winner: Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM

Topping the poll this year for best zoom by a comfortable margin was a very different kind of lens, but designed for a similar kind of photographer. The Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM is a high-performance fast telezoom aimed at professionals and high-end users, which offers stunning performance.

Its combination of excellent sharpness, very effective optical image stabilization and a compact form-factor (at 70mm) make this a winning zoom, in more ways than one. But was it the best product of 2019? Let us know by casting a vote in the final poll.

Best camera – runner-up: Fujifilm GFX 100

Fujifilm’s GF-series of medium-format mirrorless cameras continues to evolve and with the GFX 100, the company really pulled out all of the stops. The first medium-format camera to offer IBIS, the 100MP GFX 100 is a supremely capable product for both stills and video.

While its $ 10,000 asking price puts it out of reach of most non-professional photographers, there’s no denying that it’s an incredible impressive piece of technology, which garnered 12% of the total vote in our poll for best camera of the year.

Best camera – winner: Sony a7R IV

With 21% of the total vote, Sony’s a7R IV was the clear victor in our readers’ poll. The a7R IV also won our DPReview Award for best product of 2019, and apparently our readers like it just as much as we do.

Offering 60MP resolution, advanced autofocus and excellent 4K video features, the a7R IV is Sony’s most versatile mirrorless camera yet, and one of the most competitive in the entire market. Was it the best product of the year? Let us know by casting your vote.

Have your say

You helped determine the winners in these individual categories, so now’s the time to cast your vote in one last poll! Choose up to three favorites from this list of winners and runners-up between now and December 29th 2020 at midnight PT when the final poll closes. Watch for an announcement of the winners soon after.

As always, thanks for casting your votes and being a part of our community throughout the year.

.

Have your say

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Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM

Canon RF 85mm F1.2L USM

Fujifilm GFX 100

Nikon Nikkor Z 24-70mm F2.8 S

Nikon Nikkor Z 58mm F0.95 S Noct

Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM

Sony a7R IV

Voting is easy – you pick your favorite products by dragging and dropping. You can pick up to three, and rank them in order of priority.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Gear of the year 2019: Barney’s choice (part 2) Nikon Z 50mm F1.8 S

16 Dec
Photo: Dan Bracaglia

We’ve been writing these articles for a few years now, and when it comes time to think about what I would pick as my ‘Gear of the Year’, I tend to go by two main criteria: What (if any) gear in the past 12 months did I actually spend my own money on, and what did I most enjoy using? And if those two criteria happen to be met by a single product, then there’s my answer. No further consideration required.

This year, two products met both of those criteria. The Ricoh GR III (which I wrote about here) and the Nikon Z 50mm F1.8 S. Clearly they’re very different things. One is an APS-C compact camera and the other is a lens for full-frame mirrorless cameras. But both have been in my camera bag almost every time I’ve gone out shooting in 2019.

Of the thousands of frames I’ve shot with the Z 50mm this year, the vast majority have been taken at F1.8

Why do I love the Nikon Z 50mm F1.8 S so much? The boring answer is that it’s just really really good. Historically I’ve not been not a big 50mm fan in general, and I will admit to being a bit of a snob about F1.8 lenses in the past. But the Z 50mm F1.8 S is so good – and so good at F1.8 – that it has changed my perspective on what a ‘nifty fifty’ can be.

I would estimate that of the thousands of frames I’ve shot with the Z 50mm this year, the vast majority have been taken at F1.8. With most of the standard lenses I’ve used during my career, that would not be a particularly smart move. Generally speaking, lenses of this type are at their best when stopped down slightly. But the Z 50mm F1.8 is almost as sharp wide open as it is stopped down, and at all apertures it’s largely free from common aberrations like longitudinal chromatic aberration.

