Digital Camera News and Reviews

Sigma 150mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM Macro

The Digital Picture has reviewed Sigma’s long macro lens, the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM Macro. This review is really interesting for me as I’ve been thinking of buying this Sigma lens for the Four Thirds format, but the lens is also available for Canon, Nikon and Sigma mounts. The review by The Digital Picture was done with Canon cameras in mind and it also have some nice comparisons with other Canon lens alternatives.

The Digital Picture ends up giving the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM Macro lens a very good review due to it’s excellent image quality and relatively cheap price. On the downside there is a bit of vignetting and the auto focus is a bit slow so it is not recommend for action photography, but for macro photography it should work fine.

Read the full review of the Sigma 150mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM Macro lens here.

Pentax K20D DSLR

Diwa Labs has tested the latest DSLR camera from Pentax, the 14.2 megapixel K20D and the 10.2 megapixel K200D. Both camera were tested with the Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II lens and the K20D were also tested with the Pentax DA 16-50mm f/2.8 ED IF SDM lens. Diwa labs seems to be pleased with the results except for some vignetting on the DA 16-50mm f/2.8 ED IF SDM lens.

Read about the tests of the Pentax K20D and K200D DSLR’s here. The tests done by DIWA Labs are very technical so you need to read their test guide to understand the results.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4

Camera Labs has reviewed the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM which is a part of Canon’s flagship range the L-series. The lens has been tested on the Canon 40D and 400D (XTi) DSLR camera bodies that have a cropped sensor.
Camera Labs ends up giving the lens a so-so verdict since the 1.6x crop makes the lens range not very exciting and the optical qualities is not perfect either. On the other hand the build and mechanical quality is very good.
The Canon EF 24-105mm lens gets a 79% overall score from Camera Labs.

Read the full review of the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens here.

Olympus has updated the firmware for the lenses Zukio Digital ED 40-150mm F4.0-5.6 and Zukio Digital ED 14-42mm F3.5-5.6. The firmware will update the lenses so they will support the new contrast detection autofocus in live view in the upcoming Olympus E-420.