Best Wide-Angle Prime Lens:
Zeiss Loxia 21mm f/2.8 Distagon T*
Zeiss has long been known for creating exceptional wide-angle lenses, and the Loxia is the latest incarnation of their legendary 21mm Distagon. While the DSLR versions of the 21mm Distagon are large beasts with a giant flare out to the big front element, the Loxia 21mm is significantly more compact yet delivers exceptional image quality. Razor sharp with perhaps the most striking contrast and color of any lens I’ve used, the Loxia 21mm is a stunner.
Honorable Mention: Fujifilm Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R
Earning a well deserved honorable mention is Fujifilm’s excellent 14mm f/2.8 for the X mount. Small, lightweight, and sharp to the corners with a lovely rendering and quick autofocus. It doesn’t quite have the bite of the Loxia, but it’s great nonetheless.
Best Normal Prime Lens:
TIE: Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L USM, Sony FE 50mm f/1.2 GM
Wait, a tie? I’ve owned and used a lot of normal prime lenses. From the outstanding manual focus legends like the Minolta Rokkor 58mm f/1.2 and Zeiss 50mm Contax/Yashica lenses to more modern lenses like the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L, Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4, Sony FE 55mm f/1.8, and Nikon Z 50mm f/1.8 S, plus countless others that aren’t worth mentioning in the discussion of best normal prime lens.
The RF 50mm f/1.2L set a new bar for quality at the 50mm focal length, and I didn’t see its equal until I purchased the Sony FE 50mm f/1.2 GM. The two lenses are so very close in performance that it is essentially impossible to pick between them. Both are blisteringly sharp across the frame right from f/1.2, with the Canon maybe being just the very slightest bit sharper at the edges. Both have exceptionally creamy bokeh and an amazing rendering, with the Sony having slightly smoother specular highlights. The Sony has faster autofocus and a more compact and more reassuring build, while the Canon’s contrast seems to pop the subject just ever so slightly more.
The differences are all so small, and each tiny lead by one lens is counteracted by a tiny lead by the other lens in another category, so a tie it is. These two lenses are simply exceptional, and go to show what amazing optical engineering can achieve.
Honorable Mention: Voigtländer 50mm f/2 APO-Lanthar
A manual focus gem for the Sony E-mount (and Nikon Z and Leica M mount), the Voigtländer 50mm f/2 APO-Lanthar is an exceptionally sharp lens with almost no chromatic aberration, smooth bokeh, excellent flare resistance and minimal distortion. Clad in a metal exterior with a wonderful manual focus feel, it’s a great lens for landscapes, architecture, or really anything you want to shoot that requires incredible resolution on high-megapixel cameras.
If this evaluation was on pure image quality alone, without reference to aperture or other features, the Voigtlander 50mm f/2 would take the top spot in this category, as it’s sharper into the corners than the RF 50mm f/1.2L and Sony 50mm f/1.2GM, with lower CA. But those two share the top spot by a hair for maintaining exceptional quality at an ultra-fast f/1.2 aperture, along with being able to autofocus.
Best Macro Lens:
Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S
Choosing a best macro lens is one of the most difficult on this list, as the vast majority of macro lenses are quite excellent. I’ve owned and shot with over a dozen different macro lenses, and all were quite good. A new member at the top of this list is Nikon’s MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S for the Z system.
The MC 105mm is blisteringly sharp across the entire frame, from 1:1 to infinity, and even maintains outstanding sharpness into smaller apertures where a lot of macro lenses begin suffering severely from diffraction. It’s got outstanding contrast, is essentially apochromatic, has lovely bokeh, beautiful color response and an excellent optical stabilizer. When looking at images I’ve taken with the MC 105, I have audibly uttered ‘wow’ many, many times. It’s a lens that impresses me on a daily basis.
Honorable Mention: Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS
The Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 is now getting a little long in the tooth, but I’d imagine Sony is still in no rush to update this lens. With exceptional sharpness, an absolutely gorgeous rendering, quick autofocus and optical stabilization, it’s simply a wonderful optic. Sony hadn’t yet created the GM tag when this lens was released, but I’d imagine if it were released today, it would carry that G Master badge. It’s a wonderful lens not only for macro work, but it works great for portrait duty and landscape shooting as well. A versatile lens that performs extremely well.
