RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘LensRentals’

Lensrentals breaks down the numbers behind the most popular cameras and lenses of the year

04 Dec
Image provided by Lensrentals

As it does every year, Lensrentals has released the numbers behind the most popular gear it saw rented out through 2018. In a blog post on its website, Lensrentals details nearly every category and subcategory imaginable, showing what cameras, lenses, and formats reign supreme in the world of online rentals.

In Lensrental’s own words, ‘This barometer of equipment rental patterns is useful for the industry to gauge trends in adoption of new technology, camera and lens formats and change in brand share of the market.’

Starting with cameras, Canon still leads, with Sony and Nikon trailing, respectively. Year-over-year though, Canon is down from 44.90% in 2017 to 41.57% in 2018, while Sony and Nikon both increased from 24.67% to 26.31% and 15.06% to 15.28%, respectively. Although the data for this analysis was gathered before the general availability of both Canon and Nikon’s full-frame mirrorless offerings, Lensrentals says early data suggests Canon’s EOS R system is roughly twice as popular as Nikon’s Z6 and Z7 cameras.

The top ILC camera brands, based on percentage of total rentals, according to Lensrentals.

The Canon 5D Mark IV and 5D Mark III take the top two spots, respectively, with the Sony a7s II, Sony a7 III, and Panasonic GH5 rounding out the top five. The Sony a7 III is the only new camera (released in 2018) to make it into the top five.

While on the topic of CaNikon, Lensrentals data shows Canon’s overall camera usage has decreased slightly, going from 44.90% to 41.57% year-over-year, as Nikon’s increased from 15.06% to 15.28% year over year. Lensrentals notes this is possibly due to the release of the D850 late in 2017, which gave Nikon momentum going into the new year. Other camera brands saw growth as well in 2018, filling the void left behind by Canon.

Below is a list of the top ten cameras rented out by Lensrental users:

1. Canon 5D Mark IV
2. Canon 5D Mark III
3. Sony Alpha a7S II
4. Sony Alpha a7 III
5. Panasonic GH5
6. Sony Alpha a7R III
7. Nikon D750
8. Canon 6D Mark II
9. Nikon D850
10. Canon 6D

On the lens front, not much has changed at the top. Canon, Sony, Sigma, and Nikon take the top four spots, with 37.17%, 14.58%, 12.96%, and 9.62% of rentals, respectively. After that, the numbers drop dramatically, as seen in the below chart.

The top lens brands, based on percentage of total rentals, according to Lensrentals. Other includes: Metabones, Olympus, Rokinon, Voigtlander, Leica, Tokina, Fujinon, Pentax, Veydra, Lensbaby, Venus Optics, Hasselblad, Angenieux, Wooden Camera, SLR Magic and Schneider.

Canon’s second-generation 24-70mm F2.8 and 70-200mm F2.8 have proven to be the most popular lenses yet again. However, Sony has found its way into the top three with its own 24-70mm F2.8 and Sony lens rentals have increased approximately 60%, growth mostly driven from new lens releases. Lensrentals says the following lenses ‘drove the most growth’ for Sony:

  • Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 OSS
  • Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM
  • Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS

Panasonic also saw growth, driven exclusively by three lenses as well:

  • Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 X Power OIS II
  • Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 X Power OIS II
  • Panasonic/Leica 8-18mm f/2.8-4 ASPH

Both Sigma and Tamron saw a slow, but steady increase in popularity, as both have been rolling out new and improved lenses across their respective lineups. Below is a list of the top ten lenses, according to Lensrentals:

1. Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II
2. Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II
3. Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM
4. Canon 35mm f/1.4L II
5. Canon 50mm f/1.2L
6. Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS
7. Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L
8. Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro
9. Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L III
10. Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II

Overall, there isn’t too much change across the board, aside from a few notable exceptions mentioned above. Again though, this data was pulled before Canon and Nikon’s respective full-frame mirrorless cameras became available to the general public. With the cameras now available leading into the next year, there could be dramatic changes, both in the DSLR and mirrorless market as manufacturers battle it out for the top spot.

To see a more detailed analysis of the gear rented out and numbers behind the scenes, head over to Lensrentals’ blog post.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Lensrentals breaks down the numbers behind the most popular cameras and lenses of the year

Posted in Uncategorized

 

LensRentals tears down Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8 Mark III and Mark II

01 Sep

LensRentals Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8 Mark III and Mark II teardown

When Canon announced the EF 70-200mm F2.8L IS III USM earlier this summer, the company was pretty open about the fact that it was a minor upgrade to its predecessor, featuring tweaked coatings and a new finish, but the same optical-mechanical formula.

Never ones to take a press release at face value (and since repairing lenses is a big part of their job) Roger Cicala and the team at LensRentals opened the lenses up to see whether Canon made any hidden changes. Not to spoil the surprise, but what they found… wasn’t a surprise.

All images courtesy of LensRentals, and used with permission.

LensRentals tears down Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8 Mark III and Mark II

The new Mark III version of the 70-200mm F2.8 is indeed optically and mechanically identical to the older Mark II. In Roger’s words: “If you think there’s an optical or performance difference, please contact me about some Tennessee Beach-front property I have for sale.”

