Equipment
First Impressions of the Canon XC10
Over the July 4th weekend, I had the chance to mess around with the new 4k capable Canon XC10. The feature heavy system packed into a smaller form factor had many videographers intrigued, Here are the first few shots along with some quick first impressions. (All shots were captured hand-held in…
The Venus 60mm Macro – A Hidden Gem for Macro Photography
Including macro shots in a portfolio or wedding album is a great way to add variation and make the work stand out. This is the time of year when we get a lot of questions not only about macro lenses but about which lenses are best for shooting weddings. These questions are often asked in the same…
Measuring Lens Variance
Warning: This is a Geek Level 3 article. If you aren’t into that kind of thing, go take some pictures. I’ve been writing and discussing the copy-to-copy variation that inevitably occurs in lenses since 2008. (1,2,3,4) Many people don’t want to hear about it. Manufacturers don’t want to acknowledge…
Canon 5Ds Teardown
When Lensrentals.com first got the first Canon 5Ds and 5D sr cameras in stock, Aaron and I immediately started screaming that we wanted to take one apart. It turns out we received enough 5Ds cameras to let us have a day with one to do just that. Of course, we don’t expect to find out anything…
I Don’t Know Why It Swallowed a Fly – Weather Sealed Lens With a Fly Inside
I’ve been blogging about testing and taking apart camera equipment for almost a decade. Lensrentals.com has many thousand lenses these days, and they all get used frequently. When you have lots of lenses and they get used frequently, stuff gets inside them. Usually the stuff that gets inside is…
The Best Products of NAB 2015
This past week, I had the unique opportunity to go to the National Association of Broadcasters’ trade show, more commonly known as NAB. To say NAB is massive, is a gross understatement; with over 100 thousand people in attendance, and over 1 million square feet in booths and other showrooms, NAB is…
Infrared Photography: Imaging in a Different Light
### Creative Experimentation As a photographer with an art background and an employee of a company with endless gear options, I am always looking for something to give me a fresh perspective on image making. On our recent trip to the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International Conference+Expo…
Canon EF 11-24mm F/4 vs. Nikon 14-24mm F/2.8
The new Canon 11-24mm f/4 is their widest ever beast of a zoom. Roger has tested it and said it’s as sharp as we had hoped, but I wanted to know how it looked in a real world comparison with the other beautifully bulbous ultra wide, the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8. *Canon 11-24mm on a 5DmkIII & Nikon…
A Brief 400mm Comparison
Canon shooters have a bit of 400mm excitement right now. The biggest news, of course, is the release of the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II lens, replacing the original version that’s had a very long, successful run. Not quite so much excitement was generated by the release of the 400mm f/4 DO IS II…
Cracking Open the 7D II
OK, I have to admit I really like the Canon 7D Mark II. I didn’t want to because it wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to see the new Canon chip foundry that would be cranking out high-resolution sensors. But despite wanting to hate the 22-megapixel APS-C camera, after a fairly short exposure to the…
Of Course We Took One Apart
## A Look Inside the Canon 16-35 f/4 IS This is a Geek Article. Many of you don’t understand the term ‘Geek’ properly, so perhaps this will help. As the graph shows, if you aren’t both intelligent and obsessed with photo gear, you won’t enjoy this article. *I’ve tried hard to find whom to credit…
Only You Can Prevent Movi Fires
When you run a rental house, you basically function as a torture-test lab for equipment. For many years I’ve put out a Repair Data list annually, showing which photography equipment is more likely to fail than others. I get asked to do the same thing for video equipment, but I usually just shrug…