Best Telephoto Prime Lens:
Canon RF 85mm f/1.2 L USM
As with most of the lenses in this list, the telephoto prime lens competition is fierce, with many excellent lenses to choose from in a variety of mounts. Every system I’ve owned has had excellent telephoto primes, from the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L and 135mm f/2L to the Panasonic Leica 42.5mm f/1.2, Olympus 75mm f/1.8, the Zeiss Contax G 90mm f/2.8, the Nikon AF-S 105mm f/1.4E and Fuji’s outstanding 56mm f/1.2, which remains one of my favorite lenses to this day. But above them all sits our new champ: the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L.
The RF 85mm f/1.2L does what should be impossible in a lens – it is an ultra-fast f/1.2 portrait lens that is staggeringly sharp wide open from corner to corner, yet falls off to absolutely beautiful bokeh. It’s so good at f/1.2 that I felt perfectly fine using it in APS-C mode to effectively operate as a 135mm f/1.8, and it’s exceptional there too. The lens pops your subject in a way that shouldn’t be possible. On the whole, it might be the finest overall lens I’ve ever used.
Honorable Mention: Sigma 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art
Just barely dropping out of the top spot is the Sigma 135mm f/1.8 Art. If you like a bit longer portrait prime and haven’t tried this lens, you owe it to yourself to go grab one. The Sigma 135mm f/1.8 Art is almost as close to optical perfection as I have ever seen in a lens. It is absolutely razor-sharp, from full frame corner to full frame corner, wide open. Stopping down to f/2.8 impossibly makes things even a tiny bit sharper. Add rich color, excellent control of lens aberrations and gorgeous bokeh and it’s simply stunning. Every time I look at images from this lens, I’m astonished by the level of quality, at any aperture.
Honorable Mention: Fujifilm Fujinon XF 90mm f/2
Another 135mm equivalent lens, and another gem of an optic, the Fujifilm 90mm is the best lens in the Fuji X system that I’ve used. Extremely sharp across the frame at any aperture, with great aberration control and flawless bokeh, the 90mm f/2 is truly exceptional.
Best Supertelephoto Prime Lens
First, a caveat: My experience with supertelephoto prime lenses is very limited. I have not shot with any manufacturer’s 400mm f/2.8 or 600mm f/4 lenses, or other lenses of the sort, and my experience in this realm is limited to an old Tamron 300mm f/2.8 for EF mount, the Canon RF 800mm f/11, some very limited shooting with the Canon 400mm f/5.6L, and the current winner in this category. With that said, the winner is impressive enough that I felt confident in finally adding this category to the article. I hope to test more supertelephoto primes in the future.
Nikon Nikkor Z 400mm f/4.5 VR S
The Nikon 400mm f/4.5 VR S is a lens that is sort of a white whale for me. Ever since I noticed Canon’s 400mm f/4 DO, I’ve thought it was one of those lenses that was absolutely a perfect balance of reach, speed and size. I always wanted one, but could never afford it. That lens was much smaller than the gigantic 400mm f/2.8 lenses, but still reasonably fast for the focal length. Nikon, however, upped the ante in this realm, by creating a lens that’s nearly as fast at f/4.5, but is HALF the weight of that already light and compact 400mm f/4 DO, and also costs less than half as much as the current version II of the Canon.
The Nikkor Z 400mm f/4.5 delivers optically as well, boasting outstanding cross-frame sharpness right from f/4.5, beautiful bokeh and minimal chromatic aberration. It also works beautifully with Nikon’s 1.4x Z teleconverter, allowing the lens to pull duty as a 400mm f/4.5 and a 560mm f/6.3 and do it competently. Autofocus is fast and accurate, and the whole thing weighs less than the typical 70-200mm f/2.8. What a great lens.
As I continue to shoot with a variety of equipment, I’m planning to keep this article up to date. If I come across a lens that dethrones one of the champions here, I will update the article. What lenses rank best for you?
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