Category: Lens Reviews

Cheap vs Expensive Lenses – What’s the Real Difference?

After doing tons of reviews and articles on how I like these cheaper Chinese lenses for day-to-day shooting and for fun, I thought it would be important to do a write up about what your expectations should really be when comparing cheap lenses to higher-end or more expensive lenses like a Samyang or Rokinon. Because…
Pergear 12mm f2 Review | Better Than Expected

I was expecting the Pergear 12mm f2 to have a lot more of the imperfections and sort of wild characteristics of their other lenses. But it doesn’t. It’s actually way tamer, with very nice contrast and pretty good sharpness across the frame. I’m actually impressed. I was not expecting this lens to be actually viable…
Pergear 35mm f1.2 Review | Best One So Far

The Pergear 35mm f1.2 is a compact APS-C lens designed with a bright aperture for a very shallow depth of field and low light shooting. When looking at character and performance, this lens is packed with beautiful imperfections, as well as the regular kind. With the limitations in mind, it can produce some nice results…
Secret Gem – Kipon Iberit 75mm f2.4

The Kipon IBERIT 75mm f2.4 is a relatively unknown third-party lens, but is a true gem and a street machine! I’ve written about this lens a few times but it’s sort of fallen out of the general discussion of special secret sauce lenses, so here I share some experiences and photos taken recently with it…
Nikon Z 35mm F1.8 S Review & Sample Photos

The Nikon Z 35mm f1.8 S features a partly aluminum and plastic construction, combined with the dust and weather-resistant design and a bright f1.8 aperture, that all come together to make this one of the best do-it-all lenses for travel or daily use. This 35mm also features a nearly silent stepping motor internal focusing system…
Nikon Z – The Best System For Manual Lenses?

What’s it like using manual focus lenses on the Z6? Pretty good actually. I use to always like shooting manual the most on Fujifilm cameras because they had such nice focus peaking compared to my Sony cameras. But the Z6 has even a bigger advantage over any Sony or Fujifilm cameras that makes it even…
Pergear 50mm f1.8 Review & Sample Photos

The Pergear 50mm f1.8 is an all manual all-metal, compact 50mm APS-C lens with a 75mm equivalent field of view. This lens produces a classic rendering with great micro-contrast and some very impressive sharpness, no distortion, and almost no vignetting. It’s a great street lens or portrait lens especially for photographers looking to take advantage…
Pergear 50mm f1.8 | Sharpest Budget Lens

First impressions of the Pergear 50mm f1.8 a lens that is surprisingly sharp for the price and has pretty great performance all around.
Pergear 25mm f1.8 Impressions | A Ton Of Fun

First Impressions and sample photos of the Pergear 25mm f1.8. A micro-contrast beast with some cool portrait capabilities, but not showing limitations with sharpness.
Pergear 35mm f1.6 Impressions | Better Than Expected

Over the next few months, I’m going to be taking a look at the Pergear lenses for the APS-C camera systems. One of my favorite cheap lenses of all time is the Meike 35m f1.7 so I’m curious to see what else out there is similar, and can we do better. This brings us to…