The 2023 Lens Awards, (Because I Am A Little Bored And These Are Fun).
So, what better time to write a lens awards post than now.
Why?
Why not ;).
These awards may not make a huge amount of sense, written as they are seemingly randomly, but they do to me, as the lens and my instinctive reaction to it takes me.
“Lens that was bought for physics then won my heart for most surprisingly useful”;
Panasonic Leica 9mm f1.7.
This lens removed a lot of weight and some indecision from my bag packing, covering for me the “necessary evil” of a super wide angle. It covers the 8-18, but also acts more like a semi wide standard.
It focusses macro close, is as light as a feather, seems to focus by telepathy, empathy even, handles nasty frontal light, is weather sealed, makes my Domke F2 bag a perfect fit for my kit, is totally useable wide open so is almost always. The only negative is, my otherwise excellent 8-18 has become surplus.
Hanging off the ass end of a Moped doing 40kmh, this shot was easy with the super light and responsive 9mm, except at one point I actually touched one of the cyclists (still in focus).
A handy and stable problem solver, that is starting to be a creative leader.
“The lens I kick myself most often for not taking”;
Olympus 75mm f1.8.
Seriously, the amount of times I wish I packed this for low light is getting ridiculous. The 75mm makes shooting in any light possible. Super sharp, brilliantly, contrasty and colourful, yet somehow gentle with gorgeous Bokeh. It only lacks weather proofing and it can be a little perspective flattening to be considered perfect (oh and it could have been a 100mm f2).
I know that it could easily replace a short tele zoom, especially if teamed with the little 45mm.
Just yummy.
Sometimes that flattened perspective is ideal.
“The lens that was bought with some early trepidation, that just gets better over time”;
Olympus 17mm f1.8.
No technical review or test would lead you to think this lens is perfect at anything, but it has two sides, both good. On the one hand, it is the perfect street lens, offering fast AF, old school MF and ideal Bokeh or “draw”, helping to make the most of the M43 depth of field benefit.
On the other hand it makes an unlikely landscape hero. I cannot put my finger on it, but the landscape files have an organic lushness and biting sharpness, both in harmony.
After learning to love it for street, it then suprised me by being just great at landscape.
It is no exaggeration to say, it has taken more of my favourite images than any other lens I have ever owned. It is my desert island lens (shame it is not weather sealed for such duties).
Street-Landscape, the perfect combination. This lens is also my “taming crazy light” lens.
“The lens that empowers me to do things I previously only dreamt of“;
Olympus 300 f4 Pro.
This was close, because the 75 and 40-150 f2.8 are in the mix and the Leica 200 f2.8 a lens that I do not own, would be equally useful, but the 300 is without doubt the most dependably exciting lens I own.
Like a magic wand it snaps onto what I aim at instantly. I need to update the 1.0 firmware to see how much better it can be!
It is almost always shot wide open and I can crop the files down to ball stitching. It is effectively (for news print and web use), a hand held, bag portable 2000mm lens equivalent.
Simply only possible in my kit thanks to this lens, shot through the legs of a timing official in ugly light.
Then, when you are between shots, looking down nets you this thanks to the 1.4m close focus.
I have several macro lens options, none of them considered “normal”.
Ok, what next?
“The lens that…………deserves credit for soldiering on?”;
Olympus 12-40 f2.8.
Mechanically compromised after a trip to the beach clogged up the zoom, then replaced with the 12-60 Leica, it was pressed back into service for the paper and has been a giver, freeing up the more I use it. It still surprises me how nice the files are. It has a similar look to the 25 f1.8, lush and sharp, but not harsh, with clean Bokeh.
Teamed with the 40-150 f2.8, it covers most of my basketball needs, only being replaced by primes in low light.
Ok, next….. .
“Lens that punches about it’s weight (very literally)”;
Olympus 40-150 kit.
This could have been the 40-150 f4 Pro or the 75-300 also, as both do a lot for their footprint and cost, but the $299 kit lens (bought in a promo kit for under $100), plastic crap really, is often hard to pick optically from any of my telephoto lenses, earning the little “ED” label.
Never any doubt.
Fine art grade files, which it has no right to produce.
This file and the one above came from a series taken on a perfect day in Kanazawa Japan. The “Hollywood” light was hard to interpret, but the crappy little kit lens made the grade, I did not even think about it after the first few files.
“The lens most missed”;
12-100 f4 Pro.
I really need to let this go, but it was a stupid mistake at a low point. Other lost glass falls into this category, but with other considerations, like the 400 f5.6L Canon (last Canon lens), Panasonic 14mm f2.5 (relegated to unneeded twice!), first edition 20mm Pana (crappy focus), Voightlander 40mm f2 EF (the 5D3 fixed screen negated f2 MF accuracy) and others, but the 12-100 wins through practicality and relevance alone.
Honourable mentions go to most of the rest;
The 75-300 for great reach and quality at a budget price.
The 25 and 45 (x2) for their faultless performance.
The 15mm for nearly knocking the 17mm off it’s perch and still being relevant.
The pair of 40-150 Pro’s for being my dual work horse lenses, both excellent, and effectively interchangeable.
The 12-60 and 8-18 Leicas and 12-60 Panasonic zooms, all late comers that have done nothing wrong apart from shadowing other good lenses.
L mount 50mm S for keeping the mojo intact when I went full frame.
The 20-60 S for allowing the FF move.
The lenses that did not make the cut are the Sigma 30 which is great, but surplus it seems and the TTartisan 35 which is too small and fiddly for my video rig.