Latest Lenses

This new version of Tokina’s 12-24mm super wideangle lens incorporates an autofocus motor in its Nikon version, so it’s now compatible with Nikon cameras which don’t have a motor in the body, including the D40/D40x and D60. Tokina says it’s also improved the lens coatings, which should reduce flare and increase contrast. Otherwise, this lens appears very similar to the original Tokina 12-24mm which we reviewed in issue 78. This time we tested the Canon version on an EOS

Nikon’s 10-24mm f3.5-4.5 is a new super-wide-angle zoom for DX-format Nikon bodies (ie, not full-frame). Its 2.4x zoom range offers an equivalent focal length of 10-36mm, which is pretty much state of the art right now. The extra zoom range is important. At the wide-angle end, it means you can cram even more in and produce even more dramatic perspective effects, while at the long end, the 36mm equivalent focal length is verging on an everyday ‘standard’ focal length (for many

It’s like comparing chalk with cheese. Lightweight budget telephoto zooms, the sort sometimes bundled as ‘twin lens kits’ with DSLRs, are fine for casual use if you’ve got a DSLR with an APS-C sensor. But they have significant disadvantages, quite apart from the low-cost build. One is the variable maximum aperture; typically, a 55-200mm zoom will go from f4 at the 55mm end of the zoom range to f5.6 at the 200mm end. It’s bad enough that the maximum aperture should b

With the new Nikon D90 (reviewed on page 90 of this issue) dominating the headlines, many photographers may not have noticed that a new kit lens was launched at the same time. Nikon now has quite a few standard zooms to go with its DX-format DSLRs, which include the D60, the D90 and D300. It could all get a little confusing, so here’s a quick update on what’s available. First, there’s the basic 18-55mm kit lens sold with the Nikon D60 and, before that, the D40 and D40x. The la

Pentax has no fewer than three ‘alternative’ kit lenses, including a constant-aperture 16-45mm f4, a 16-50mm f2.8 and this one. The 17-70mm f4 reviewed here has a number of advantages over Pentax’s 18-55mm kit lens, including a constant f4 maximum aperture, a wider zoom range and Pentax’s SDM ultrasonic lens motors, which should make the autofocus faster and quieter. This is one of the principle problems with the kit lens. It has no AF motors of its own, so it’s dr

The Pentax 12-24mm is designed specifically for DSLRs, notably the company’s K200D and K20D models. On these cameras it has an equivalent focal range of 18-36mm, and 18mm equivalent is very wide indeed. It will make a big difference when trying to take architectural or interior shots in confined spaces, or when shooting dramatic landscapes or creating perspective effects. In fact, while many SLR users go for a telephoto zoom as their first additional lens, a wide-angle zoom can prove just

Canon makes two distinct lens ranges. The EF lenses will fit any of the EOS bodies, but the EF-S lenses will only fit Canons with the smaller APS-C sized sensor. That includes the EOS 1000D, 400D, 450D, 40D and new 50D. You can't use EF-S lenses on the pro-level 1D Mk III or 1Ds Mk III because they have bigger sensors and a slightly different lens mount. The EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 IS USM lens being reviewed here, then, is designed for these smaller-sensor EOS models. It's the biggest and most expens

The 'EX' in the name denotes this lens's superior optical and build quality, the 'DG' means that it's optimised for the smaller sensor areas of most DSLRs but will still work on a full-frame camera, and the 'HSM' stands for 'Hyper-Sonic Motor', Sigma's proprietary high-speed autofocus technology. This lens is available in Nikon, Canon, Sony, Pentax and Sigma mounts. On a full-frame SLR it acts as the kind of fast, fixed focal length 'standard' lens popular years ago before zooms took over, and

Why should photographers restrict themselves to the 3-4x zoom ranges of the ‘kit’ zoom supplied with the camera when you can get lenses with zoom ranges of 10x or more? The advantages are obvious – you get the extra focal range without the fuss of carrying around an extra telephoto zoom and the hassle of changing it between shots. Superzoom lenses are popular replacements for DSLR kit lenses, but they tend to come at a cost, and in more ways than one. Superzooms cost more to m

A fisheye lens is an extreme wide-angle which doesn’t attempt to correct distortion and produces a characteristically ‘rounded’ look, where nearby objects appear hugely distorted and things in the background shrink to tiny specks. Fisheye lenses come in two types: full-frame and circular. The 4.5mm lens we’re looking at this time produces a circular image which falls entirely inside the sensor’s imaging area, so that you end up with a circular image in a rectangula