LensRentals News (Page 3)

Roger has posted a very objective, well thought out article on lens quality and manufacturing tolerances. It's definitely worth a read if you have a few minutes to spare.

"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 clue what ‘improving quality control’ would really look like. I think they have some vague idea of hiring a guy named Joe to sit at the end of the assembly line, check all the lenses, and reject all the bad ones. Optical quality control for lenses is way, way more complicated than that."

From the LensRentals Blog:

We’re excited to announce that Roger Cicala and Aaron Closz will be participating in an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session of reddit’s /r/photography forum on Monday at 3 pm ET. Over the last few years, /r/photography has been a huge supporter of our blog, so we wanted to give back by inviting the users of reddit to Ask Us Anything. This gives our readers a unique opportunity to ask Roger and Aaron on anything relating to cameras, lenses, other photography and video related gear and about all the techy articles they often post here on our blog. They’re also able to provide their extensive knowledge, and with one of the largest inventories of photography gear in the world, we have a lot to talk about! Be sure to tune in, and submit your questions on Monday at 3 pm ET!

Fresh on the heals of their Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM & Sony FE 35mm f/1.4 ZA teardowns, LensRentals has now opeened up the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens to see how its construction compares to the other two.

If you don't have time to read the lengthy post, here's a small paragraph from Roger's conclusions that sums up the lens's construction succinctly:

"For the most part, there weren't many surprises in this teardown. We've seen how Sigma has remade themselves as a company making only superb optics at very reasonable prices in the last few years. This lens is constructed very well. There isn't the amazing heavy-duty construction of the Canon 35mm f/1.4. Instead, I'd characterize the construction of the Sigma as very efficient and carefully laid out. There's a solid metal core with other parts all connecting directly to that core. Little touches like pegs to make sure a part is inserted in the proper rotation and shields over critical parts didn't add much expense or weight, but show care was taken in the design. There's nothing in this teardown that looked like a weak point."

B&H carries the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens (review).

Roger Cicala over at LensRentals was curious to see how much engineering went into Canon's new EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM. So in Roger-like fashion, he tore into one.

As it turns out, the lens seems especially well constructed and well thought out. Roger's comments at the bottom of the teardown say it all:

"I'm sure you can tell we're impressed with the Canon 35mm f/1.4 Mk II. The weather resistance appears better than most weather resistant lenses. (As always, I'll add that weather resistance still means water damage voids the warranty.) The mechanical construction is beyond impressive. This lens is massively over-engineered compared to any other prime we've ever disassembled. It's built like a tank where it counts; on the inside. Moving parts are huge and robust. Six big screws are used in locations where 3 smalls screws are common in other lenses. Heavy roller bearings move the focusing group, it doesn't slide on little nylon collars.

It's also designed thoughtfully and logically. Things that will inevitably get damaged on any lens, like the front element and filter ring, are designed to be replaced easily. There are some things inside, particularly with the tensioning screws and springs, that I'm not certain I understand the purpose of, but I am certain there is a purpose. If I had to summarize the mechanical design of this lens, I would say simply that no expense was spared, no corner was cut.

Sometimes things are expensive because they're worth it. Sometimes they're heavy because they're so solidly constructed. This is one of those times."

Curious to see how well the Canon 35mm f/1.4L II USM performs in your kit? You can rent a copy at LensRentals or otherwise pick up your own at B&H.

Roger Cicala of LensRentals has posted a very informative article detailing the history of glass and covers naturally occuring varieties, the Middle East around 2000 B.C., Roman-era glass, the glassmakers of Venice and even advancements through the 1700s.

It's definitely worth a read if you're interesteed in glass (or simply interested in history) and have a few minutes to spare.

Roger over at LensRentals.com has published a full teardown of two cinema primes, the Zeiss 85mm CP.2 T2.1 and more affordable Rokinon Xeen 85mm T1.5. Roger does a good job of explaining the differences between the two lenses and provides us his thoughts on the build quality of each.

Want to try out a Canon EOS 5Ds / 5Ds R to see if the benefits of a 50 MP sensor are worth the investment for your photography needs? Renting one is a good way to find out...

LensRentals now has the EOS 5Ds and 5Ds R in stock and available for rent.

Roger Cicala over at LensRentals has been busy testing out the new Canon 5Ds and now [I'm typing this with a slight cringe], tearing one apart.