Nikkor Z 50mm F1.8 S | ISO 100 | 1/800 sec | F1.8

There are plenty of 50mm lenses that give a more interesting rendering than the Z 50mm F1.8 S, but few which provide its biting cross-frame sharpness and virtually coma-free images at wide apertures. And it just so happens that those qualities ended up being crucial to me this year, when working on a long-term project down on Washington’s coast, during twilight clam digs. The combination of the Nikon Z7’s resolution and in-body stabilization and the Z 50mm’s sharpness and clean rendering at F1.8 proved invaluable, allowing me to get sharp, hand-held images in near-darkness that I could never have captured with a DSLR.

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The fact that the weather-sealed Z7 and Z 50mm F1.8 S continued to work reliably and accurately for hours in heavy rain and strong winds is another major point in both their favor.

I’ve also come to really appreciate the Z 50mm F1.8 S for portraiture, despite its relatively short focal length, which discourages very tight framing. Bokeh isn’t the smoothest at wide apertures, but it’s smooth enough, and virtually free from colored fringing.

Nikkor Z 50mm F1.8 S | ISO 64 | 1/80 sec | F1.8

Of course, I’m lucky. Like almost all professional photography reviewers I get to try all kinds of different equipment, at no cost. When I do spend my own money on something, it’s because I’ve used it, probably quite extensively, and I’m very confident in my investment.

That means that I have to be careful to stay grounded when talking to our readers, especially when it comes to making value judgements about the cost of new gear. Personally, having used a lot of lenses, I think that the Z 50mm F1.8 S’s price of around $ 600 is exceptionally good value, but I understand the complaints from some of you that $ 600 is a lot to pay for a 50mm F1.8. And a large-ish one, at that, by traditional (if not current) standards.

The point I would make (and which I hope I made in this article) is that $ 600 spent now, on a modern lens designed for mirrorless, buys you greater performance than $ 600 ever has before. We are very lucky, as photographers, to be on the cusp of a new era in optics, where some of the old paradigms are being overturned. In the case of this particular lens, it’s probably the only 50mm I’ll ever need for my Z7. Not bad for $ 600.

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Gear of the Year 2019 – Jeff’s choice: Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II

13 Dec
Photo: Dan Bracaglia

It goes without saying that a lot of cameras come and go through the DPReview office. Over the last year, most of them have been something you either can’t carry around for hours, or don’t want to (looking at you, Panasonic Lumix DC-S1).

One of the few actual compacts that we received (and reviewed) was the Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II, which was announced alongside its nearly identical twin, the G7 X Mark III. The latter provides additional video features, while the former – targeted more toward enthusiasts – eschews these in exchange for an electronic viewfinder.

ISO 125 | 1/1600 sec | F4.5 | 69mm equiv.
Photo by Jeff Keller

When I first laid eyes (and hands) on the PowerShot G5 X Mark II, it was very obvious what camera Canon was going after: the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 V. They both have fast lenses with a control ring around them, a centered, pop-up flash and tilting LCDs. Even the button layouts are similar. And let’s not forget the EVF that rises at the push of the button: a feature so similar that I wonder if Sony licensed the design to Canon.

ISO 125 | 1/1000 sec | F4 | 30mm equiv.
Photo by Jeff Keller

Despite their similarities, I’d grab the Canon every time, mainly because I find the shooting experience much more engaging. The front grip and thumb rest are perfect, and the rubberized front plate prevents the camera from sliding out of my hands. I tend to adjust exposure compensation fairly often, and I like that I don’t have to move my thumb to reach the provided dial that adjusts that setting. While I like the clicky control ring around the lens, I’m still not a fan of the small, fiddly dial on the back.

ISO 125 | 1/500 sec | F8 | 120mm equiv.
Photo by Jeff Keller

And then there’s the EVF. It’s not the cool new design found on the Sony RX100 VI and above, which extends the eyepiece automatically, but I don’t mind having to manually do so. What I don’t like is that it’s very easy to press it back in when your eye is to the finder, at least with glasses on. Speaking of glasses, the OLED EVF allows me to wear my polarized sunglasses without a problem (which can be a problem with LCD panels). The location of the EVF also keeps my nose off of the screen, which is always a plus.

