Roger Cicala
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D600 Sensor Dust Issues
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. When we started carrying the Nikon D600 they all arrived with a fair amount of dust, but that’s pretty routine, too. Manufacturing and shipping can be a dusty…
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A Little More Sigma 200-500 Fun
SigZilla is gone now. You’ll be able to see it’s work in action if you watch the World Series. I wouldn’t be surprised if you might not catch an image of it. Before it left, though, we were able to (with a great deal of difficulty) get it mounted in the lab and run one basic Imatest series. When it…
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A Big Addition
Of course, we really couldn’t stand the idea that there was a lens somewhere that we didn’t own. So, Tyler went and got us a new telephoto, the Sigma 200-500mm f/2.8 for Canon (Available for rental, of course). It came in a rather large box today. Even unboxed, it’s rather large. *The Sigma 200-500…
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Politicians, Pork, and Photographers
## How the Government Accidentaly Created the Golden Age of American Photography * “Corn Along a River” Marion Post Wolcott, 1940. Library of Congress. * _“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” —_ Mark Twain _“Politics is the art of looking for…
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The Zeiss 15mm f/2.8 is Good
For those who don’t visit often, this isn’t a lens review. It is simply my impression and the Imatest results for the first batch of Zeiss ZE 15mm f/2.8 lenses that we did before they got shipped out to our customers. Particularly with a very wide lens like this, Imatest results must be taken for…
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The Man Who (Almost) Never Succeeded
## The Rather Sad Story of the Father of American Photography It’s been a long time since I did a photography history article. I generally prefer the early days of photography. People just were, I don’t know, _more_ back then. There was more lying, backstabbing, more drama, and more originality.…
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Quick Look at the Olympus 60mm f/2.8 Macro
Tyler, as Tyler does, handed me three copies of the Olympus 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens this morning. It wasn’t a great day for testing; Wednesdays are always the busiest repair and turnaround day. But I did manage to squeeze in a couple of hours with them. The size surprised me at first. Not that it’s…
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Why Aren’t the Damn Numbers the Same????
I get asked a simple question almost every day: Why do your results say this, Joe’s results say that, and Bill’s results say something different? The questions surprised me at first; I grew up in biological and medical research and took it for granted everyone expected different tests to have…
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Lensrentals Repair Data: January – July 2012
## What Is This? We have a unique opportunity: We own a very large number of lenses subjected to rather harsh conditions. They get tossed around during shipping, and sometimes the user isn’t as careful with them as you would be with your own lenses. Basically, we have a laboratory set up to stress…
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Product Announcement: Lensrentals Looney
Not to be left out of the spirit of Photokina, Lensrentals today announced it’s first new camera design: the Lensrentals Looney. Based on a Sony NEX-7, the Looney specs a 24.3 megapixel APS-C sensor, an ISO range of 100-16000, 0.02 second shutter lag, a 3-inch LCD screen, a built-in EVF, 25 AF…
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Autofocus Reality Part 4: Nikon Full Frame
I started this series to simply demonstrate a well-known fact; that contrast detection autofocus in Live View was more accurate than standard Phase Detection autofocus for still subjects. It ended up being a bit more than I’d bargained for just with the Canon cameras. After that series was done, I…
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A Peek Inside the Canon 24-70 f/2.8 Mk II
You probably know we got 5 copies of the Canon 24-70 f/2.8 II today and did some resolution testing before they all shipped out. If you read this blog often, you probably know that Aaron and I gave every lens a careful shake, peered inside, and generally looked for any possible excuse to open one…