But that doesn’t mean that they’re not optically and mechanically interesting lenses. According to Roger, the various versions of the Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8 are possibly the most popular lenses that the company has in their loan stock, but because they’re so complex, internally “the 70-200mm f/2.8 is […] one of the ugliest bits of engineering in the Canon fleet”

LensRentals tears down Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8 Mark III and Mark II

If the containing tape in the last photograph didn’t give it away, the camera-side internals of the 70-200mm F2.8 II/III are something of a rats nest of fragile ribbon connectors, wires and PCBs. “Not much fun to work with” says Roger, and we believe him.

LensRentals tears down Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8 Mark III and Mark II

This shot shows the rear group (being lifted off) connected by one remaining ribbon to the image stabilization unit. The rear group acts as a single centering element, making it “a bit of a pain to adjust”, requiring repeated adjustment, reassembly, more adjustment, reassembly (again) and so on, until it’s correctly aligned.

LensRentals tears down Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8 Mark III and Mark II

Here’s the IS unit, removed from the main lens barrel. The tweezers indicate one of the four posts that stop the IS unit from moving around too much inside the lens. To avoid damage to the IS unit during travel or shipping, Roger recommends turning IS off when the lens is still on the camera. Otherwise the element won’t lock and these plastic posts are the only things stopping the lens from banging around freely inside the barrel.

LensRentals tears down Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8 Mark III and Mark II

Two layers of weather-sealing tape (which the LensRentals team tells us is pretty much the same material as this stuff) protects the 70-200mm’s front group, and helps prevent water ingress. This is how the LensRentals team gets access to the front element of the 70-200mm, which they have to do a lot, to replace scratched front elements, get rid of dust and make optical adjustments.

So is the new Mark III version worth upgrading to? We’re not convinced, and neither are Roger and his team. Both are excellent lenses, and if you can find a Mark II for a good price, go for it.

For more details – and a lot more images – read the full blog post at LensRentals.com.

Read the full tear-down at LensRentals

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on LensRentals tears down Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8 Mark III and Mark II

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Lensrentals: Cheap Veydra Mini Prime lenses are ‘optically excellent’

27 Mar

Roger Cicala over at Lensrentals went on another OLAF testing spree, and this time the victim of his optical bench tests were the extremely affordable Veydra Mini Prime cinema lenses made for E-Mount and Micro Four Thirds sensors. These lenses are so inexpensive that Cicala has assumed (for some time) that they were also probably also ineffective. But as Roger put it:

[Today] we learned for the umpteenth time that doing scientific testing is a great way to shoot down Roger’s assumptions.

It turns out these lenses aren’t bad at all… in fact, Roger calls them “optically excellent.” And when he put them to the test against Zeiss CP.2 primes that cost 3x (or more) as much money, the Veydra Mini Primes (and here, again, we’re going to use his wording) “the Veydras just kick some serious resolution butt in this comparison.”

Here’s just one of those comparisons (more in the full test at Lensrentals), between the Zeiss Compact Prime CP.2 85mm T2.1 (average of 10 samples) and the Veydra Mini Prime 85mm T2.2 (average of 9 samples):

Zeiss on the Left, Veydra on the Right

Of course, this is a comparison on a single parameter: absolute resolution. But it’s also a comparison between a lens that costs $ 3,990 (the Zeiss CP.2) and $ 1,000 (the Veydra Mini Prime). Still, as Roger points out several times:

[These tests] won’t tell you a thing about how [the lens] focus breathes, how it handles, or whether it has that ‘film’ look. I will simply tell you how well it resolves (because you can roll your artsy eyes all you want; sometimes you have to make things look sharp).

The other factor to keep in mind is the image circle, because the Veydra Mini Primes are… well… mini. They’re only made for Micro Four Thirds and Super 35 image size and won’t cover a full-frame sensor. Still, the results of his test left Roger (and by extension, us) impressed.

Check out the full test over on Lensrentals, and if you’ve used them, drop a line in the comments about their real world performance.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Lensrentals: Cheap Veydra Mini Prime lenses are ‘optically excellent’

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Lensrentals tears down the Sony a7R III in search of better weather sealing

21 Feb

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_8395811675″,”galleryId”:”8395811675″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”isMobile”:false}) });

Our good friend Roger Cicala over at Lensrentals finally got around to tearing down the Sony a7R III, to see if Sony was being honest when it claimed the newest a7R was much better weather sealed than its predecessor. The results? Well, it’s a “good news, bad news” situation. Yes, Sony was being truthful… but it screwed up in one major place.

You can see the full teardown over on the Lensrentals blog—Roger tears the thing all the way down, even giving us a great look a the IBIS system and how far the sensor can travel—but the TL;DR version goes something like this:

Sony weather sealed most of this camera very well, much better than its predecessor. BUT, for some reason, Sony left the bottom of this camera extremely vulnerable to water. You can see just how vulnerable in the gallery above. Or, if you prefer words, here’s Roger’s conclusion:

Sony spoke truly. Except for the bottom this camera has thorough and extensive weather sealing, as good as any camera I’ve seen. (Before you Pentax guys start, I have not taken apart a Pentax so it may be completely sealed in a super glue matrix for all I know.)

