Comments for

Comment on Zeiss Biogon T 2.8/25mm ZM Black Lowest Price by Mark W. Bohrer "Technology Writer & Documenta...

Mark W. Bohrer "Technology Writer & Documenta... — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:05:03 +0000

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

The best moderate wide angle lens for Leica M8 and M-mount film cameras, February 17, 2009

Mark W. Bohrer "Technology Writer & Documenta... (Saratoga, California) -

This review is from: Zeiss Biogon T 2.8/25mm ZM Black (Electronics)

This lens lives on my M8. Period. If you're used to any of the 35mm wides on a film Leica, Voigtlander Bessa, or Zeiss camera, you'll love this 25mm's coverage - slightly wider than a 35mm lens on a full-frame 35mm camera - on the Leica M8 with its 1.333X crop factor.

Sharp corner-to-corner, with the usual wide-angle vignetting (corner-darkening). The lens lacks the sparkle, of, say, the 35mm f/2 Summicron-M ASPH, but the Zeiss lenses draw differently. Good macro-contrast, slightly less micro-contrast than Leica.

At 1/3 the price for excellent build-quality and optical quality close to Leica's, I knew which lens I could afford to buy and use. The 25mm Biogon's coverage also matches the M8's too-narrow 24mm viewfinder frame very well at distances beyond a couple meters.

Highly recommended.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comment

Comment on Zeiss Biogon T 2.8/25mm ZM Black Lowest Price by John Kwok

John Kwok — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:23:28 +0000

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Best Moderate Wide Angle Lens for a 35mm Rangefinder Camera, November 25, 2007

John Kwok (New York, NY USA) -

This review is from: Zeiss Biogon T 2.8/25mm ZM Black (Electronics)

Two years ago, here at Amazon.com, I wrote this about the Zeiss ZM 25mm f2.8 T* Biogon lens without having had the opportunity to try it first:

"The 25mm f 2.8 Biogon lens is regarded by many users - judging from reports as I have seen on the internet - as the best lens available now in the Zeiss Ikon ZM lens line. Indeed, most of these reports I have read have implied that this lens is superior to the Leica 24mm f2.8 ASPH M-Elmarit, its nearest competition (Like the Leica 24mm lens, this Zeiss lens also accepts 46mm fliters.), with regards to contrast and resolution at all apertures and focusing distances. This lens was designed by Zeiss lens designers at the company headquarters in Oberkochen, Germany, but it is being built by Cosina in Japan under strict Zeiss quality supervision. This means that this lens still deserves to be known as a Zeiss lens, in stark contrast to the cheaper, though still optically superb, Cosina-built Voigtlander lenses. I wouldn't hesitate adding this lens or any of its siblings to my Leica M rangefinder kit."

Within the past two months I have had the pleasure of trying this lens twice, having borrowed the same lens from the Zeiss USA office. It is the best moderate wide angle lens for a 35mm rangefinder camera that I have ever used, slightly better wide open than my Leica 24mm f2.8 ASPH M-Elmarit lens. It is not just tack sharp, but quite contrasty too, due to its T* multicoating. But there are two truly amazing things about this lens. First, using a traditional lens design, Zeiss optical designers have produced a rangefinder lens that is slightly better than its Leica equivalent (Moreover, Zeiss claims on its website www.zeiss.de, that this lens resolves substantially more lines per millimeter than any other comparable lens.). Second, they have done so at a cost that is relatively cheap; hence the Biogon sells now for substantially less than one half - and indeed, almost one-third - the cost of the Leica Elmarit lens. Last, but not least, I've judged the lens' build quality to be close to what one would expect from its comparable Leica equivalent. This is the perfect lens for a rangefinder camera user who is interested not only in landscape and architectural photography, but also for photojournalistic applications too.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comment

Comment on Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 EX DG HSM APO IF Ultra Telephoto Zoom Lens for Sigma SLR Cameras Black Friday by Gary Mayo

Gary Mayo — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:09:17 +0000

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

Perfect Lens In The Super Telephoto Zoom Range, February 8, 2011

Gary Mayo (Lincoln, NE United States) -

This review is from: Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 EX DG HSM APO IF Ultra Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras (Electronics)

First off, this lens is no toy. It is a serious tool. One of the reviews here is not taking into account the persons ability to know how to use a lens like this. If you do not know how to use the lens, the lens can be no better than the photographer.

