The 50mm lens feels more like a 100mm on Olympus bodies

harp optics at wider apertures

Long-winded focus options

There's no front element rotation with focusing and the barrel doesn't protrude far at closest focus range. It draws back in to infinity when you switch the camera off too. However, there's no focus limit switch or controls on the lens barrel, or a manual...

There's a lot of 'retro' about this Sony lens

Good optics in general

Overpriced; Terrible autofocus

Optically, it performed well throughout the aperture range, providing high levels of detail and contrast. For sharpness, the Sony was no better than the Tamron, despite costing £330 more

The Pentax 12-24mm has a big price tag but is compact and lightweight

Produces fairly sharp images

Too expensive; Traces of purple fringing

More edges took on purple fringes than with rival lenses. Overall, the Pentax 12-24mm doesn't live up to the expectations of its asking price

At £460, the Sony DT 16-80mm is certainly not cheap, although we can't figure out why. It has a focus scale viewable through a window on the barrel, but it doesn't have the swift focusing of Canon's USM or Nikon's Silent Wave motors.

Massively expensive; Slow; Average image quality

Sony waxes lyrical about the aspherical elements for 'high picture quality across the entire zoom range' but this was in fact a pretty soft lens. Contrast was merely average and there was vignetting when shooting wide-open at the wide-angle end, as well a...

This lens works equally well on smaller sensor cameras such as the EOS 400D

Great all-round performance

Lens hood not supplied as standard

With an Ultrasonic Motor (USM) at the heart of its autofocus system and a short travel throughout the range of 0.24m to infinity, the focus locks on to its target almost instantaneously, even in low lighting. Manual override and the obligatory AF/MF switc...

Shots have a contrast and clarity that's extremely unusual at this price

Lens is brilliant; Excellent contrast and clarity; Brilliant build quality; Terrific value for money

Every shot we took was as crisp as a 'standard' zoom. The E-500's AF system was fast and accurate, even with these long focal lengths - aided no doubt by the lens' wider- than-usual aperture range (f3.5-4.5). The image in the viewfinder is bright and clea...

The recently launched Nikkor 105mm is the first macro lens to feature vibration reduction

Excellent autofocus; Vibration reduction works well

Expensive

The closest focus distance is 0.3 metres, enabling serious enlargement from the 105mm focal length of the lens. Images are wonderfully sharp, even when shooting wide-open, and are free from visible distortion

The 'one-touch' focus clutch system enables AF or manual focus to be selected by nudging the focus ring forwards or backwards to engage it

Reasonably good value

Too much vignetting

Image quality proved adequate, with reasonable sharpness everywhere but the extreme corners. Vignetting was more of a problem than with other lenses; we had to move down two stops to get rid of it

There's no ultrasonic autofocus motor, so focusing is noisy and slow

Good value

Clunky AF; Flare and ghosting evident

On the other hand, the Tamron was more susceptible to flare, ghosting and chromatic aberration than the Sigma. As well as the Canon fit option, the lens is available with Nikon and Sony/Minolta mounts

The Canon EF-S 60mm is as small and light as the average prime lens of the same focal length

Neat, compact and lightweight; Superb image quality

With a 60mm focal length you have to get close to your subject, but the Canon focuses down to 0.2 metres and you'll be rewarded with brilliantly sharp and detailed images