10 Amazing Lenses

The Editors, September, 2002

Since the first 35mm SLR was born back in the 1930s, lensmakers have created some really amazing optics for these versatile cameras. Four of the wildest lenses have been discontinued in the last few years: the widest-angle (Nikon's 6mm f/2.8 Fisheye-Nikkor with its 220° angle of view), the widest-angle nonfisheye (Nikon's 13mm f/5.6 Nikkor AIS with its 118° angle of view), the longest zoom (Nikon again, with the 1200-1700mm f/5.6-8 ED-IF P Zoom-Nikkor AIS, nearly three feet long), and the fastest lens we've come across, the Zeiss 210mm N-Mirotar, a 210mm mirror lens with a three-stage electronic image intensifier and an effective lens speed of f/0.03—more than 11 stops faster than an f/1.4 lens! But there are still some pretty amazing lenses around today. From a practical standpoint, today's technology means you can buy a really good lens—including really sharp zooms—for relatively little money, from the camera manufacturers and from the major independent lens makers. From an exotic standpoint, here are 10 of the extremes among today's lenses for 35mm SLR cameras.

1. The Roundest Pictures The only circular fisheye lens widely available today happily is available for most popular AF 35mm SLRs. It's Sigma's 8mm f/4 EX Circular Fisheye, a manual-focusing lens that produces a 22mm-diameter round image in the center of the 24x36mm film frame, covering a 180° angle of view. Specs include 11 elements in 7 groups, apertures from f/4-22, a minimum focusing distance of 7.9 inches, a filter size of 22.5mm, dimensions of 2.9x2.3 inches and a weight of 13.2 ounces.

2. The Widest Nonfisheye Here, we have a four-way tie among Canon's EF 14mm f/2.8L USM, Nikon's 14mm f/2.8 ED AF-Nikkor, Sigma's 14mm f/2.8 EX Aspherical and Tamron's SP AF14mm f/2.8. All have an angle of view of 114° and use slip-in gel filters at the rear. Canon's 14mm has 14 elements in 10 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 10 inches, measures 3.0x3.5 inches, and weighs 19.8 ounces. Nikon's has 14 elements in 12 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 8 inches, measures 3.4x3.3 inches, and weighs 23.6 ounces. Sigma's has 14 elements in 10 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 7.1 inches, measures 3.2x3.6 inches (Minolta and Pentax mount) or 3.2x3.3 inches (HSM version for Canon, Nikon and Sigma SLRs). Tamron's has 14 elements in 12 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 7.8 inches, measures 3.4x3.5 inches and weighs 23.3 ounces. Canon's and Nikon's 14mm lenses fit only Canon and Nikon cameras, respectively, while the Sigma and Tamron lenses are available in mounts for Canon, Minolta, Nikon and Pentax AF SLRs (and Sigma's, for Sigma AF SLRs as well).

3. The Longest AF Lens At the other end of the spectrum, the longest AF lens is Canon's EF 1200mm f/5.6L USM. Specs include 13 elements in 10 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 45 feet, drop-in 48mm filters, a diameter of 11.3 inches (needed for that remarkably fast-for-the-focal-length maximum aperture), a length of 32.9 inches and a weight of 36.3 pounds. (Might want to use this one on as tripod.) The EF 1200mm produces 24X the magnification of a 50mm "normal" lens, works with Canon EOS cameras, and needless to point out (but we'll do it anyway), costs a bunch.

4. The Widest-Angle Zoom The widest-angle zoom lens is Pentax's 17-28mm f/3.5-4.5 fisheye zoom, which produces a 180° angle of view at the 17mm setting, along with the fisheye hallmark bending of straight lines that don't go through the center of the image. Specs include 9 elements in 7 groups, a minimum shooting distance of 17.5 inches, a diameter of 2.6 inches, a length of 2.4 inches and a weight of 8.9 ounces. It can be used on all K-mount camera bodies.

