All Posts
Focal Length Guide for Shooting in Large Spaces
There can be a lot of guessing involved when choosing gear for an unfamiliar venue. The techs at LR are consistently asked questions about the best focal length to use for an event. There are focal length calculators online like this one that can help determine which is right for you, and this…
LensRentals Tears Down the Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2 Lens
LensRentals hasn’t been able to get enough copies of the Zeiss Batis lenses to even fill our existing orders, much less enough for Aaron and I to test and play with them. But one of our customers was kind enough to drop a Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2 lens the other day. Nothing looked smashed, but after…
Mythbusting: Parfocal Photo Zooms
About twice a week I get a call from a photo-videographer wanting to know which photo zoom lenses in a certain focal length are parfocal (stays in focus while changing focal lengths). It’s understandable why they would ask; a superb photo zoom is 1/10th the cost of a good video zoom. They get…
How to Clean Your Camera Lenses (And Check For Problems)
In the past, Roger has shown us time and time again, that internal dust and other artifacts rarely have an effect on the image quality produced by your lenses. With how complicated the optics in a lens are designed, lenses are rarely affected by these small flaws such as lens dust. That said, every…
The Long-Awaited, Scary and Amazing Fuji Lens Teardown
For, oh, about 2 years now, every time we do a lens teardown I get emails from Fuji shooters asking me to tear down one of their lenses. There are several reasons we haven’t. For one thing, we have far fewer copies of those lenses so there is less reason to work on them. Since we can’t get parts…
Comparing the Leica Monochrom to a Sony a7R II
## What Is A Monochrome Sensor And Why Does It Exist? Leica cameras have always been exciting to me. I think it’s mostly because of how expensive they are. Holding and using something incredibly out of my budget gives the shooting experience a little extra magic. But even with that magic, I…
A Peek Inside the Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm f/2.8-4 ASPH
We always get excited when a lens comes out with some new technology or major changes. This time, the new technology came from an unexpected source when Leica released the Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm f/2.8-4 ASPH lens. I know most of you don’t think of Leica as technological groundbreakers and most of…
LensRentals Review of the Kessler Second Shooter Slider
Full disclosure: I watch a lot of cooking shows. Top Chef, Mind of a Chef, and No Reservations are some of my go-to’s, but my absolute favorite (and by far the dorkiest) is Good Eats. A sort of founding commandment or mantra of that show kept popping into my head over my last couple weekends when…
Effective Headshot Photography Techniques on Location
Creating a headshot is as simple as pointing your camera to a face and shooting. But creating an effective headshot is a much more complicated process. Lighting, expression, location and a million other variables come into play, and can drastically change the feeling of the image. And for many,…
Optical Quality Assurance
*Pinhole images from new, but optically decentered lens. Olaf Optical Testing, 2016* After we published a number of posts about copy-to-copy variation, people were quick to say that this company or that needs to ‘just’ improve quality control. I totally agree but realize most people don’t have a…
A Camera For Your Thoughts?
To thank you for taking our customer survey we will be giving away a camera! One grand prize winner will have their choice between a Sony a7S II, Canon 5DS, andNikon D750! ### Click Here to enter! _Must be a U.S. resident. One entry per person. Must enter by 3/15/16_
A Beginner’s Guide to V-Log on the Panasonic GH4
Back when it was released in April of last year, Panasonic’s GH4 seemed poised to lead the charge of the 4K mirrorless cameras. Since then, though, the Sony A7S and Sony A7SII have taken over much of that market, offering full-frame sensors, exceptional low-light performance, and higher dynamic…