ISO 125 | 1/1600 sec | F4.5 | 24mm equiv.
Photo by Jeff Keller

A lot of enthusiast compacts make compromises in order to get fast maximum apertures. On the RX100 V and Panasonic LX10, the focal length tops out at around 70mm equivalent. The Sony RX100 VI and VII have very ambitious 24-200mm equiv. lenses, but they let in 1.3 stops less light than the G5 X II.

Converted from Raw using ACR 12. Exposure and sharpness adjusted.
ISO 125 | 1/100 sec | F2.8 | 108mm equiv.
Photo by Jeff Keller

For me, the G5 X II has just the right balance. The equivalent focal length of the lens is 24-120mm, which is more than enough for the kind of shooting I typically do. The max aperture range of F1.8-2.8 gives it good light low performance and nice background blur, especially on macro shots than I enjoy taking.

ISO 200 | 1/400 sec | F3.2 | 24mm equiv.
Photo by Jeff Keller

I spent several weekends with the camera, taking it over the Cascade mountains and back again (among other places), and I have no complaints about the quality of the photos I captured. A lot of people like to crow about the vibrance of Canon color, and I’m one of them. I took a number of photos in low light and was able to pull up the shadows without too large of a noise increase: at least for my needs (read: social media).

When all is said and done, I found the Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II to be a great ‘daily driver’. It’s a camera that I can stuff into a back pocket and take for walk around town – in bright or low light – and get great results straight out of the camera.

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Gear of the Year 2019 – Richard’s choice: Sigma 56mm F1.4 DC DN

11 Dec
Photo: Dan Bracaglia

I originally wanted to choose The High Line in New York as my Gear of the Year, but apparently a one-and-a-half mile elevated stretch of re-purposed freight railway doesn’t count as photographic gear. It’s also somewhat exclusionary, in geographical and logistical terms.

I’ll (grudgingly) concede those points. And anyway, it’s not the ex-railway infrastructure itself that’s so good for photography: it’s the fact that it’s full of ambling tourists and relaxing New Yorkers taking a break from the city’s hubbub, such that they’re much more amenable to being photographed by slightly nervous Brits wielding camera gear.

The three lenses I’ve most enjoyed shooting with this year have all been portrait primes

But thinking about photographing strangers along The High Line made me realise that the three lenses I’ve most enjoyed shooting with this year have all been portrait primes. Reviewing the GFX 50R and 100 gave me a chance to use the GF 110mm F2, which might be the best lens I’ve ever used. Covering the launch of the Sony a7R IV gave me my first exposure to Sony’s very impressive 135mm F1.8 GM. But it was a rather more modest lens that I used most often, and can most easily imagine myself buying.

The 85mm equivalent focal length is a classic choice for head-and-shoulders portraits.
Sigma 56mm F1.4 DC DN | ISO 1250 | 1/100 sec | F1.4
Photo: Richard Butler

The Sigma 56mm F1.4 DC DN is exactly the kind of lens I wanted when I first started getting into digital photography: it’s small, it’s light, it’s fast (both in F-number and autofocus) and, above all, it’s affordable.

It’s small, it’s light, it’s fast and it’s affordable

Most of the big camera makers have been pushing comparatively inexpensive full-frame bodies, but have saddled them with often bulky and expensive lenses. The Sigma 56mm provides a credible portrait option for owners of smaller-sensor cameras at a size and price that’s hard to match.

It’s available for Micro Four Thirds as well as Sony E and Canon EF-M mounts, but I personally prefer it when mounted on APS-C. 112mm equiv (on Micro Four Thirds) is still a great focal length for portraits, but I find myself using it a bit more freely when it’s acting as an 85.

But 85mm equiv is also wide enough to allow landscape portraits, as well as portrait ones.
Sigma 56mm F1.4 DC DN | ISO 100 | 1/1600 sec | F3.5
Photo: Richard Butler

For me, having it as an option instantly makes the Sony and Canon APS-C mirrorless systems more interesting: it means I can think about putting together a kit with a 35mm-equiv prime, a standard zoom and a small, effective portrait lens, giving me just about everything I need.

