Lens News

Ever wonder what goes into the making of a sophisticated $11,000 lens? Well, the intriguing video below offers a remarkable inside tour of Canon’s EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4X, a unique super telephoto with a built-in optically matched 1.4X teleconverter.

For Canon lens fans, the wait finally ended when the company took the wraps off the new EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, a relatively compact super-telephoto zoom that has been hotly anticipated and frequently rumored about for years.

Our favorite weird lens guru Mathieu Stern has been testing out some unusual Soviet-era Russian lens and the results have been surprisingly impressive. In fact, in the below video, Stern pairs the Jupiter-9 85mm F/2 portrait lens on a Sony A7 II mirrorless camera and some of his still photos and video are actually quite amazing.

German optical company Meyer-Optik Gorlitz is celebrating the 100^th anniversary of their acclaimed Trioplan line by relaunching the legendary 50mm Trioplan “Soap Bubble” lens, so named for its unique bokeh characteristics. The new 50mm f/2.9 Trioplan features premium build quality, modern coatings, and a 1:4 reproduction ratio for macro photography.

The decisive moment had decisively passed and I missed another great shot: While framing and reframing my zoom lens the scene changed, the sun slid behind a cloud, and people in the shot moved. I finally realized I was missing shots because I had too much gear. 

Here’s a little something for those of you who can’t afford the new $6000 Leica M–D: Four quirky lenses you can get for under 30 bucks from Weird Lens Guru Mathieu Stern, whose passion is discovering odd optics you can adapt to your mirrorless camera to capture both still images and video. In this video Stern describes a quartet of lenses you can get for less than the cost of two decent cocktails in Paris.

For many photographers the Zeiss moniker conjures visions of optical magic, and the new Zeiss Batis 18mm f/2.8 super-wide for Sony E-Mount full-frame cameras promises not to disappoint. With its diagonal angular field of 99 degrees, this is currently the widest full-frame fixed focal length lens with autofocus capability.