This lens requires support. That can be in the form of a heavy tripod and gimbal head, or it can be in the form of bean bags. Bags over the lens and well as under it.

A 800mm lens can see the effects of a 3 mph wind going gently by. Would not doubt it would see the effects of a bug landing on it. This lens needs substantial support. It could also benefit from mirror lock up, and a remote shutter, or a delayed timer.

If you are not going to take the time to learn how to use it, and then take the time to set it up, do not bother getting this lens. It will do you no good at all. Stick with the kit lens that came with your camera.

However, if you are a pro, this is a serious pro lens. It will knock your socks off! No other lens on the planet will do what this lens will do. 300-800mm Zoom in a constant f/1:5.6. Simply a dream lens!

As for that other reviewer, enjoy your kit lenses.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comment

Comment on Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 EX DG HSM APO IF Ultra Telephoto Zoom Lens for Sigma SLR Cameras Black Friday by Michael A. Hays

Michael A. Hays — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:25:00 +0000

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

The SIGMONSTER, April 1, 2008

Michael A. Hays (Charlottesville, VA, USA) -

This review is from: Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 EX DG HSM APO IF Ultra Telephoto Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras (Electronics)

This is an awesome lens and is a real must-have for birdwatching and other nature photography. The zoom range is extremely flexible and the f-stop reasonably fast, but keep in mind that this is a very, very specialized lens. First of all, yes, it is gigantic! This is not something you'll be carrying around day-to-day. It can be very challenging to get sharp pictures at focal lengths beyond 400mm or so. You MUST MUST MUST use a sturdy, high-end tripod and gimbal head. This will also preclude the "downward fall" described in another review. The lens alone is very heavy, and once you toss in a sturdy tripod you're talking 25+ pounds of equipment at a minimum; this is really going to limit your mobility and affect the way you shoot. It takes a lot of forethought to use this lens, but I prefer to think of that as an advantage.

When used properly, this lens has fantastic image quality -- very sharp, excellent contrast. When I say sharp, I am talking L-series sharp, even wide open. The HSM focus speed is fast, perhaps slightly slower than Canon's USM but not appreciably so. The only thing it's really missing is image stabilization (or optical stabilization, as Sigma calls it), which would really help out on those long shots. This is a minor limitation, though, to a great lens. If you have the discipline to learn how to use this lens properly (and if you can afford it!), you'll reap some great rewards.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comment (1)

Comment on Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens + Deluxe Accessory Kit Best Price by G. E. Gonderinger "Gondo"

G. E. Gonderinger "Gondo" — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:20:11 +0000

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Good lens, February 7, 2009

G. E. Gonderinger "Gondo" (West Point, Nebraska) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens + Deluxe Accessory Kit (Electronics)

This is a good lens, but has a narrow depth of field. I know that the description of it mentioned that, but I am a bit disappointed. It is not as useful as an all around lens as I had hoped. Yes, it is wonderful as a portrait lens. But for general pictures, the stuff in the background is a bit fuzzy.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comment

Comment on Sigma 150mm f/2.8 AF APO EX DG OS HSM Macro Lens for Sigma Digital SLRs Lower Price by Kenneth L. "Kenneth November"

Kenneth L. "Kenneth November" — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:58:05 +0000

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

My first HEAVY lens..., December 18, 2011

Kenneth L. "Kenneth November" (Del Norte, CO) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Sigma 150mm f/2.8 AF APO EX DG OS HSM Macro Lens for Canon Digital SLRs (Electronics)

Heavy man... oh my, I'm channeling the 1970's again,

Great lens. Optical stabilization, fast, fast, fast. Heavy for someone not expecting it to be so heavy.

HOWEVER, with a "C" size sensor the effective range of this lens on a Canon with a multiplication of 1.6 is 240mm and really far to close for my purposes, or so I believed when I had this lens.

I returned the lens and bought the Sigma 70-200 f2.8, stabilized lens and am happy with this lens.

Recently I have been reviewing my macro shots with this 150mm lens and I'm positive I'll be repurchasing it in the future and using my tripod. I have found new uses for this lens and now miss it. Rattlesnakes up close and personal? The longer the lens the safer you are and use a spotter to look for other rattlers when pursuing their portraits. Once bitten... WHY?

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comment

Comment on Sigma 150mm f/2.8 AF APO EX DG OS HSM Macro Lens for Sigma Digital SLRs Lower Price by Boris Nikashin "NB!"