From the LensRentals Blog:

"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 amazing and revealing. We expect it will look pretty much like the Canon 5DIII and 7DII on the inside. But hey, you never know. Plus we'll be repairing these soon enough, so we might as well find our way around now.

If you want to do some comparisons yourself, you can compare this to our Canon 5D III teardownand Canon 7D II teardown. Or if you'd rather follow along from home with your own 5Ds go grab your screwdrivers and let's get started!"

B&H has the Canon EOS 5Ds in stock with free next day delivery.

From the LensRentals Blog:

"Like everybody else, we're pretty excited to get our hands on Canon's new 5DS and 5DS R. There are already a lot of hands-on articles about the cameras that probably have told you more than you need to know to make your purchase decision. Of course, for most of the Canon shooters who read this blog, the purchase decision was just which place you want to buy it from.

For me, I want some lab data to see just how much of a difference those megapixels make. More particularly, I want to see how much of a difference they make when shot through a reasonably good lens, an excellent lens, and an adequate lens. Some people want to simplify things too much and claim certain lenses are 'good enough' for the new cameras and others aren't. It's not that simple.

So we begged and threw temper tantrums until Drew agreed to let us have a couple of the new cameras for a couple of days testing in our Imatest lab. That was enough time for us to get a quick overview using several different sample lenses, but it will be months before we have a good database of which lenses are most capable on the new cameras."

B&H has the Canon EOS 5Ds in stock with free next day delivery. The 5Ds R model is available for preorder.

Roger Cicala has posted about an interesting little critter he found in a recently returned Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM.

From the LensRentals Blog:

"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 dust. Our repair techs open up and clean dust out of more than 100 lenses a week. Not because the dust matters a bit in a photograph; it doesn't. But because people still seem to think it does. People also, for reasons I can't understand, seem to think that weather sealed lenses are less likely to get dust in them than non-weather sealed lenses. I'm not sure why they think this, but they do.

Sometimes the stuff that gets inside them is interesting and we get to blog about it. We found a spider, complete with web, inside a lens once and yesterday we got to add a new item to our 'found inside lenses' collection; a nice, fat, fly. And not just a fly inside a lens, but one way down deep inside a weather sealed lens. So deep that it took 4 hours of work to get it out."

Roger Cicala of LensRentals has posted a partial teardown of the Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD lens.

His takeaway? Tamron's latest wide-angle zoom is well built but isn't nearly as modular as most of Canon's newest lenses; fixing one at home is not necessarily recommended because of the complex nature of the lens's construction.

Check out the LensRentals Blog for the well-illustrated (and equally entertaining) partial teardown.

B&H carries the Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Lens (review).

From the LensRentals Blog:

"Every once in a while we notice something, because of the large quantities of cameras and lenses we buy, that we think people should be aware of. This particular issue won't affect our renters; we've sent the affected cameras back. It may not affect very many people at all, since this is from a relatively small sample size. But I still think it worth mentioning.

The bottom line is that 4 of the Canon T6s and 2 of the T6i cameras we received had to be sent back because of a defect in the sensor stack (the layers of filter glass over the sensor). This is out about 10 copies of each; the others were absolutely perfect."

We checked our own Canon Rebel T6s review camera and there was no indication of the defect. We have no idea how widespread the issue is, so be sure to check your own Rebel T6s / T6i cameras upon receipt.

From the LensRentals Blog:

"Most of you know I've been very impressed with Sigma's new Art lenses. Their 35mm f/1.4 Art I still think is the sharpest 35mm prime lens made. The 50mm f/1.4 Art is also superb.

When I heard about the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 Art lens, I had some mixed emotions. I was excited that we might get a 24mm lens of similar quality to their 35mm. But the logical side of me thought that perhaps Sigma had bitten off a bit more than they could chew this time. Designing a wide-aperture 24mm lens is much more difficult than designing a fast 35mm lens. Even the best 24mm f/1.4 lenses (I consider the Canon 24mm f/1.4 L to be the best current offering, although that's arguable) still have distortion, aberrations, and some edge softness.

But when our first five copies of the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 arrived, I swiped them from intake and took them over to the testing lab for a quick look and MTF testing on our optical bench. We already had results from the Canon 24mm f/1.4 L, the Nikon 24mm f/1.4 ED AF-S, and the Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lenses in our database to compare them to."

B&H has the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lens available for preorder.

