Welcome to PR-Reviews, a channel for photography and lens-interested people. You can find detailed lens or other photography gear-related reviews here if you'd like. We can occasionally upload a photography travel video or shorts related to lenses.
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Really appreciate the comprehensive review you did. Those vignetting figures are astounding. It seems because this is based on a lens with a decently large image circle (because it was TS lens in it's first iteration, and also because even now it's still advertised as a GFX capable lens), we get this really low level of corner darkening on full frame. The only real issue I see for proper macro, is the focus throw not being longer. At 2 to 1 magnification, trying to get manual images for focus stacking would be a nightmare. Likewise, a lens hood would have been appreciated. But other than that, this thing looks unbelievable for the price if you don't need auto focus.
@JayJayYUP Absolutely right about the low vignette and large image circle that is enough for medium format. I have written about it in the blog's text-based review, but I missed it in the video. Regarding the focus throw, while you are right about it being small, at 2:1 most practical way to get the subject in focus is by pre-setting the focus and moving the whole camera to bring the subject into focus. Normally, most people use that technique at such magnification.
If your after fast birds like Swallows, Falcons and using 600mm etc its very useful and once you get the hang of it will give you great shots you would of otherwise missed. like everything you have to put the time in and practise.
I agree that it is a very nice lens. It is sharp and has a nice bokeh. Of course, there are some things that could be improved. The autofocus could be a bit faster and it is also a bit disappointing that it is "only" an f1.8 lens. If it was an f1.4, it would be perfect. However, looking at the recently announced 50mm f1.4, it seems that f1.4 lenses are harder to design, as this lens is in my opinion neither as sharp in the image corners nor does it have a bokeh that is as nice as the one of the 50mm f1.8 S.
It’s a good idea, but I feel it wouldn’t work on a big lens, my 500/4 is too heavy to hold steady at arms length. When I used to digiscope years ago, there was a technique that used a zip tie. It’s called the Cable Tie Sight ( only in angled scopes only ) take a look on Bird Forum where it’s discussed more in depth. My Canon 100-400 Mk1 has a trombone type of focus, a push/pull mechanism which allows me to locate the bird at 100mm in the sky, then zoom in to 400mm and be bang on target, by far the quickest easiest focus system for bird photographers ever.
@cerealkiller4248 Actually, you don't need to hold it at arm length, I used a neck strap around my neck as an extra support and held the camera just so that the strap was stretched. It is halfway fully stretched arms from the body. Worked quite well, but of course, the heavier the lens the sooner you get tired.
It's more practical for prime lenses.. I used the Olympus version of this with the 300mm, but only comes in handy when there's an eagle/osprey flying within 20 yards where tracking is difficult.
Hi, TT ARTISAN and you say that it needs a subject 10 meters away. But I’d like to use it for proxi photos of dragon flies, could you try at minimum focusing distance (even with recalibration). Thanks
Since the sight sits quite high above the lens, at closer distances just like with actual firearms you will have serious issues with parallax. Unless you shoot at a very similar distance each time, and then you can just calibrate the sight to that expected distance, so and 10-20cm near or far will not be too big of a problem.
@franciscojose8577 actually, it's the explanation that takes time, I went out to a lake to take bird photos several times, and each time I calibrated the dot sight just in a couple of minutes in the parking and didn't take the tripod with me. And setting up the tripod and folding it down took most of the calibration time.
@@PR-Reviews but if you bump the hot shoe area while you're moving around, you may need to recalibrate it. So it's really not that useful in practice. The idea is good though
I like the idea of this item but I feel it's not ready for prime time. The dot should be a cross-hair, the alignment procedure due to the poor tolerance is a real deal breaker for astrophotography. How do you do a re-alignment it total darkness ? Thank you for a very thorough review.
At 2x magnification what is the distance from the subject to the front of the lens? A lot of these macro lenses change the focal length by moving the internal lens elements and so the focal length might actually be 40mm or something like that. Good review. Regards Gerry
Wow, so when you’re that close to your subject, this wouldn’t be a good lens for bugs. I think I’d rather shoot it one to one and crop the image being that one to one. Your depth of field is greater. Thanks for the reply.
Nice video again! Very interesting lens. Seems there is some movement in the Macro lens department, especially as the Astrhori 120mm is out now as well. TTartisan and especially Astrhori seem to get more and more into what was mostly Laowas playground. As I shoot APS-C (for Macro also bit easier depth of field), I prefer the Laowa 65mm f2.8, little brother of the Laowa 100mm f2.8, for its more compact size but still high image quality. This or the heavy Astrhori 120mm get even more front-heavy on a small Sony APS-C camera. Also the wobbling might be a dealbreaker when using it for stacking on a rail...
In the past I didn't have much choice, to have larger lenses because there were less small ones. But now I like having smaller lenses and different focal lengths. Those Z-quality glasses are really good!
Thanks for this video. I love using this lens on my Z fc and wonder how it will perform if I get a full frame camera. I’m thinking of adding the Nikon Z f to my kit.
All my images are taken with a fullframe camera, Z7ii. On a Zfc the result will be at least as good as these ones, but note that the angle of view will differ. Your lens will go from being a standard lens to a wide-angle lens.
The Zf is such a great camera to use, built quality (and weight) are way superior the Zf c, I own them all the Zf c, the Z7 II, the Zf. Most of the time I use the Zf, especially with adapted MF lenses.
That’s a great lens for travel with the ZF, together with the 40mm F2 a strong combo for many situations. The 26 for landscape, the 40mm for street and universal work - now there’s only a telephoto missing. Some kind of 70 - 90 mm F2-2.8 and we’re set. At least I’d be absolutely fine with these.
Though I rarely find myself needing anything wider than 16mm on APS-C, this looks awesome for those who do. This seems very useful for video, to compensate for the field of view lost to crop, especially with the ability to de-click the aperture ring. Lovely review, nice to see familiar sights in the sample images. Love from Malmö!
Very happy to see my favorite review blog here on youtube now as well! Keep on the good reviews and I hope you will get the attention you and the quailty of your reviews deserve here! You always deliver very precise and not too detailed but still comprehensive reviews. Your (and your co-blog author's) passion could relly be read between lines. Thanks for that!
Thanks, I've already reviewed them, but not been published on RU-vid yet. I have a few in the pipe, they will come up soon, subscribe to be notified when they come uo
