Technical Discussions
Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG OS HSM Art Sharpness Tests
Sigma has been on an incredible run these last 5 years, releasing one amazingly sharp lens after another. They’ve made lenses no one has ever tried before and not only succeeded, they made them amazingly good on the first try. Their quality control has become as good as anyone’s, better than most.…
Experiments For Ultra High Resolution Camera Sensors
GEEK ALERT!! Let’s be absolutely clear; this is not a useful article in regards to your technique. It won’t help your photography or videography become better. It won’t help you choose equipment any time in the next couple of years. It won’t provide any fodder for your next Forum War. It’s just a…
Simplifying the Complexities of Lighting in Photography
As someone who teaches workshops tailored to lighting, I’m always reminded how many people have a gross misunderstanding of how light travels and is used within photography. And while I usually start my workshops with an open lesson on the reality of how light functions. I’m frequently reminded,…
A Videographer’s Take on Sony’s a99II and the Yet to be Antiquated A-Mount
As a videographer, it’s easy to forget about Sony’s A-Mount. Still, I recognize that I owe a great deal of respect to the previous Minolta line. In its prime, Minolta developed several revolutionary functions that are often taken for granted today. Minolta’s Single Lens Reflex (SLR) technology was…
Guide to Cleaning Your Camera Sensor
A fair amount of unease comes with interacting with one of the most fragile parts of a digital camera. Automatic sensor cleaners help but haven’t replaced the need for sensor cleaning entirely. However, cleaning camera sensors is not as delicate of an operation as it seems. You still might prefer…
Testing of Battery Life and Recording Times of All Video Cameras
Here at Lensrentals.com, we have over 100,000 pieces of gear that we not only regularly rent out, but also regularly inspect, clean, and diagnose. Because of this amount of gear, we’re afforded the luxury of getting some pretty unique insight into the gear so many videographers and photographers…
Completing the Teardown of the Sony FE 70-200 f/2.8 GM OSS: Part II
You probably shouldn’t read this article unless you’ve at least skimmed through Part 1. To summarize, we had a Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens that had been dropped and no longer would focus. We tore it down both to see if we could repair it and to see what-all was up inside there. In the first…
Things You Didn’t Want to Know About Zoom Lenses
The intersection (perhaps collision is a better word) of art and science is interesting. The scientist says “your impression is not as important as my facts.” The artists say “my impression is all that matters.” Imaging is that way. The photographer or videographer getting the look he wants from a…
MTF Tests for the Sigma BBL: The Big, Beautiful, 85mm Art Lens
Yes, I know the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens just too big for you; reading the online forums, you’d think it was about the same size and weight and a 600mm f/4 lens. It’s not, of course, although it is a hefty lens at nearly 40 ounces. But that’s just a few ounces more than a Canon 85mm f/1.2…
A Look Into the New Sony FS7 Mark II
We inspect a lot of video cameras, and design flaws tend to catch our eye quickly and consistently slow the inspection process. To the casual user, removing a hard-to-reach memory card once or twice is a mild inconvenience — one that they might not even give a conscious thought. To a full-time…
Third Party Ultra-Wide Lenses MTF Comparison
Contrary to what most people believe, we do pay some attention when people ask us to do MTF testing on certain lenses. I’m not saying we do it, but we do pay attention to the requests and when we have some downtime will look at that request lists and see if there’s something on it we can get to.…
Real World Testing of the New Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L III
Last month Roger did his standard series of optical bench tests on the new Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L III. But that doesn’t show you what it looks like in real pictures. I decided to take the new lens and a large selection of comparable lenses from Canon, as well as offerings from Nikon, Sony, and…