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 26 of 39
A Peek Inside the 6D
Of course we had to do it. We tried limiting ourselves to some size comparisons with the 5D II and 5D III. *Left to right: 5D III, 6D, 5D II* So, yeah, the 6d is smaller and all. But that wasn’t quite what we wanted to see. So, as is our habit, a few screws here and a few screws there and . . . .…
A Quick 6D AF Test
A while back we did a series of articles and found that certain Canon lenses on the newest Canon cameras (5DIII and 1Dx) autofocused more accurately when tested for single shot stills using center point AF only. These combinations acutally had as accurate AF as what we could obtain with Live View.…
Not Surprisingly, D600 Dust Issue Gets Better Over Time
A while back, I started an article on this topic with the sentence “We tend not to get too excited about sensor dust problems here; we clean sensors on every camera after every rental, so it’s just routine.” Unfortunately, it seems that everybody else did get excited. Some people freaked out and…
Six Degrees of Charles Darwin, and Rejlander’s Last Laugh.
## Six Degrees of Charles Darwin _Note: For those offended by such things, there is a small photograph reproduced below that has artistic nudity._ You’re probably familiar with the film-buff game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. If not, basically you name any individual who is associated with movies…
A Most Interesting Photographer
> _“I am going to make a name for myself. If I fail, you will never hear of me again.”_ Edward Muggeridge I love writing about great photographers. I’m sure there are some exceptions, but in general they tend to be among the oddest and most interesting groups of people on the planet. I thought the…
Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Arrives. Announces New World Order.
OK, I’m beginning to think maybe the Mayans were right. It appears the world is going to transition into something different in 2012. The photography world at least. About 5 years ago, I wrote a blog post explaining that quality control problems and horrid repair service meant we would probably…
The Great Hostess Snack Cake Shootout
It’s a sad and dark day here at Lensrentals. For years, we’ve worked really long hours fueled largely by coffee and snack cakes. Not just any snack cakes, of course. Hostess snack cakes. So today’s very sad news that Hostess is shutting it’s doorsis a devastating blow to us. First Kodak. Now…
Canon 24-70 Mk II Variation
A while back we ran Imatest resolution numbers on a few copies of the Canon 24-70 Mk II. That was right at release time and the resolution was most impressive, but we only had 5 copies available to test. Over the next couple of months a number of reviews came out. Most seemed to consider the…
The Panasonic 35-100 f/2.8 First Impression: The Glass is 87.6% Full
I’ve been waiting for the Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 OIS lens since, well, since the Panasonic 12-35 f/2.8 lens came out. Much to my surprise, Tyler had 7 copies sitting on my desk this morning. As usual when something like this arrives I only had a few hours before the packers would start screaming…
EOS-M First Impressions
*Connie hates having her picture taken, so we used that as a threat to get some EOS-Ms and lenses checked in fast.* OK, the usual applies. I am not a reviewer. I don’t even play one on TV. There are already some in-depth reviews out on the new EOS-M and more coming daily. But I handle a lot of…
Scoping Out Digiscoping
## Digiscoping I’ve always been a bit fascinated by digiscoping. For those who are out of the loop, digiscoping involves taking images through a spotting scope rather than a camera lens. The advantages are obvious. A spotting scope provides magnification equivalent to a lens of 1,250 to 3,000mm.…
Panasonic Pancake Dissections
Panasonic makes an excellent pair of micro 4/3 pancake lenses, the 14mm f/2.5 and 20mm f/1.7. While they look similar, there are several differences. The optical formulas are quite different, for example. *Optical diagram of the 20mm (left) and 14mm (right) pancake lenses* While the performance of…