16 Lenses To Love

Rokinon 50mm f/1.4 FE
Like many of its third-party peers, Rokinon has expanded their optical sights to court Sony a7 owners. The new 50mm lens is a high-speed prime lens with a nine-blade aperture for bringing the bokeh. It uses UMC anti-reflective coatings and three aspherical lens elements to keep chromatic aberration and other optical ailments at bay. The all-metal lens has an internal focusing system for speedy autofocusing.

Price: $699
www.rokinon.com 

HD Pentax-D FA 24-70mm f/2.8 ED SDM WR
This new K-mount lens can mount to either the full-frame Pentax K-1 DSLR or the company’s APS-C models, where it delivers a 36-105mm equivalent focal length. The lens maintains a constant f/2.8 aperture throughout the zoom range and has a nine-blade aperture to create pleasing bokeh when shooting wide open. It’s weather-resistant and features a Quick Shift focus system that lets you manually adjust focus even when in autofocus mode. There’s also a zoom lock lever to keep the lens from extending under its own weight.

Price: $1,297
www.us.ricoh-imaging.com

Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG HSM Art  
This new portrait-friendly prime delivers a re-engineered AF system with 1.3X the torque of its predecessor for improved responsiveness. You’ll enjoy full-time manual focus override to dial-in focus even when the lens is set to AF. The 85mm Art lens stops down to f/16 and accepts 86mm filters. Its maximum magnification is 1:8.5. It’s a full-frame DSLR lens available in Nikon, Canon and Sigma mounts. The Nikon mounts feature a new electromagnetic diaphragm to maintain consistent exposure during high-speed shooting.

Price: $1,199
www.sigmaphoto.com

Schneider Kreuznach 45mm f/3.5 & 150mm F/2.8
Part of the “Blue Ring” series of lenses produced for Phase One’s XF camera system, the new Schneider primes have been built to resolve the eye-watering detail captured by Phase’s ultra high-resolution backs. The new 150mm f/2.8 IF is the fastest Blue Ring telephoto lens to date, while the 45mm f/3.5 delivers “nearly distortion-free” wide-angle images, according to Phase One.

Price: $6,999 (150mm); $5,990 (45mm)
www.phaseone.com

IRIX 15MM f/2.4
This 15mm manual focus prime lens should please the pixel peepers with its minimum focusing distance of just under 11 inches and neutrino coating to reduce flare and ghosting. The lens has a focus lock so you can lock the focus ring into a desired position. The focus ring also clicks when you hit infinity, giving you a tactile indication of your focus reach. The lens accepts 95mm filters and is weather-sealed. The Blackstone model has engraved fluorescent markings on the lens body and has a weather sealed front lens element. Its body is scratch-proof with an all-metal focus ring. The Firefly edition is lighter—the lightest lens in its class, according to Irix—but doesn’t have the weather-sealed front lens element. Its markings are printed, not engraved, and you’ll have a rubber focus ring.

Price: $780 (Blackstone): $540 (Firefly)
www.irixlens.com

Lensbaby Twist 60
The Twist 60 is a 60mm f/2.5 full-frame lens that channels a classic Petzval design. According to Lensbaby, the Twist 60 will create swirly bokeh with strong vignetting to accentuate your subject—no software wizardry required. Available in Canon EF, Nikon F and Sony FE mounts, it’s a manual focus lens that can focus on objects up to 18 inches away from the lens and stop down to f/22.

Price: $280
www.lensbaby.com

Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD G2 (model A022)
The newest member of Tamron’s SP lineup, the second generation SP 150-600mm full-frame telephoto lens delivers improved autofocusing speed and accuracy thanks to updated AF software and circuitry. Vibration Correction is now available in four modes and is good for 4.5 stops of correction per CIPA standards. Three modes of VC are adjustable on the lens itself. Mode 1 balances the stability in the viewfinder with the stability of the final image when captured. Mode 2 stabilizes the lens during panning. Mode 3, where the maximum 4.5 stops of correction are realized, prioritizes the stability of the image and not the preview in the viewfinder. Owners of the TAP-in Console accessory will be able to reprogram mode 1 to work continuously during video recording. The lens has fluorine coating on the front element, is moisture-resistant and includes an Arca-Swiss-style removable tripod collar. You’ll enjoy a 1:3.9 magnification ratio at 600mm and there’s a flex-lock mechanism to lock your zoom position into place. The lens will be available for Canon and Nikon mounts immediately, with a Sony A mount version due at a later date. The Nikon mount offers a new electromagnetic diaphragm to support consistent exposures during high-speed shooting.