Boris Nikashin "NB!" — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:48:29 +0000

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Amazing, November 2, 2011

Boris Nikashin "NB!" (PA, USA) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Sigma 150mm f/2.8 AF APO EX DG OS HSM Macro Lens for Nikon Digital SLRs (Electronics)

This lens has amazing sharpness and perfect OS. I'm not a pro, so I have nothing to compare it with.
But note that f/2.8 is not available on short distances (at least for me that wasn't obvious), so from the shortest distance you can use only f/5.6

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comment (1)

Comment on Sigma 150mm f/2.8 AF APO EX DG OS HSM Macro Lens for Sigma Digital SLRs Lower Price by David Siegfried

David Siegfried — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:04:14 +0000

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

Fantastically sharp telephoto + macro + portrait lens!, July 15, 2011

David Siegfried (Chicago, IL United States) -

This review is from: Sigma 150mm f/2.8 AF APO EX DG OS HSM Macro Lens for Canon Digital SLRs (Electronics)

This is the brand new Optically Stabilized (OS) version of Sigma's 150mm f/2.8 AF APO EX DG HSM Macro Lens. I don't own the original version of this lens but I have read many positive reviews about it and this new version has an even better sharpness profile (MTF chart).

I shoot mostly nature photography with Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 60D. Digital photography has made the sharpness, contrast and hand hold-ability of lenses more critical than ever. My two favorite lenses for use in the field are the Canon 100mm macro f/2.8 and the Canon 70-200mm f/4 -- those are the two sharpest lenses in my bag. I recently picked up the Canon 135mm f/2 which is renowned as one of Canon's sharpest lenses and is the preferred lens for many portrait photographers. It's a great lens for studio portraits but I found it difficult to use because it lacks image stabilization and it doesn't focus as close as I would like for shooting plants and flowers.

This lens is very close in focal length (and price) to the Canon 135mm lens which doesn't have macro or image stabilization. I wanted to try this lens for that reason and because it gives more working room for macro work than the 100mm lens does. Compared to the Canon 135mm f/2, this lens more than exceeded my expectations. Fans of that lens may not believe that a Sigma lens could be sharper than that Canon classic, but this lens blows it away. You don't have to take my word for it, just compare the MTF charts. The Sigma lens is crazy sharp, completely sharp across the entire field including all the way into the corners. It has a special flat front lens element to insure this, so that it can be used to reproduce artwork and other flat materials with complete accuracy. That and the fact that it has both macro AND image stabilization makes this a real Canon-killer of the revered 135mm f/2 lens! And if you think that the Canon 135 has this lens beat for bokeh, think again! The shots from this lens produce some of the smoothest, silkiest, colorful backgrounds that I have ever seen!!

I uploaded several of my test shots including the brick wall test, the evergreen needle sharpness test, and the focus isolation test. Also several that demonstrate the amazing bokeh of this lens, and of course, my favorite, macro shots (oh, and one portrait). You will see details and features that you have never seen before with this lens in macro mode.

My test results show that the lens is sharp from center to edge from the get-go at f/2.8. There is only the tiniest amount of vignetting wide open, you would never even notice it unless you were taking shots of a blank white wall or a field of blue sky. Stopped down to f/4, it gets even a bit sharper, though you wouldn't think it was possible. I have uploaded my test shots showing the difference between f/2.8 and f/4. You can tell a little difference at 100% magnification, but in real-life prints or even viewing the shots full screen on a plasma TV, there is no way you could tell the difference.

I took a number of macro shots (my favorite) both using existing light and the Opteka RL-600 E-TTL II Macro Twin Ring Lite Flash for Canon EOS 1D, 5D, 7D, 10D, 20D, 30D, 40D, 50D, 60D, Rebel XT, XTi, XS, XSi, T1i & T2i Digital SLR Cameras ring flash. I have uploaded some nice ones to the customer image section. As always, a ring flash is preferred to get clean and sharp macro shots hand-held; the next best way is to be in bright sunlight and use a higher ISO setting -- the goal is to get your shutter speed up over 1/1000 with the lens stopped down to about f/7.1 or smaller. The lens does allow a little more working room for macro shots than the 100mm (I like to take photos of bees), but it was not as much of a difference as I had hoped--just a couple of inches. The drawback of this lens versus the 100mm macro is that it is quite a bit heavier. I found my hand aching a bit after using this for an hour whereas I could go for hours holding the Canon 100mm macro. It's heavy because it's built like a tank like many Sigma lenses; they added "splash-proof" to the features of this lens which I guess means you can get it wet, just don't drop it in the lake. However because of the weight, if you are just wanting to buy a good macro lens, I would recommend just getting the Canon 100mm non-IS version plus a ring flash, to begin with.