5. The Widest-Angle Non-Fisheye Zoom The widest-angle non-fisheye zoom is Sigma's 15-30mm f/3.5-4.5 EX Aspherical DG DF. Specs include 17 elements in 13 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 11.8 inches, rear gel filters, a diameter of 3.4 inches, a length of 5.1 inches, and a weight of 21.8 ounces. A Dual Focus mechanism means the focusing ring doesn't rotate during autofocusing, making the lens easier to hold. And that extra millimeter or two on the wide end of the focal-length range is invaluable to digital AF SLR users who like wide-angle work—the 15-30's 15mm focal length helps offset the "telephoto effect" of the smaller-than-35mm image sensors used in most digicams.

6. The Longest Zoom The longest zoom lens made for 35mm SLRs today is the low-priced manual-focus 650-1300mm f/8-16 offered by Phoenix. It focuses down to 16 feet, takes 95mm filters, has a diameter of 4.1 inches and a length of 18.2 inches, weighs 4.4 pounds and fits most popular SLRs via T-mount adapters. If you want to photograph subjects and can't get close (as with wildlife), this lens will "bring the subject to you."

7. The Widest-Range Zoom While we love Canon's EF 35-350mm f/3.5-5.6L USM (the first 10:1 zoom for 35mm SLRs) and Sigma's AF 50-500mm f/4-6.3 APO EX RF HSM (the longest 10:1 zoom), the 10.7:1-ratio 28-300s available from Sigma, Tamron and Vivitar edge them out for the title of widest-range zoom. These "do-it-all" lenses go from wide-angle to supertelephoto without breaking the bank. Sigma actually offers two 28-300 Hyperzooms: the new 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Compact and the 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 DL. The former has 17 elements in 15 groups, focuses down to 3 feet, takes 67mm filters, measures 3.1x3.1 inches and weighs 19 ounces; the latter has 18 elements in 16 groups, focuses down to 32.7 inches, takes 72mm filters, measures 3.1x3.6 inches and weighs 19.9 ounces. Tamron's AF28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 IF LD ASL has 15 elements in 14 groups, focuses down to 23.6 inches at the 200mm setting, takes 72mm filters, measures 3.2x3.7 inches and weighs 20.6 ounces. Vivitar's Series 1 28-300mm f/4.0-6.3 focuses down to 6.2 feet, takes 77mm filters and is available in mounts for Canon, Minolta and Nikon AF SLRs. The Sigma and Tamron lenses are available for Canon, Minolta, Nikon and Pentax AF 35mm SLRs, and the Sigmas are also available in mounts for Sigma AF SLRs.

8. A True Macro Zoom While many zoom lenses are touted as "macro zooms," there's only one true 1:1 macro zoom lens. And it zooms from 1:1 to 3:1 (3X life size) magnification. Minolta's 3X-1X f/1.7-2.8 (which can be used with all Maxxum camera bodies) provides working distances of 1-1.6 inches (it won't focus out to infinity) to get such great magnifications. Specs include 7 elements in 5 groups, apertures from f/2.8-27 at 1X and f/1.7-16 at 3X, a filter diameter of 46mm, dimensions of 3.3x4.6x3.7 inches and a weight of 38.8 ounces. Lens extension (focusing) and camera rotation (135°, for horizontal- and vertical-format shooting) are motorized; zooming is manual. Use of a tripod is just about mandatory; the lens comes with a small one.

9. The Fastest Lens Canon's EF 50mm f/1.0L USM is still the fastest readily available 35mm-camera lens. A full stop faster than f/1.4, this is a great low-light lens. It's bigger than other "normal" lenses at 3.6 inches in diameter (needed for that large maximum aperture), 3.2 inches long and 34.8 ounces, but that is one of the prices you pay for such speed. Other specs include 11 elements in 9 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 2 feet, and a filter size of 72mm. It works with all EOS camera bodies.

10. The Most-Lenses-in-One The most unusual telephoto lens is Leica's Apo-Telyt-R Module-System for R-series Leica SLRs. It consists of five pieces that can be combined in various ways to produce six different manual-focus Leica Apo-Telyt lenses. The Apo-Telyt 280/400/560 and 400/560/800 lens heads can be combined with any of three focus modules (2.8/280/400, 4/400/560 or 5.6/560/800) to create just the lens needed for the job at hand: 280mm f/2.8, 400mm f/2.8, 400mm f/4, 560mm f/4, 560mm f/5.6 and 800mm f/5.6. All configurations perform up to Leica's legendary standards, and the five pieces can be purchased separately.