Roger Cicala
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Notes on Lens and Camera Variation
A funny thing happened when I opened Lensrentals and started getting 6 or 10 copies of each lens: I found out they weren’t all the same. Not quite. And each of those copies behaved a bit different on different cameras. I wrote a couple of articles about this: This Lens is Soft and Other Myths…
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Lens Genealogy – Part 2
For those who missed all the excitement, in Part 1 of this series I discussed that almost all modern SLR lenses derive from one of 6 types of lenses that were basically in use by the 1920s. Part 1 covered the first three lenses: the Symmetrical, Double Gauss, and Petzval lenses. Those three lenses…
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The Rapple 4000 (or Roger designs the perfect camera)
I had an epiphany of sorts this weekend. I took home the new Schneider 50mm f/2.8 Super Angulon. For those of you not in the loop, this is a 50mm tilt-shift SLR lens made by a company that is best known for it’s Cinema lenses (along with filters, glass, and some other stuff). The point is the lens…
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58 Lines by 36 Photographers
I loves me some quotes, so I thought I’d gather up my favorites and share them. I tried to get to 88 lines, wanting to pay tribute to the ultimate 80’s cult band, the Nails (or the less classic “88 lines about 44 Simpsons“). But when the dust settled I only came up with 58 that I thought were…
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Lens Genealogy Part 1
### In which I begin to answer the question “Why Do You Put the Lens Diagrams on Your Website?” ### Where do new lens designs come from? I knew that today’s lenses are all designed using computer programs, but I was surprised to find new lenses aren’t designed from scratch. Designers start with an…
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The Apocalypse of Lens Dust
Apocalypse (from the Greek _apokálypsis_; “lifting of the veil” or “revelation”): 1. An event involving destruction or damage on an awesome or catastrophic scale. 2. A disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind. How appropriate the word apocalypse is for this little article. At…
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Photo Lenses for Video: There is no Free Lunch.
SLR video cameras and the newer large sensor video camcorders, are often used with photography lenses — which provide outstanding optics at amazing cost savings compared to lenses specifically designed for film/video. A superb photography lens may cost $2,000; about 1/10 of what a good cinema lens…
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Good Times with Bad Filters
OK. First and foremost this is a fun post. It is not episode 362 of “Should you put a UV filter on your lens”. Some people use them. Some don’t. There’s not enough bandwidth to ever end that argument. But here at Lensrentals, we have a ton of filters. We have some really good, very expensive…
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1839 and the Frenzy that Followed
In our last article, we covered the invention of photography up until 1839 when Argo announced Daguerre’s invention and spoke of his accomplishment to the French Academy of Sciences. By the middle of January, news of Daguerre’s invention had spread around the world. The actual techniques used…
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The Lensrentals Lens Cleaning Methods
There are some articles I try hard to avoid writing. Politics, religion, the so-called benefits of UV filters and other things that get Fanboys riled up I avoid like the plague. So for two years, while people have asked over-and-over for me to write an article on how we clean lenses, I’ve politely…
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The Showman, the Sheriff, and the First Cameras
## Enter the Showman In my last article, we discussed the first image makers, up until the late 1820s when Niepce had actually been able to make images using a camera obscura and silver plates coated with Bitumen of Judea. On his way to England, Niepce had been introduced to a most interesting man,…
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The Chemists, the Potter, and the Aristocrat: Imaging Before the Photograph
Since I started my articles on the early development of photographic lenses, I’ve been wanting to write an article on the development of the first cameras. The early days are so much more fun to write about, back when photographic advances were about people rather than corporations. Many of the…