Price: $1,399
www.tamron-usa.com

Zeiss Loxia 2.4/85 
Sony full-frame portrait photographers have some new Zeiss glass to ogle. The Loxia 2.4/85 has a minimum focusing distance of .8 meters with a long manual focus ring that turns 220 degrees for super-precise manual focusing. It’s a manual focus lens, but its electronic contacts will transmit lens EXIF data to your Sony camera body and will trigger focus zoom magnification to help you dial in your focusing on the camera’s display. The Loxia is filmmaker-friendly with an aperture that can be declicked for smooth and silent exposure transitions, and a Lens Gear mount that lets you use standard follow-focus systems on the Loxia. The aluminum lens is weatherproof.

Price: $1,399
www.zeiss.com

Fujifilm Fujinon XF23mm F2 R WR
This weather-sealed lens weighs in at a svelte 180 grams and delivers the equivalent of a 35mm lens on a full-frame camera. It features an inner focusing system with a stepping motor and electron beam coating to reduce flare and ghosting. It has a minimum working distance of under 9 inches so you can get up close and personal with your subjects.

Price: $450
www.fujifilmusa.com

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4E ED
Nikon shooters looking for a super fast, medium telephoto prime lens have a doozy in the AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4E ED, the world’s first full-frame 105mm with an f/1.4 aperture. The lens features an electromagnetic aperture control for consistent exposures during high-speed shooting. It’s weather-sealed  and uses fluorine coatings on the front and rear lens elements to make dirt and moisture easier to wipe away.

Price: $2,200
www.nikonusa.com

Tokina FiRIN 20mm f/2
Sony’s FE mount has seen a flurry of activity lately as lens makers try to ride the coattails of Sony’s full-frame mirrorless success. The new FiRIN line from Tokina will give Sony shooters a lens that’s equally at home shooting stills or recording video. The first model, a 20mm f/2 manual focus lens, has a wide focus ring and an aperture ring that can be declicked for quiet and smooth exposure changes during video recording. It has nine aperture blades and stops down to f/22.

Price: $800
www.kenkotokinausa.com

Olympus M.ZUIKO Digital ED 25 f/1.2
With a 35mm-equivalent focal length of 50mm, Micro Four Thirds shooters have a super fast, standard prime lens to call their own. The weatherproof lens has a close focusing distance of 11.8 inches and nine aperture blades to bring the bokeh. It stops down to f/16 and uses an internal focusing mechanism. It’s compatible with the IS Sync image stabilization system found on new Olympus camera bodies to keep images sharp.

Price: $2,000
www.getolympus.com

Venus Optics LAOWA Ultra Wides
China’s Venus Optics is quickly making a name for itself as a purveyor of unconventional focal lengths, and its latest FE and Micro Four Thirds mount lenses are no exception. These prime lenses won’t be available until early 2017, but they’ll be some of the widest angle optics for Sony’s full-frame mirrorless cameras and Micro Four Thirds cameras. The lenses include a 15mm f/2 FE mount and a 7.5m f/2 for MFT cameras. Despite its wide angle of view, Venus claims that the 15mm FE lens won’t produce optical distortion. It will accept 72mm filters and weigh 1.1 pounds. The Laowa 7.5mm f/2 MFT is, as of this writing, the widest f/2 rectilinear lens ever designed for Micro Four Thirds cameras. It weighs a scant 0.37 pounds and delivers a 110-degree angle of view.

Price: TBD
www.venusoptics.com

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM 
The EF 70-300mm is Canon’s first lens with an LCD info display. The LCD is a window into your lens’s settings, showing you focusing distance, focal length and also the amount of shake the lens is experiencing (so you’ll know when you’ve had enough of that Starbucks). The lens has an image stabilization system good for up to four stops of image correction, per CIPA standards. It uses a NANO USM motor for high-speed focusing and has full-time manual focus adjustment so you can make manual tweaks to focusing even when you’re in AF mode.

Price: $550
www.usa.canon.com

Hasselblad XCD 30mm
Hasselblad’s compact mirrorless medium format camera, the X1D, is now on the market, and while Hasselblad sells an adapter for existing HC-series lenses, it’s also building out the X1D’s native glass (X-mount). The newest addition to the lineup is the 30mm f/3.5 prime lens for the X1D (joining a 45mm and a 90mm). It will stop down to f/32, take 77mm filters and can focus on objects up to 0.6m away. It supports flash sync to 1/2000 sec.

Price: $3,785
www.hasselblad.com

Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.-5.6 G OSS
If you need a versatile telephoto zoom lens, Sony’s 70-300mm boasts a minimum focusing distance of .9m and a magnification of .31x, so you can get up close to subjects or track them from a distance. It uses Sony’s Nano AR coating and extra-low dispersion glass elements to reduce spherical distortion and chromatic aberration. The lens offers built-in optical stabilization and is dust- and moisture-resistant.

Price: $1,200
www.sony.com