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In-depth buying guides, product comparisons and hands-on reviews — so you buy right the first time.
Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN Review: Best All-Rounder for Sony E-Mount?
There are a lot of zoom lenses for Sony E-mount cameras out there, however, not many achieve the right balance of portability, speed and cost like this particular Sigma lens does. The 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary is a compact everyday lens which is made for travel photographers, vloggers, and everyone who is tired of switching primes all the time. This lens represents a rather unique position in Sigma's portfolio as it offers wide and telephoto angles of view in one lightweight barrel which can be left on the camera all the time. During our tests, we tried to find out how effective this lens is in portrait photography, street shooting, low light conditions and whether the constant F2.8 aperture and APS-C-oriented range are worth their name or this is just another reliable zoom lens based on popularity of the brand.
Latest Articles
120 Dual Tip Art Markers Set Review: Worth It for Coloring?
A lot of big marker sets with 120 colors sometimes look impressive on the box, but actually have almost identical shades, that become almost the same once applied to paper. This review considers 120-color dual tip art marker set and its color brightness and distinction, chisel and fine tip functionality for lettering and coloring purposes and blending capability between close colors during several coloring and calligraphy sessions in order to check how really valuable is that large amount of different colors and not only just the look. This review gives preference to real practical impressions and not to initial one-day impression only, since all opinions were based on long-term usage.
Ohuhu 120 Dual Tip Brush Pens Review: Worth It for Sketching?
A great set of brush pens needs to provide responsive brush tips because only this way can it help create different line weights needed in sketching and illustrating work. The Ohuhu 120 set claims to provide water-based ink without bleed effect and dual brush and fineliner tips, so in this review, we checked how it performed on several drawing and illustrating sessions with regard to brush tip responsiveness, allowing creating different line weights, how well it lives to its claim about no-bleed effect on typical sketchbook paper, and ink flow consistency throughout the entire 120 color range. The latter is important not to provide some first-day impression only.
48-Color Alcohol Markers Set Review: Worth It for Artists?
Alcohol markers should be able to create a beautiful blend between colors but some of their inexpensive counterparts can leave streaks of color or even layers instead of achieving the seamless gradient that professional artist expects from good alcohol-based ink. This particular set boasts of having both brush and chisel tips and refillable ink system. So, in this review we will take into account how this alcohol marker set performs when completing various illustration projects requiring blending. It means we will pay attention to such points as the ability to blend colors without any problems, efficiency of the brush tip for creating details and comparison of it with the chisel tip in terms of filling in large areas and finally the effectiveness of refillable ink system when the marker is out of ink. In this review we will try to be as objective as possible giving preference to real world usage experience rather than just first day experience.
120 Dual Tip Art Markers: Do They Bleed Through Thin Paper?
Bleed-through is a genuine problem for artists when working on standard sketchbook and journal paper rather than marker paper, which means that the bleed-through test became the primary concern when reviewing this 120-color dual tip marker set in addition to the color range and blending. The bleed-through and ghosting tests include testing this 120-color marker set against several thin papers from ordinary journal pages to light sketchbook paper and checking for bleed-through to the following page and ghosting through to the other side of the same page. The bleed-through test is based on a realistic use rather than the first-day use only. Every conclusion about this marker set comes from daily usage.
Ohuhu 120 Brush Pens: How Do They Compare to Copic Markers?
Copic markers are considered to be the premium standard for illustration, which means it is worth testing how large the quality gap is between the expensive and much cheaper sets of Copic markers and the Ohuhu 120 brush pens in terms of illustration rather than repeating the earlier review of their performance in sketching. In this review we are going to compare the brushes in the two types of markers on equal illustration tests in order to evaluate if the price gap between the two markers corresponds to the quality difference between them. This review values honesty of real-life impressions over the first day impression of the product.
48-Color Alcohol Markers: How Well Does the Refill System Work?
The refill system can offer any genuine benefits only if it provides an easy process without impacting ink quality negatively, and that is why this test of the 48-color alcohol markers paid more attention to refilling process than the review of the blending performance in the initial test of the set of markers. This test relies on real user experience after the markers have been refilled several times during several weeks. User experiences show that the set of markers has run out to the point where refilling was needed; this way, all the conclusions are based on the daily experience of using these markers rather than the first impression about the performance of the product.