Like many people, the first prime lens I owned was an elderly but inexpensive 50mm F1.8, mounted on an APS-C DSLR. But, while I loved the shallow depth-of-field ability and the option to shoot in much lower light, I never found myself enjoying the 75mm-equiv experience. My colleague Rishi points out that the real-world difference between 75 and 85mm should be negligible, and yet I’m convinced I shoot unflatteringly close with a 50mm, but end up delighted with my 56mm results. It may well be all in my head, then, but that’s where my confidence and creativity come from, too.

In fact the lens can be used for things other than portraits
Sigma 56mm F1.4 DC DN | ISO 100 | 1/200 sec | F3.5
Photo: Richard Butler

Best of all, unlike Carey’s choice of the 45mm F2.8, I don’t feel the need to temper my enthusiasm for the lens with caveats. I’d love it just for being small, light, fast and affordable, since it’s in a focal length I like so much. But it’s also optically very good. It’s sharp where I want it, has pleasant, smooth bokeh and looks good in the transition between the two. F2.1 equivalent is more than sufficient for the shooting I do. What more could I ask for?

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Gear of the Year 2019 – Allison’s choice: iPhone 11

11 Dec
Photo: Dan Bracaglia

In my defense, it was the beginning of a night of drinking when I dropped my phone in the toilet, not the end of the night. The humor isn’t lost on me: it was the same day we published my defense of small phones, specifically praising my iPhone SE for its ability to slip into my back pocket. That, unfortunately, was also its undoing.

I needed another phone quickly and ended up buying a Pixel 3a. Here were the primary factors that drove me to this decision:

  • The camera is very good
  • It’s only $ 400
  • It was in stock at Best Buy for same-day pickup, which meant minimal interaction with salespeople

Just like that, I became an Android user after almost a decade (!?) of owning Apple phones. But after using the iPhone 11, I’m not only comfortable declaring it my Gear of the Year – I’m also thinking of switching back. Here’s why.

Girls just wanna take wide-angle portraits

I have a pretty firm understanding of focal length and how it impacts your distance to a subject. I can even kind of explain equivalence. But for some reason I can never remember just how far the Pixel 3a crops in for portrait mode.

I find myself frequently sitting across the table from someone I want to photograph, pulling my phone up to take a picture and then realizing I’m way too close. I can either take an uncomfortably close photo of that person’s face, or stand up and move backward to get the framing I wanted in the first place. The iPhone 11 lets me take that across-the-table portrait without leaving my seat.

The ultra-wide lens is a draw for me too. I haven’t used the phone quite enough to decide whether its appeal would wear off, or if it would remain a feature I’d keep turning to. For now anyway, I’m into it.

No more crooked horizons

Some people can’t grasp the concept of a passing lane on the highway (looking at you, Washington drivers), just as some of us are prone to crooked horizons. It’s our lot in life, apparently. Thankfully, there are effective coping strategies. The one I like is a ‘spray and pray’ approach: I frame up my shot and take a series of photos while tilting the camera from one side to the other. There’s usually a frame in there that’s just about level. It also means that I end up with lots of what you see below in my photo archive.

Lots of the same photo slightly tilted one way and the other.

The iPhone 11’s ‘Photos Capture Outside of the Frame’ feature makes this unnecessary. It uses the ultra-wide lens to capture extra image data outside the frame, saving it alongside your original image. If you edit one of these images in the native camera app, the phone will automatically fix crooked horizons and fill in the edges of the image with that extra information: preserving your original framing.

Having that ability would save me quite a bit of time and digital storage space. Until then I’ll just be that weird lady in the park taking 200 photos of the sunset, hoping one of them isn’t crooked.

The Pixel 3a keyboard makes me ??

I’m not sure if Apple’s keyboard is better or I’m just too used to it, but I have a really hard time typing out messages with the Pixel 3a keyboard. I thought it might the bigger size of the phone compared to my last one, but switching to the similar-sized iPhone 11 for a while proved that theory false: I immediately noticed I was making fewer typos.

