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Honest Picks.
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
BOSCH GSB 600 Impact Drill Review: Enough Power for DIY?
Cordless drills are currently gaining much traction, but corded impact drills remain a logical choice when doing heavy-duty drilling sessions with significant periods when you need to use the tool for a long period. Bosch GSB 600 impact drill is a device designed specifically for those tasks. It combines the power of a 600 W motor with a 100-piece accessory kit that is targeted towards homeowners working on their renovations and assembling pieces from wood, masonry, and metal. This review is based on manufacturer data and feedback of users to see how Bosch GSB 600 and its 100-piece kit performs during various drilling sessions on different materials.
INGCO 20V Cordless Impact Drill Kit Review: Worth Buying?
Drill kits that come with two batteries and many accessories often lack in drill quality to keep prices low, making torque and drilling ability the main factors in this analysis instead of a number of accessories. Based on manufacturer data and user reviews, this review will consider INGCO 20V Cordless Brushless Impact Drill and its ability to handle drilling projects in several projects, such as assembling furniture, drilling walls and driving screws for the deck over a period of a few weeks in order to evaluate whether its 66NM torque is really enough to deal with more difficult materials and how convenient the dual batteries feature is. This review values practical evaluation over one day impression.
BOSCH Professional GWS 800 Angle Grinder Review: Worth It?
Since the angle grinder has a wide range of applications at home, including such works as cutting metal bars and grinding of welds, the performance of the motor and its ability to minimize vibrations are particularly important in the angle grinder category compared to other tools. The BOSCH Professional GWS 800 angle grinder provides 800W of power, which means that this angle grinder needs to be checked for performance in cutting and grinding of metal, as well as masonry, within several weeks and especially with respect to its ability to perform for a long time without overheating and maintaining reasonable levels of vibrations. In this respect, the review of this product focuses on a real experience of using it.
Ingco 1/2 Inch Cordless Impact Wrench Kit Review: Worth It?
An impact wrench earns its keep by helping you remove stubborn lug nuts or rusted bolts that would otherwise take much more time and effort if using a conventional wrench, provided that the tool actually possesses the claimed torque power. The Ingco 1/2 inch cordless impact wrench has claimed to have 400 N.m torque power with the dual 2.0 Ah battery pack and a 10 piece socket kit. So this review takes into account the actual effectiveness of this tool in relation to the mentioned fastener removal.
Ingco 20V Cordless Impact Wrench Combo Kit Review: Worth It?
Dual impact wrench combo kits with two different torque impact wrenches are a good choice for those who need two kinds of torque but do not want to buy two separate products for these purposes. Therefore, the Ingco 20V Cordless Impact Wrench Combo Kit includes a high-torque wrench with 850Nm rating and a less powerful with 405Nm rating, which additionally has a built-in work lamp. This review tests both wrenches included in this kit for a number of various home and automotive purposes within some weeks and analyzes whether two different torque ratings are more helpful than one average torque rating.
iBELL M220-76 220A Inverter ARC Welder Review: Worth It?
Home-use inverter ARC welders have to strike a compromise between good functionality and helpful features allowing novices to avoid some typical beginner errors such as sticking of electrodes. The iBELL M220-76 comes with hot start, anti-stick, and arc force control capabilities, thus it was put to test during multiple welding projects of various complexity to find out how these capabilities influenced the performance of the welder in question for less experienced operators compared to a basic one. An honest impression formed after several days' testing was prioritized for this review.
iBELL M250-104 250A Heavy Duty ARC Welder Review: Worth It?
Lighter hobbyists welders do not have the extra amperage headroom needed for thick metal welding. This means that using light welders on thick metals will create weak and shallow welds that are unable to withstand the load when used structurally. On the other hand, the 250A inverter iBELL M250-104 ARC welder provides this extra power needed. The review tests whether this welder can create deeper and more powerful welds on thicker metal stock. We also test the effectiveness of the assistive features under the more demanding conditions of the thicker metal welding. This review gives real world opinions and not just a first day opinion of the machine since all opinions presented here were formed through actual usage of the device.
BOSCH GBH 220 Rotary Hammer Drill Review: Worth Buying?
Rotary hammer drills do a completely different job than conventional impact drills designed especially for drilling into concrete and masonry when a regular drill cannot handle the harder material resistance at all. BOSCH GBH 220 adds 720W power output along with 3-mode functionality of SDS Plus system and thus we decided to try this rotary hammer drill in concrete wall drilling and masonry tasks in order to see how effective the 3-mode switching is and to what extent the SDS Plus system helps to decrease user fatigue. We preferred realistic approach and decided not to give our impression of just one first day of using the BOSCH GBH 220.
INGCO 20V Cordless Drill: How Long Does the Battery Last?
