We’re midway by the 12 days of Christmas, and we’re midway by our recap of the 12 months of 2024 – seen by the lens, pardon the pun, of all the good glass we noticed all year long. Right now, it is the lenses of June…
Suppose traditional telephoto zooms for 35mm movie cameras and DSLRs of a sure age, and 70-300mm lenses spring to thoughts. Tamron put a brand new spin on issues in June, asserting the brand new Tamron 50-300mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD. It retains the sometimes compact and light-weight construct of this class of lens, however kicks off the zoom vary at a totally normal 50mm as an alternative of 70mm focal size.
In the meantime, after ready within the wings for six complete years, Sigma lastly launched its first-ever lens for the Canon EOS R system. It got here within the diminutive form of the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | Up to date, a type of ‘trinity’ normal zoom for APS-C format R-series cameras with an efficient zoom vary of 28.8-80mm and a continuing f/2.8 aperture.
Going one higher than trinity zooms, there was additionally the announcement of a groundbreaking Sigma 28-45mm f/1.8 DG DN | Artwork lens. Certain the zoom vary is relatively restricted, however it’s greater than an f-stop quicker with a continuing f/1.8. As we’ve come to anticipate, the lens was introduced in Sony E and L-mount choices.
Whereas Sigma launched its first Canon RF (or RF-S) lens, first-party glass hit the headlines with the brand new Canon RF 35mm f/1.4 L VCM – the second in a brand new ‘hybrid’ collection to function an aperture management ring, extra appropriate for capturing video in addition to stills.
In one other second, so to talk, Canon additionally doubled up on its VR lenses, with the announcement of the Canon RF-S 3.9mm f/3.5 STM Twin Fisheye lens.
And talking of f/1.4 lenses, the Nikon Z 35mm f/1.4 was additionally introduced in June with a price ticket that’s cheaper than the present f/1.8 lens – though not like the latter, the brand new f/1.4 isn’t an S-line lens.
To suit not simply Nikon our bodies, however nearly any digicam by way of respective mount adapters, there was information of a TTArtisan 250mm f/5.6 Reflex lens with an M42 mount. In the meantime, the Viltrox Ka-LUNA 30-300mm T4 was unleashed, a brace of Sirui 16mm and 75mm f/1.2 primes have been added for APS-C cameras, and the Voigtländer Nokton 75mm f/1.5 Aspherical migrated to Sony E-mount.
In cine occasions, there was the discharge of a brand new collection of Laowa T1 prime cine lenses for Sony, Nikon, Canon and Fujifilm, whereas a brand new Irix Explorers Set launched as an all-in-one package that features 4 versatile cine lenses.
We had a star-spangled assessment schedule in June, kicking off with the epic Fujifilm GF 500mm f/5.6 R LM OIS WR, the corporate’s longest lens so far for its GFX medium format system. Going from telephoto to wide-angle, we additionally put the high-tech Viltrox AF 16mm f/1.8 by its paces, swiftly adopted by the Panasonic Lumix S 14-28mm f/4-5.6 Macro and Tamron 17-50mm f/4 Di III VXD.
Subsequent up have been a few new Sigma lenses, specifically the full-frame Sigma 28-45mm f/1.8 DG DN | Artwork and APS-C format Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | Up to date in Canon RF-S guise. And with extra of a nod to custom, we additionally reviewed the Zeiss Milvus 21mm f/2.8 for Canon and Nikon DSLRs.
See extra from our 12 lenses of Christmas collection
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