Third-Party Lens Reviews

Born to be Wide – The Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2 Review

23/07/2015 By Mathieu

Following our review of the 85mm that was published a few days ago, we are now here with our full review of the second Batis lens released by Zeiss, the 25mm f/2. The renowned German brand clearly sees Sony E-Mount as a system worth investing in, especially now that there are so many full frame cameras available. While the Loxia lens family is aimed at manual focus lovers who appreciate traditional distance scales and mechanical rings, the Batis family has more modern characteristics that include autofocus and the world’s first OLED screen on a lens.

Portrait Perfection – The Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 review

21/07/2015 By Mathieu

Update: the Batis 2/25mm review is now online!

Zeiss caused quite a stir when it announced its second family of lenses designed exclusively for the Sony E-mount system. Unlike the Loxia lenses (see our review here) that are manual focus, the Zeiss Batis 85mm offers everything you would expect from a modern lens: autofocus, optical stabilisation and the world’s first digital OLED screen that replaces the classic distance scale marked on the lens.

Extra fast, extra wide – The Voigtlander 10.5mm f0.95 Review

07/07/2015 By Heather

The Micro Four Thirds system has wide-angle primes and zooms aplenty but the same cannot be said for extreme wide-angle non-fisheye primes. Enter the Voigtlander 10.5mm f/0.95, a lens that claims two important titles: not only is it one of the widest non-fisheye primes for Micro Four Thirds*, but it is also the fastest wide angle lens for the system.

A full-frame look for Micro Four Thirds – Part II –Voigtlander 42.5mm f/0.95 Review

15/05/2015 By Heather

A few months ago, I wrote an article about my favourite lenses for the Micro Four Thirds system. Out of the five listed, two were portrait lenses – the “cheap and cheerful” M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8, which we currently own, and the Nocticron 42.5mm f/1.2, the so-called “bokeh beast” from Panasonic Lumix.

Both lenses are tack sharp at their fastest aperture, so when we received the Voigtlander 42.5mm f/0.95 for testing, I was eager to see whether what the incredibly fast 0.95 aperture would give me something that these two lenses could not.

A full-frame look for Micro Four Thirds – Part I – Voigtlander 17.5mm f0.95 Review

07/05/2015 By Heather

For lovers of shallow depth of field and subject isolation, it is difficult not to get wobbly-kneed when faced with an image shot at f/1.4 on a full-frame camera, especially if a shorter focal length was used. It is what many full-frame to Micro Four Thirds converts miss about their old system, and can be a roadblock for those considering the so-called switch.