Voigtlander Color-Skopar 21mm f3.5 Aspherical Lens Review VM Mount:

Voigtlander has been releasing some really great lenses for M mount recently, and one such lens is the Color-Skopar 21mm f3.5 Aspherical.  It’s an absolutely beautiful lens, and while the list price of $799 may seem like a lot, think about it this way :): the Leica equivalent, which is the Super-Elmar-M 21mm f3.4 ASPH, costs $2995.  Now, the Leica 21mm is an amazing lens.  There’s no doubt about that but Voigtlander lenses are also seriously getting better and better.  They offer a huge bang for the buck.  I reviewed the new Nokton 75mm f1.5 Aspherical lens a few weeks ago, and I still can’t stop thinking about it.  It’s also worth mentioning that these lenses by Voigtlander don’t just give us a lot for the money, they actually offer us somewhat of a different look sometimes.  The 75mm f1.5 I just mentioned, really has its own charms (review here), so I wouldn’t even consider them as just cheaper alternatives to Leica lenses.  Anyway, let’s get started with the Color-Skopar 21mm f3.5 Aspherical. [continue reading…]

Weekly Portraits Leica SL: A Casual Test Shoot With Tiffany:

This week’s portrait set post is of Tiffany.  We decided to meet up after she came back from a trip overseas, and see what we could get in terms of photos. I think we were both kind of out of it; I’ve been busy with a lot of work recently, and she was a bit jet lagged.  Still, it was a good day to test with the old Leica, which is what we did. [continue reading…]

Fujifilm XF 35mm f1.4 R: Re-Evaluating a First Generation X series Lens

From time to time, I get questions about the XF 35mm f1.4 R lens.  They range from is the XF 35mm f1.4 still a good choice these days to discussions about how it compares to its f2 sibling.  I reviewed this lens back in 2012, when it was first released (you can still read the review here, if you want) but since a lot has changed over the years for the Fuji system, I thought I’d write up an article about this lens again.  This is not a new review; it’s more of an update.  There have been a lot of firmware updates both in the cameras, and the XF 35mm f1.4 itself.  Newer generation cameras have also changed the performance of not just this lens but others as well.  My photography in general has changed quite a bit since 2012 as well.  So, let’s just take a look at how this lens measures up now, and see if it’s still worth buying. [continue reading…]

Nikon Z 50 Mirrorless Digital Camera Announced:

I don’t shoot with many Nikon cameras not because I don’t like them or anything like that; I just haven’t had the chance but I am excited to hear about the release of the new Nikon Z 50 mirrorless camera.  The price will be $856.95, which puts it in the range of the Fuji X-T30.  It would be interesting to compare the two.  You can even order it with a 16-50mm, which will raise the price to $996.95 or a 16-50mm and a 50-250mm for $1346.95.  You can pre-order it below, if interested:

Nikon Z 50 at B&H Photo pre-order

Some details and photos below: [continue reading…]