Resolution Tests
A Technical Review of the Fujifilm GF 30mm Tilt Shift
I’ve had a Fujifilm 30mm GF f/5.6 tilt/shift lens on loan from Lensrentals for about three weeks, and I’ve done the basic testing. I had hoped to get some time using the lens the way it was intended, but testing this complex lens turned out to take all the time I’d allotted to the task. I will…
A Deep Dive Into Manually Focusing MILCs
This post is of interest to any user of a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (MILC). I’ve illustrated it with images from the Fujifilm GFX 100. Here’s the Cliff Notes version: 1. Use as much magnification as you can subject to 2, below 2. Use a low peaking sensitivity to produce visible peaking…
Investigating the Medium Format Look
I’ve been a fan of digital medium format for a long time. 10 years in fact, first shooting with a Hasselblad H4-D50C, and then with the PhaseOne IQ250, only to be using my current camera with the Fuji GFX 100S. But my love for medium format has always been with the resolution available in medium…
A Technical Look at the Hasselblad XCD 135mm f/2.8
The Hasselblad XCD 135/2.8 is one of the first batch of lenses for the Hasselblad X1D and X2D (X mount) cameras. It is usually sold bundled with a matched 1.7x teleconverter (TC) and a tripod collar that attaches to the TC. Except for the focusing ring, the lens is completely devoid of controls –…
Do Recent Advancements in Upscaling Make the Megapixel Race Obsolete?
If you’ve been in the photography world for any amount of time over the last 15 years, you’ve probably heard the term ‘megapixel race’. Starting back in the early 2000s with the dawn of digital photography, the megapixel race was the race in which each manufacturer of cameras, from…
Testing the Best Ultra-Wide Lenses for the Perseids Meteor Shower
Meteor showers can be some of the most exciting celestial events to shoot, but they can also be quite the challenge to get a good meteor photo. With about ten years of practicing astrophotography and timelapse, one of the best lessons I’ve learned with increasing chances of a good meteor shot is:…
Sony FE 20mm f/1.8 G Optical Tests
I haven’t published much optical testing in the last year for many reasons; some obvious, some not. But published or not, we still test things, and occasionally something comes up that I think I need to write up. The Sony FE 20mm f/1.8 G is one of those things. As wide-angle primes go, it’s…
MTF Tests of the Tamron 17-28mm and 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD Lenses
Tamron has a nice set of three f/2.8 zooms for Sony E mount cameras. Today I’m putting out MTF results for the 17-28mm f/2.8 Di III RXD and the 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III RXD. They offer a reasonably priced alternative to Sony-branded lenses, and Tamron has been making good products lately. I’ll admit to…
A Peek Inside the AF-S Nikkor 120-300mm f/2.8 FL ED SR VR
We’ve wanted to look inside the Nikkor AF-S 120-300mm f/2.8 FL ED SR VR lens. When we took apart a Z lens recently, we found Nikon had moved on from their ‘classic’ internal optomechanical and electrical design for a neat, modern design. We were interested to see if newer F lenses would pick that…
Practical Use of Field Curvature Graphs – the 50mm Primes
In my last two posts (1,2), I’ve been using field curvature graphs to look at how lenses behave as you stop them down. It’s been a fairly limited data set; basically 35mm prime lenses and some zooms at 35mm. I’m going to keep going with this topic and today look at a different focal length (50mm).…
More Ultra High-Resolution MTF Experiments
GEEK ALERT!! Let’s be absolutely clear; this is not a practical or useful article. It won’t help your photography or cinematography become better. It won’t help you choose equipment any time in the next couple of years. It won’t provide any fodder for your next Forum War. It’s just a geek article…
MTF Tests of the Sigma 35mm f/1.2 DG Art
We just finished testing a couple of 35mm prime lenses and came away quite impressed. But it took a little longer to finish testing the one everyone had been asking about; the Sigma 35mm f/1.2 DG Art lens. I declared the Tamron 35mm f/1.4 SP the sharpest 35mm lens we had tested just a week ago, so…