Roger Cicala
I'm Roger and I am the founder of Lensrentals.com. Hailed as one of the optic nerds here, I enjoy shooting collimated light through 30X microscope objectives in my spare time. When I do take real pictures I like using something different: a Medium format, or Pentax K1, or a Sony RX1R.
Posts by Roger Cicala · page 17 of 39
Just the Lenses: Canon and Nikon Mount 85mm f/1.4 (and 1.2) Primes
We’ll continue our Just the Lenses posts with the 85mm wide-aperture prime lenses. We’ll get through all of the wide aperture primes eventually, for those of you who like this series. If you haven’t read the previous posts, then you might want to go back and skim the introduction of the previous…
Field Curvature and Stopping Down
_Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge._ Charles Darwin What I know that I don’t know doesn’t cause me much trouble. I don’t know the formulas for 7th order optical aberrations for example. I don’t know enough math to calculate those formulas even if I did memorize them.…
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
We spend a lot of time here at Lensrentals getting dust out of lenses. Dust doesn’t affect an image, except in very rare circumstances, but people want their rental lenses to look nice and clean inside and out, and our inspectors check the inside of every lens with spotlights and send any dusty…
Just the Lenses: Canon and Nikon Mount 35mm f/1.4s
As I discussed in the last post, it’s impossible to accurately compare lenses from different mounts using any form of computerized target analysis testing (methods like DxO or Imatest). Target analysis tests an entire system (camera and lens). That’s a very practical thing, of course, but it has…
Just The Lenses: Canon vs Nikon Zooms at 70mm
It’s impossible to accurately compare lenses from different mounts using any form of Computerized Target Analysis testing (methods like DxO or Imatest). Target analysis tests an entire system (camera and lens). People try to, of course, but it’s not accurate since you always have the added…
Some M-Mount Field Curvatures
I haven’t posted very much lately. We’ve had some new equipment installed and we’ve been doing a LOT of testing as we develop our new database of lenses on the optical bench. As the database fills out I’ll be posting more than ever, just because a lot of this stuff is just fun. Today’s post is…
HandeVision IBELUX 40mm f/0.85
*Image credit Lensrentals.com* ## Preconceptions I try to start these articles by putting my preconceptions out there first. Every reviewer or blogger has them, they affect our opinions, and you have a right to know them. So I’m writing this introduction the day before our first copies arrive. The…
A Useful Metabones EF to Black Magic Pocket Camera Article
Way back in the old days, before everything was plug and play, you could buy a computer and accessories from one manufacturer and be certain it would all work together. The cool kids, though, would mix-and-match different pieces and end up with a better system that could do more things than any one…
Of Course We Took One Apart
## A Look Inside the Canon 16-35 f/4 IS This is a Geek Article. Many of you don’t understand the term ‘Geek’ properly, so perhaps this will help. As the graph shows, if you aren’t both intelligent and obsessed with photo gear, you won’t enjoy this article. *I’ve tried hard to find whom to credit…
Canon Wide-Angle Zoom Comparison
* Left to right: Canon 16-35 f/2.8 II, 16-35 f/4 IS, 17-40 f/4. Can you spot the one with the wrong hood? The intern obviously couldn’t. * As is so often the case, I bit off more than I wanted to chew when I came back from vacation. The Canon 16-35mm f/4 IS lens had just been released, a few copies…
A New Old Lens
Like a lot of photo history buffs, I’ve been quite excited about Lomography’s new iteration of the Petzval lens in 85mm focal length. For those of you who don’t know about the Petzval lens, I wrote about it a few years ago. It really has a rather a fascinating story. Since writing that article,…
Sensor Stack Thickness Part III: The Summary
Well, I have to admit this has been a fun series. I’ve learned a whole lot. That’s what makes this so fun — I get some results I don’t understand, get some help figuring out what is going on, and before I know it, I’ve learned something that explains other things I haven’t been able to understand.…