One of the most trusted names in camera and lens rentals – Roger Cicala of LensRentals – has announced a new partnership with Brian Caldwell (designer of the Metabones Speedboosters) and Aaron Closz which will be manufacturing lenses under the brand name C-4 Precision Optics.

C-4 Precision Optics has designed several revolutionary lenses that it aims to release:

• The Beast – 66.6mm f/0.666 Lens for Micro 4/3
• The Night Stalker – 150mm f/1.0 Lens for full-frame mirrorless
• The Flying Saucer / Lightbender – 4.9mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens for full-frame mirrorless

Check out the LensRentals Blog for more information regarding C-4 Precision Optics.

From LensRentals:

We'll be at the 2015 NAB Show, April 11th-16th. Stop by Booth #C10418 or our table outside of Post | Production World and get our show special: $250 off any rental order of $750 or more.

Register using code LV8838 and attend the show for free!

We'll be hosting a private event for our customers during NAB week (details TBA). If you're attending please let us know and sign-up for an invitation. We'd love to spend time with you!

Roger Cicala over at LensRentals has just completed optical benchmark testing of the Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM. You can read the entire article for detailed information, but the final few sentences sum up his findings quite well:

"This is a remarkable lens. Canon made the widest full-frame rectilinear lens available, and made it with superb image quality throughout the zoom range. Once again, hat's off to Canon's lens designers."

Roger Cicala performed a teardown of the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM and came away wondering, "Is this the best built lens ever?"

From the LensRentals Blog:

"For those two or three of you who don't like a little lens strip-tease I'll give you the quick summary: the build quality on this thing is amazing. I usually laugh when people describe a lens as 'built like a tank' because what I know is the lens they are describing has a thick, heavy outer metal shell filled with tiny delicate pieces that break and wear out with great frequency. But this lens is built like a tank inside and out.

...

I know I can't really, without showing you dozens of other lenses, do a good job of impressing you with just how robustly engineered this lens is. I will say that the insides look more like what we'd expect to see in a 500mm f/4 or 600mm f/4 lens, rather than a telezoom. It's by far the most heavily engineered zoom lens Aaron and I have ever seen; and we've seen the insides of dozens of lenses in this range.

Well done, Canon engineers, well done!"

B&H carries the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.

From the LensRentals Blog:

"For those who want to take my word for it and skip on to some other blog, the Canon 7D Mk II may be the best weather-sealed camera I’ve run across. It’s excellent. For those who would rather see for themselves, gory camera dissection pictures follow!!

B&H has the Canon EOS 7D Mark II available for preorder.

From the LensRentals Blog:

"I try to start these articles by putting my preconceptions out there first. Every reviewer or blogger has them, they affect our opinions, and you have a right to know them. So I’m writing this introduction the day before our first copies arrive.

The lens is designed by IB/E Optics GmbH in Germany and manufactured by Kipon (aka Shanghai Transvision Photographic Equipment Co. Ltd). IB/E has developed a number of lenses and adapters for the Cinema world and other optics, so I figured the design would be good; probably a telecentric lens with a built-in speedbooster-type element or group. Kipon is known as a lens adapter company, although Shanghai Transvision has also manufactured and distributed video and photo accessories. They are rumored to manufacture lenses for other brand names, so they have some lens manufacturing experience. But, I have to say, my expectations for build quality weren’t great.

Okay, so much for what I expected. There are now five new copies sitting on my desk so let’s take a look."

Check out the rest of the article at the LensRentals Blog.

B&H carries the Handevision IBELUX 40mm f/0.85 Manual Lens for EF-M Mount.

What to see the inside of Canon's new wide-angle lens?

Roger Cicala at LensRentals has posted a lengthy, well-illustrated article detailing his teardown of Canon's EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM lens.

Roger's Conclusions:

"Now that I’ve seen the insides I’m very optimistic that this lens will be less likely to deteriorate optically over time, and will be more easily corrected when it does. We won’t know for sure until we’ve got a year’s experience with it, of course, but from a design and assembly standpoint it looks really, really good.

I know I’m beginning to sound like a Fanboy, especially considering I hardly ever mount a wide-angle zoom on my camera. But I guess the corny old line from the Most Interesting Man in the World works. 'I don’t often shoot Canon wide angle zooms, but when I do, I prefer the 16-35 f/4 IS.'"

Read the entire article on the LensRentals Blog.

B&H has the Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM (review) in stock.