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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…
Sony E Mount Lens Optical Bench Tests
It has taken a long time, the sacrifice of a couple of cameras and lenses, and a lot of soldering, but we have finally managed to rig up a powered Sony mount to our optical bench so that we can test the new full-frame Sony and Sony-Zeiss E-mount lenses. For those of you who haven’t understood why…
Lenses I Love: The Canon 200mm f/2L IS
As a photographer who has used nearly every lens in Canon’s repertoire, it’s rare to find one that truly impresses me beyond the ones I own and love. For the longest time, I’ve grown content with my current lineup (which is an overwhelming collection of prime glass), and haven’t had much gear lust…
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…
A Comprehensive Guide to Aerial Photography
In the last few years, the price of renting a helicopter has decreased dramatically. Coupled with the advent of DSLRs that perform very well in low light, this has created a wonderful opportunity for photographers to charter helicopters in numbers never seen before. Over the past two years, I’ve…
A Clear History of Glass
I’ve written about glass, as in lenses, for years now. But I’ve never looked into the history of glass as just a substance, because, well, who cared? When I accidentally did some reading about early glass, though, I was rather amazed at just how important it was. So I thought I’d write about the…
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…
Guide to Buying Used Photography Gear
Buying gear within the used market can be a great way to save money. However, you can also be left with a lemon, and no way to return your soft lens or broken gear. Since we work with thousands of pieces of gear on a daily basis, I figured it was time to discuss the many tips you can use to look…