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 4 of 39
How Potatoes and Gelatin Created Color Photography
Long ago, I wrote articles about the glory days of photography. The days when any photographer worth a damn dabbled in chemical explosives or Bitumen of Judea and spun off side gigs like Lionel toy trains or fashion clothing. Back then your competition didn’t dabble in stealing your photographs,…
Just the MTF Charts: Micro 4/3 Lenses
Not a lot to say specifically about the m4/3 lenses except please don’t ask why your favorite isn’t on here; this is all I’ve got. Some of the newer m4/3 have linear electronic focusing which can’t be tested on the bench without a specialized, expensive mount and we don’t have one. Even for the…
Just MTF Charts: Perspective Control Lenses
I had a little hesitation about whether we should post these. Most people considering a tilt-shift aren’t thinking ‘I want the absolute best sharpness.” Plus what we show is the MTF without the lens tilted or shifted, both of which will affect the resolution to some degree, but you’re probably…
Just MTF Charts: Rokinon / Samyang Lenses
I’m going to add some qualifications to the Rokinon / Samyang MTF post. First, the results are a mixture of both brands (which are identical except for the label). Lensrentals stocks mostly Rokinon labeled because of better (the bar is low here) service in the U.S., so the website calls them…
Just MTF Charts: Nikon Prime Lenses
We’ll continue our just MTF chart series of posts with the Nikon brand prime lenses. For those of you who have been asking, The Digital Picture is going to add all our MTF graphs to their comparison tool as we release them. That will let you do logical comparisons like ‘is the Sony 135mm f/1.8 GM…
Removing a Fly from ‘Weather Sealed’ Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II
I’ve been doing lens stuff for a long time now. Long time. Trust me; it’s hard to remain polite the 843,911th time some newbie goes into hysterics because there’s dust in their lens. Telling them it doesn’t matter a bit, and that all their other lenses have dust they just can’t see ( because…
Just MTF Charts: Sony FE Mount Prime Lenses
This is the fourth post publishing all of our MTF results so that methodology is consistent and they are easy to find. The previous have been by lens brand. This one is by the mount, since the Zeiss Batis and Loxia lenses fit more naturally here than with the Zeiss SLR lenses. Otherwise, no…
Just MTF Charts: Sigma Prime Lenses
This is the third post publishing all of our MTF results so that methodology is consistent and they are easy to find. No comparisons, no commentary, just the test results for you to use and abuse as you see fit. We’ll continue today with the Sigma prime lenses. For those who wonder, the results…
Just MTF Charts: Zeiss SLR Lenses
_Please note: The Zeiss Batis and Loxia Lenses will be presented with the Sony FE mount prime lenses._ Over the last 5 or 6 years we’ve run more MTF tests than anyone in the world. We do a lot of stuff with those results, but the one thing that’s pertinent is we publish them on our blog posts. I…
Just MTF Charts: Canon Prime Lenses
This is the first post of a series of posts publishing all of our MTF results so that methodology is consistent, easy to find, and up-to-date. (For some of the older lenses there are graphs done with older software floating around. For a couple of lenses there are incorrect graphs done before we…
Sony FE 135mm f1.8 GM Early MTF Results
As is sometimes the case, I got access to a couple of pre-release copies of the new Sony FE 135mm f1.8 GM lens. Of course, if I get access, it gets MTF bench tested. I mounted the first one, sipped my coffee and then lost my mind and started shouting various expletives, enough to bring Aaron…
MTF Results for Recent Sigma Art Lenses
> _And you may find yourself in a shotgun shack._ > _And you may find yourself in another part of the world._ > _And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile._ > _And you may find yourself in a beautiful house._ > _And you may ask yourself, well, what should I shoot with?_ A…