Even after months of use the Pixel 3a keyboard remains a challenge to me

Whatever the reason, I get along better with iPhone keyboards. Even after months of use the Pixel 3a keyboard remains a challenge to me, and I do not particularly like feeling challenged when I’m trying to type out a text.

We’ll meet again

Even if I do jump ship, Google knows it’s not losing me as a customer, not really. If I do get an iPhone 11, the first app I’ll download is Google Photos. When I arrive back at home that day, I’ll tell Google to play my favorite radio station, and start a timer when I put my frozen pizza in the oven. As I use Chrome to find Christmas presents for family, research the symptoms of whatever ailment I think I might have, plan my wedding and pay my bills, Google will be right there with me, watching.

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Gear of the Year 2019 – Carey’s choice: Sigma 45mm F2.8

06 Dec
Photo: Dan Bracaglia

Sigma’s 45mm F2.8 DG DN Contemporary lens is, in many ways, not a great lens for pixel-peepers. It exhibits some fringing, it isn’t particularly sharp, and it has a pretty pedestrian maximum aperture. But I really enjoy it anyway, and it’s served as a reminder that any given lens doesn’t have to be perfect to be fun.

I first got to shoot around with the 45mm F2.8 Contemporary on a trip to Japan for the release of Sigma’s fp, their staggering 35mm F1.2 Art, and the newly designed 14-24mm F2.8 Art. No surprise, the little 45 mil was easily overshadowed by its headline-grabbing brethren. But during my time on that trip, it was glued to the a7R III I was using while traveling from one locale to another. The biggest reason for that is that the lens itself is so small.

Sigma fp | ISO 160 | 1/100 sec | F4

Small gear is unobtrusive and far less intimidating for subjects, and this definitely has an impact on the way I take pictures: namely, I take more pictures of people when I’m working with less intimidating gear. I also just tend to take pictures more often, as I’ll always have a smaller camera and lens combo slung over my shoulder, whereas larger gear is more likely to be tucked away in a bag when I’m not actively using it.

We’ve touched a bit on the Sigma 45mm’s image quality at the outset out of this article, but I’d like to backpedal a bit. The biggest ‘issue’ with it is uncorrected spherical aberration, essentially trading-off some sharpness for more attractive bokeh: a deliberate decision on Sigma’s part. And I have to admit that there’s something about its rendering that I find appealing. I also appreciate its very close minimum focus distance, which helps you get shallower depth-of-field than you might expect with an F2.8 aperture, though images get a bit hazy if you’re focusing very close with the aperture wide-open.

Sony a7R III | ISO 100 | 1/320 sec | F2.8
Taken with a pre-production lens

And then there’s the build quality. The 45mm Contemporary is not weather-sealed, which is a big disappointment; especially considering how well it pairs with Sigma’s fp, which is very well-sealed throughout. But the lens still has a premium feel, with its all-metal build. The focus ring is so perfectly damped that I fiddle with it all the time even though I’m exclusively an autofocus kinda guy, and the aperture ring has just the right amount of clickiness to it. Autofocus is very fast, and works well with the DFD technology in Panasonic’s S1-series of cameras.

There is room in the market for less ‘serious’ tools that are still excellent in actual use

I think my main grumble concerns the price. It’s currently still hovering around its launch price of $ 559 USD, which is unequivocally a lot of coin for a slow, non-weather-sealed prime lens that has, perhaps, a bit more optical ‘character’ than people may expect nowadays.

Sigma fp | ISO 100 | 1/125 | F8

On the other hand, I’m pleased that Sigma is making it. It’s a company with a portfolio chock-full of glass that was created with size and weight considerations taking a back seat to optical excellence. There is room in the market for smaller, lighter, less ‘serious’ photographic tools that are nonetheless engaging in actual use. That’s the type of tool the Sigma 45mm F2.8 is, and I hope it’s not the last lens of its type we see from Sigma.

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