As a portrait lens this is every bit as good as the Canon 135mm, in my opinion. You should use it with a full-frame Camera such as the 5D Mark II for dedicated portrait photography. It's the perfect length for head shots and gives a VERY pleasing perspective on the face -- the nose is slim and it gives a warm tone to the features, with the entire face in focus when the lens is wide open and the background fading into a soft blur... Read more

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comments (7)

Comment on Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 APO DG OS Optical Stabilizer HSM SLD Ultra Telephoto Zoom Lens Kit for Canon Digital DSLR Camera With 2X Auto focus Tele-Converter 100-1000mm , set Of 3 Filters , Case , Hood , Cleaning kit , Cap Keeper and Extended warranty Find Best Deal by Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 03:17:15 +0000

Great Lens., January 25, 2011

Mark Mccarrell -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 APO DG OS Optical Stabilizer HSM SLD Ultra Telephoto Zoom Lens Kit for Canon Digital DSLR Camera With 2X Auto focus Tele-Converter 100-1000mm , set Of 3 Filters , Case , Hood , Cleaning kit , Cap Keeper and Extended warranty (Electronics)

Most details about this lens have been written already, I'll just say this. I Love this lens. Slightly heavy, but for a lens that goes 50 to 500, I'll carry all day. It is big, and attracts attention, but my images turn out very sharp and nice. I have no regrets about buying, however it is expensive, but good photography isn't cheap. A great addition to my arsenal of lenses.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comment

Comment on Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras Hot Deal by BirdPhotographer

BirdPhotographer — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:29:21 +0000

48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

Impressive, depending on your copy, December 19, 2008

BirdPhotographer (Pacific NW, USA) -

This review is from: Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras (Electronics)

The good news is that this lens is capable of producing some very sharp, quality images. The bad news is that it depends on your copy (thus 4 stars instead of 5). Don't necessarily believe those who tell you that you have "bad technique".

I went through 3 lenses before finally getting one that performed as one would expect for a $7,000+ lens. The first copy had obvious defects, produced soft images lacking detail, and was returned to the seller. The 2nd copy had something resembling bad chromatic aberration (also with soft images lacking detail once again), and went in to the California Factory Service Center twice. Both times, the FSC returned it to me in worst shape than when it went in. After contacting a Canon executive, my lens went to Canon's engineers and I was issued a loaner within 24 hours (something the head of the California FSC never offered). Canon's executives obviously care; I'm not so sure about their FSC.

Canon eventually told me they were going to use the lens to find ways to improve their manufacturing process. They offered to let me keep the loaner they had sent me, but I declined due to visible metal casting flakes on the outermost element. Canon ended up sending me a copy that was first inspected by their engineers. I've had that copy for 5 months now and it has performed superbly - sharp, good contrast, etc.

So if/when you buy this lens, buy from a seller you trust, and a seller that you know will work with you. I bought from Canoga Camera in southern California. With the first lens, they were supportive. With the second lens, they told me I could not return it, and then had their Canon sales rep call me. The sales rep insulted me (literally), told me I did not know what I was talking about, stated, "Are we done here?", and then essentially hung up on me. I was on my own when I contacted Canon executives in NY. Fortunately, they were extremely professional and responsive, but it was a long ordeal that was quite stressful considering how much money was at stake.

Using live view at 10x, the visible shake of 840mm (600mm + 1.4x TC) is evident, even when the lens appears to be steady. Yet with IS, the results can be impressively sharp.

In addition to a very sturdy tripod and good tripod head, I have gotten excellent results using the molar bean bag filled with 20+ pounds of pinto beans. This lens produces much better images than my Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS lens. Even with a 2x TC, the results from this lens are superior to my 100-400mm.

For reference, I own Canon's 24-70mm f/2.8 L, 70-200 mm f/2.8 L IS, and 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS. The 600mm is my only prime, so it should come as no surprise that it performs the best of all the lenses in my collection. The 70-200 is a close second in terms of performance.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you?

Comment