Category Archives: Lens Conparisons

Fast Lenses VS Slower Equivalents

Fast Lenses VS Slower Equivalents

When we buy lenses, most of us generally try to get the fastest model in every focal length we go with. Like many others I generally believe that the faster lens will give me better performance! My argument is that if I stop down a faster lens by a stop, I will get nicer images… Continue Reading

Battle of Cheap 17mm Primes | Tamron Adaptall-2 vs Tokina RMC

Battle of Cheap 17mm Primes | Tamron Adaptall-2 vs Tokina RMC

I’m often asked about cheap vintage wide angle primes and the two that I always recommend are the Tamron Adaptall-2 17mm F3.5 and Tokina RMC 17mm F3.5. While they do not sound very exciting when compared to lenses like Tokina 11-16mm F2.8, it’s important to remember is that these vintage prime lenses offer “full frame”… Continue Reading

Comparing Helios 58mm F2 Lenses

Comparing Helios 58mm F2 Lenses

I originally created this post in 2012. Since then I’ve learned a lot about these lenses and Helios 44-2 has become my favorite lens, so I decided to revise it with more up to date info and additional test (second part of the post) Original Test (revised): A lot of people claim that the Helios… Continue Reading

Super-Takumar 55mm F2 vs Helios 44-2 58mm F2

Super-Takumar 55mm F2 vs Helios 44-2 58mm F2

I am real Helios 44-2 58mm F2 “fanboy”; I recommend it to everyone who asks me for a vintage lens advice, but thanks to the video made by fellow vintage lens fan, Victor Bart, there is a “new” kid on the block that we should be taking the notice of.  The lens in question is… Continue Reading

ILLUMINA (LOMO) Super35 High Speed Cine Lenses

ILLUMINA (LOMO) Super35 High Speed Cine Lenses

A fellow filmmaker & my go to guy when it comes to info on Russian lenses, Tomasz Wolski aka Film Cyfeowy has recently written a wonderful article for the Polish Filammking Magazine “FilmPro” (check out their Website & Facebook). The article is about Illumina MK-II Cine lenses from LOMO, a legendary producer of film cameras… Continue Reading

Lens Turbo II vs Metabones Speed Booster In-Depth Comparison

Lens Turbo VS Speed Booster

As a very happy owner of the Canon FD to Sony E-mount Zhengyi Lens Turbo (Version 2) by ZY Optics I’ve been very curious to find out how it stacks up against the very respected Metabones Speedbooster, therefore I decided to do a quick, real life test to see if Lens Turbo gets anywhere close… Continue Reading

Olympus Zuiko 50mm F1.4 VS Chinon Multi-Coated 55mm F1.7

Olympus Zuiko 50mm F1.4 VS Chinon Multi-Coated 55mm F1.7

As you can tell from my previous post I was certainly impressed with the unknown & forgotten Auto Chonon Multi-Coated 55mm F1.7, but to put things into better perspective I decided to do a simple comparison test against the my everyday 50mm lens of choice, the Olympus Zuiko F1.4. The Olympus is a bit wider… Continue Reading

Battle of Tokina 80-200 Zooms | F2.8 vs F4

Battle of Tokina 80-200 Zooms | F2.8 vs F4

I wanted to do this shootout long time ago: 2 Tokina lenses, same focal lengths, but completely different in every other way, including the price. The Tokina AT-X 80-200mm f/2.8 is already mega cheap for what it gives you, but the Tokina 80-200mm RMC f/4 is basically one of the cheapest lenses one could get.… Continue Reading