It's almost impossible to trust manufacturers regarding runtime since it is always tested using the most favorable conditions that make runtime testing the primary purpose of the second test of the INGCO 20V Cordless Impact Drill rather than retesting its torque and accessories like in the previous test. According to the available data, the duration of each battery during continuous drilling of wood and masonry was measured within an entire weekend project. Thus, it was estimated the exact drilling time after each battery charge of the INGCO 20V Cordless Impact Drill to find out whether the included dual battery system is really required for any work or just a good feature. Honest and realistic opinions were considered as primary in this test because of actual daily use.
BOSCH GSB 600: How Does It Compare to Cordless Drills?
Cordless drills have become the norm these days which means that there should be some reason why a corded option such as BOSCH GSB 600 remains relevant for DIY applications at home. Therefore, this review focuses on comparing the power and performance of a corded version of the tool and its cordless alternative on actual jobs to identify situations where one of them clearly beats the other. All opinions in the article were formed based on genuine everyday experience, not after a quick first-day test, so all recommendations will be accurate and reasonable. This article will give you a better understanding of the tool.
BOSCH GWS 800 Angle Grinder: How Long Do the Discs Last?
Running costs of an angle grinder go far beyond initial expenses as cutting and grinding discs get worn out quickly and should be replaced, which means that disc longevity and cost of consumables become the focus of this test of the BOSCH GWS 800 instead of repeating our earlier test dedicated to general cutting performance of the tool. Information available for us includes data on wear of cutting and grinding discs during several weeks of intensive work of the grinder on different projects with metal cutting and grinding, namely how many cuts were required for a typical disc to burn out, whether power delivery of the grinder influences the wear rate of the discs and whether it is higher or lower compared to other models of lesser power. Realistic and realistic impression rather than superficial first-day one became the aim of this test.
Ingco Cordless Impact Wrench: Good for Tire Changes?
A full tire change can be considered a realistic test for any impact wrench as it requires applying consistent torque not to one bolt but to all four wheels of the vehicle. This test was chosen instead of testing the removal of a stubborn bolt that was performed during our previous test of the impact wrench. Using data provided by the manufacturers along with user reviews, we checked the time needed to remove and install all four wheels, estimated the battery life and its sufficiency for the whole job and checked whether there was any decrease in torque applied throughout the procedure. Our review is based on real experience rather than an initial impression.
Ingco 20V Combo Wrench Kit: Good Value for the Price?
The price difference between combo and individual tools should always be justified by saving money through combo kits, making the price difference and value comparison our top priority in this Ingco 20V Combo Wrench Kit analysis rather than reviewing again the torque performance of the product that we had already done in detail earlier. Our goal was to compare prices and see how much will you have to spend to buy the same power of individual wrenches, taking into account that combo includes a work lamp and other accessories as well, so that we can find out if this product is really a bargain for those customers who need two torque options.
iBELL M220-76 ARC Welder: Good for Thin Sheet Metal?
It is indeed very difficult to weld thin sheet metal without burning through it due to the need for precision in heat control, which can be easily disrupted by higher-duty settings and, therefore, we decided to focus specifically on welding with thin gauge sheet metal in our evaluation of this welder instead of the general beginner-friendliness test performed earlier. Our assessment of this product is focused on its thin sheet metal welding abilities over several welding sessions, where we are looking for whether arc force control allowed for precise enough settings in order to prevent burn-through and whether hot start settings posed problems for arc formation on thin material compared to thicker material. Our evaluation prioritizes real-life impressions instead of first day ones.
iBELL M250-104 ARC Welder: Good for Beginners Too?
There may be cases where heavier duty welders with high amperage outputs can be quite intimidating or overwhelming for beginner welders. In such a case, the beginner-friendliness became our primary point to test in order to avoid the duplicate testing of the previous thick-metal welding performance test. In order to evaluate whether the M250-104 is beginner-friendly or not, reports say that a beginner welder should use the M250-104 in multiple weld tests in order to see if the hot start and anti-stick capabilities make the high amperage outputs friendly enough for a beginner welder. In this case, the test will be based on honest impressions from actual welding experience and not on first-day impressions only.
BOSCH GBH 220 Rotary Hammer: Good for Chiseling Too?
In rotary hammers that use the SDS Plus system, a special chiseling setting is usually added to the normal drilling capacity, making it possible to use the drill as a demolishing tool for small-scale tasks such as tile removal. That is why this particular review focuses only on the chiseling function of the BOSCH GBH 220 and does not duplicate the previous review, which was devoted to the concrete drilling capabilities of the drill. Relying on manufacturer's specifications and user reviews, this review evaluates the performance of the drill when used for a tile removal task and other minor demolishing work in a renovation project. All opinions expressed in the review are genuine and honest and are based on practical experience.