Category Otus is Scharf | Lensrentals Blog

Lenses and Optics

Otus is Scharf

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I’m probably setting myself up for a replay of the Exo Tria Arxidia scene, but my friend Bernhard introduced me to the German term scharf the other day. It can mean both sharp and hot (as in spicy, or as in, you know, hot).  After testing our first copies of the Zeiss 55mm f/1.4 Otus lens I […]

Lenses and Optics

Inspecting an ‘In Spec’ Lens

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I’m going to open a can of worms today.  I’ve been getting more and more emails from people telling me the same story that goes like this: I’ve got this lens. It’s awful. I’ve sent it in for adjustment and the service center tells me it’s ‘in spec’ and nothing is wrong with it. Am […]

Equipment

Nikon 58mm f/1.4 is (hopefully) Not About the Numbers

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The Silence We have a routine when a new lens comes out at Lensrentals: the first new copies get sent to me for optical testing. I have about 4 or 5 hours with them because they’ll have to be packed up and shipped out to the customers that have been waiting for them and expect […]

Equipment

D610 Initial Dust Assessment

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  Way back when, I wrote about the dust problems we were seeing in Nikon D600 cameras.  There was enough of a furor about it that when the Nikon D610 was released I assumed that the dust problem would be fixed. But I’m rather the paranoid type, and I never like assumptions, so as soon […]

Lenses and Optics

There Is No Perfect Lens Test, Either

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In my last article, I wrote about the fact that every copy of a given lens has some bit of sample variation. This affects lens reviews, whether lab-based or photography-based, because the copy they tested will be just a bit different from the copy you buy. I suggested, that if you want to get a […]

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