About Lens Database
Lens Database exists because a lot of the information published online doesn't stick around. Pages change, listings vanish, and details that were once easy to find can quietly slip out of reach. This page is an effort to keep track of lenses and maintain a clear, useful reference, so the details worth keeping remain available for anyone who needs them later.
Where the data comes from
The catalog is assembled from a small set of public sources, each with its own format and conventions. We currently aggregate from CineD, lensdb, dpreview, kentfaith, allphotolenses, thelensdb, and lesdeux. Each scraper writes into a normalized schema so that focal length, aperture, mount, and weight read the same way regardless of which site originally published the spec. Credit belongs to the sites and people who originally shared that information — without their work, none of this would be here.
How fresh the data is
The catalog is updated by a separately maintained collection pipeline. Coverage and freshness vary by source, and some records may be incomplete or out of date. Check the original sources linked on each lens page before relying on a specification or making a purchase.
What this catalog is not
Lens Database is a reference, not a review site. We do not publish opinions on which lens is "best", and we do not provide sample images for every entry — those decisions belong with the photographers who use the gear. We also do not track grey-market pricing in real time; the price field, when present, is an approximate manufacturer figure or a recent observed retail price, never a live quote.
AI-assisted summaries
A subset of lens descriptions are AI-assisted summaries generated from the underlying spec sheet and source-page text. Where this is the case, the lens detail page carries a visible AI-assisted summary — verify against linked sources badge near the description. We treat these as a starting point, not a substitute for the linked primary sources, and we welcome corrections.
When sources disagree
Two source sites will sometimes report different values for the same lens — a 460 g vs. 465 g weight, a 2017 vs. 2018 release year. Our policy is to prefer the manufacturer's published value when one is available, fall back to the source with the most complete record otherwise, and surface the conflict in the lens's extras when neither resolution is clean. The full source list for each lens is always linked from the detail page so you can verify the figure that matters to you.
Contact & corrections
The fastest way to flag an error or suggest a missing lens is to open an issue on our GitHub repository at github.com/jiwidi/lens-database. Pull requests with corrections to the scraping or normalization layer are also welcome. The entire project is open source under CC BY 4.0 for the catalog data and MIT for the surrounding code.