Marc Alhadeff confirms the Tokina 85mm f/1.8 FE is an exact copy of the Viltrox

Marc Alhadeff from SonyAlpha.Blog tested the new Tokina 85mm f/1.8 FE lens. he had previously tested the Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 FE and can confirm it appears to be exactly the same lens:

As a copy of the Viltrox 85mm F1.8 PFU RMBH STM , it gives basically same results but at a much higher price

So unless you prefer the different look of the Tokina I would suggets you save some bucks and get the Viltrox instead:

Tokina 85mm f/1.8 FE at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon IT, Amazon ES.
Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 FE at BHphoto, Adorama, Amazon, Amazon DE.

The Great Pre-amp Shootout: Which camera has the best audio quality? Spoiler…it’s not the Sony A7III :(

Well let’s get straight to th best news: The Sony A7III was the worse performing camera of the bunch because of “the amount of noise is unbelievable, it’s last in all categories and might not even be fixable in post

The list of camera from best to worse:

  1. Canon 1DX MK III
  2. Nikon Z6 and Panasonic S1H
  3. Fujifilm X-T3
  4. Olympus EM1 MKIII
  5. Sony A7III

Let’s hope the future Sony A7IV will be dramatically improved on the audio front too!

First review of the new Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 FE lens (price around 1.200 Euros)

The German youtuber Krolop&Gerst posted the worlds first review of the new Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 FE lens. The most important news first: Tamron told them the price will be “around 1.200 Euros” which is less than half the price of the Sony 70-200mm GM. Moreover the Tamron weights 815g only compared to the 1480g from the Sony.

The reviewers say that the Sony lens has those advantages:
– The Sony lens feels more solid
– The Sony has a tripod mount
– The Sony has internal focusing
– The Sony has in lens stabilization
– The Sony has more buttons
– The Sony has more reach 200mm vs 180mm
– Better flair resistance

The Tamron advantages:
– The Tamron is sharped in the corners
– The Tamron seems to have a better light transmission (1/3 stop faster in terms of real world t-stop)
– It focuses close 85cm vs 96cm
– The Tamron is a lot cheaperSAR
– The Tamron is lighter
– The new autofocus system works very fast in both stills and video mode

The reviewers conclusion is that the Tamron offers the same (if not a tiny bit better) optical performance than the Sony. Ad unless you need those Sony extras like extra 20mm reach, buttons and so forth the Tamron is definitely the best choice.