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LensRentals Reviews the Canon 35mm f/1.4L II Lens
A few weeks ago, Roger was able to get his hands on a few copies of the brand new Canon 35mm f/1.4L II lens, and ran it through a series of tests comparing it to the competitors. He found, that the new lens from Canon is among the sharpest and most consistent in its class, beating the beloved Sigma…
Zeiss Milvus Optical Bench Tests
When Zeiss announced the new Milvus lens lineup, there was a mixture of excitement and yawns. In part, I blame Zeiss’ marketing department for the yawns. OK, I shouldn’t be harsh. I shouldn’t, but I will. I’m certain a lot of people are perfectly comfortable just knowing that the new lenses will…
A Look into the Video Quality of the Sony A7sII
Well, we didn’t see the Sony a7sII coming. Just kidding, yes we did, from a long way off in fact. That’s OK though because it turns out it’s everything we wanted. As a recent Sony convert and a photographer that dabbles in the video world, this was an easy camera for me to get excited about. On…
The DxO ONE Real World Test
Recently I had the opportunity to travel light to Seattle with the DxO ONE. The DxO ONE is a tiny camera designed for use with your iPhone or iPad. The ONE allows you to attach a 20.2MP 1″ BSI-CMOS sensor to your apple device via an integrated Lightning connector. Using the phone as a viewfinder,…
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 ED AF-S VR Sharpness & Optical Bench Testing
Like a lot of people, we were pretty excited to get our hands on the new Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E ED AF-S VR lens. Compared to the other brand’s 24-70mm zooms, the original Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 ED AF-S wasn’t quite as good at the outer part of the frame, and just wasn’t as good at 70mm. I expected the…
Canon C300 Mark II First Impressions
This weekend, I had the opportunity to take the eagerly anticipated Canon C300 Mark II out for a test shoot in downtown Memphis. Here are some of my initial impressions. ## Design The original Canon C300 has always been one of my favorite products in our inventory. I do a lot of short documentary…
35mm f/1.4 Shootout: Canon 35mm f/1.4L II VS Sigma 35mm Art VS Canon 35mm f/1.4L I
Yes, indeed, I learned my lesson. I’ve had MTFs on a few copies of the Canon 35mm f/1.4 Mk II lens for a while now, but I wasn’t about to publish the results until I had a full 10-sample group done to get a thorough look at them. If you don’t like pretty graphs, then I’ll give you the quick summary…
Light Painting with the Pixelstick LED Lightpainting Tool
Once in a while a product will come out that looks so fun everyone wants to try it. I never knew I wanted to try light painting until I saw this video for the Pixelstick, and it took several tries before I could pry it out of the hands of my coworkers. The Pixelstick LED Lightpainting Tool is an…
Sigma 24-35mm f/2 DG HSM Art MTF Curves and Sample Variation
For years now, I’ve been telling people to always take the results of tests done on one copy of a lens with a serious grain of salt. Not matter how carefully it was tested, it’s still just one copy. Others will be worse. Others will be better. Because I’m so aware of copy variation, I (in theory at…
Sony a7R II Vs a7S Video Field Comparison
The amazing low-light performance and ability to shoot in 4k has made the Sony a7S a definite favorite for our customers and the LensRentals team. We have been very excited over the release of the a7R II with new features such as 5-axis in-body image stabilization, a 42.4MP back-illuminated…
Review of the Sigma 24-35mm f/2 Art Series
Last week, Roger had the unique opportunity to get a single copy of the Sigma 24-35mm f/2 Art Series to test the sharpness up against the most common lenses in the 24mm and 35mm focal range. When Roger was done with his tests, and showing off his results, I had the opportunity to bring the lens…
Sony a7R II: A Brief Review
I’ve been a fan of the Sony a7 series bodies for a while, and I’ve been incorporating them into my paid work slowly but steadily. I was lucky enough to already try the new Sony a7R II at a wedding I was second shooting for Well Worn Co. I figured that would give me a good idea what I could do with…