That being said, the bottom of the camera is not protected worth a damn. If you’re out in a sprinkle or shower, this probably doesn’t matter; water hits the top first. But if you’re in severe weather, near surf, or might set your camera down where someone might spill something, you need to be aware of that.

To read the full conclusion, scroll through the entire teardown, and see just how many rubber gaskets and foam pieces Sony added to the a7RIII to keep it safe from inclement weather, head over to the Lensrentals blog.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Lensrentals tears down the Sony a7R III in search of better weather sealing

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Canon and Sony dominate Lensrentals’ most rented gear of 2017 list

28 Dec

Lensrentals has released its most rented gear of 2017 list, and the results are very interesting. You can check out the full list here, but we thought we’d point out the three things that immediately caught our eye.

1. Sony’s claim that it’s beaten Nikon to take the #2 position in sales of full-frame interchangeable lens cameras (ILCs) is backed up by the rental data. According to Lensrentals, for the first year ever, Sony has out-rented Nikon and “is slowly closing the gap to Canon.”

2. That said, Sony’s top renting piece of gear—the Sony a7S II—only reached the number five spot behind four Canon products; the Canon 24-70mm F2.8L II, Canon 70-200 F2.8L IS II, Canon EOS 5D Mark III, and Canon EOS 5D Mark IV took the numbers one, two, three, and four spots, respectively. Canon may not have released anything overly exciting this year, but there’s no doubt it’s still the best-selling camera brand in the world.

3. Finally, the last bit that caught our eye is that a battery—Sony’s NP-FW50, which was recently replaced the the NP-FZ100 that our own Richard Butler loves so much—took the number 6 spot, beating out some seriously popular gear like the Canon 50mm F1.2L and Canon 6D. This just foes to show: upgrading the Sony a9 and a7RIII to the much bigger FZ100 battery was an absolute necessity.

To see the full list and breakdown, or dive into a few other categories like last year’s most-rented list or the most popular new equipment rented in 2017, head over to the Lensrentals blog.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Canon and Sony dominate Lensrentals’ most rented gear of 2017 list

Posted in Uncategorized

 

The clockwork lens: Lensrentals tears down famed Minolta 40-80mm F2.8 Gearbox Zoom

27 Sep

Lensrentals tears down famed Minolta 40-80mm F2.8 Gearbox Zoom

Photograph by Tom Leonard

The Minolta MC Rokkor X 40-80mm F2.8 zoom is a unique lens, which uses a gearbox for controlling focus and zoom. The advantage of this design? It’s pretty small for an F2.8 zoom, especially one made in the 70’s, and more precise than a conventional helicoid. The downside? It’s fiendishly hard to take apart – as Roger Cicala and Aaron Closz at Lensrentals recently found out…

Lensrentals tears down famed Minolta 40-80mm F2.8 Gearbox Zoom

Image courtesy of Lensrentals

Roger and his team started by removing parts of the rear lens assembly, including the aperture ring. So far, so conventional. In Roger’s words: “We were starting to feel a little confident now. That confidence, as you will see, was entirely misplaced.”

Lensrentals tears down famed Minolta 40-80mm F2.8 Gearbox Zoom

Image courtesy of Lensrentals

Removing the leatherette that covers the lens barrel revealed several screws which – once unscrewed – allowed the gearbox housing to be removed, revealing the complicated mechanism for controlling zoom and focus.

Lensrentals tears down famed Minolta 40-80mm F2.8 Gearbox Zoom

Image courtesy of Lensrentals

Inside the housing, you can see the macro selection and focusing mechanisms, both of which move what Roger is calling ‘The Magic Slot’ (indicated with a red arrow). If this looks complicated, that’s because it is. In Roger’s words, “this is a mechanical art of the highest order”, ensuring that even when the lens is zoomed, the focus point remains unchanged. That was impressive stuff for the 1970’s (and even today).

Lensrentals tears down famed Minolta 40-80mm F2.8 Gearbox Zoom

Image courtesy of Lensrentals

Back to the lens barrel, and things are getting even more complicated…

Here, the green arrow is pointing to the zoom stem, while the red arrow indicates a heavy duty brass post covered with a white bumper. Since “normal lens terms like helicoid and cam don’t work here” Roger is calling this ‘The Golden Post’.

Lensrentals tears down famed Minolta 40-80mm F2.8 Gearbox Zoom

Image courtesy of Lensrentals

For a full explanation of exactly how all of this works, we’d recommend heading over to Roger’s original blog post, which explains things in fascinating detail. In the meantime, here’s a picture of the mechanical zoom and focus assembly, removed from the lens barrel.

Lensrentals tears down famed Minolta 40-80mm F2.8 Gearbox Zoom

Image courtesy of Lensrentals

With this assembly removed, the 40-80mm starts to look rather more like a conventional lens. To completely disassemble it, though, the team referred to ‘Aaron’s Second Rule of Disassembly’. Specifically – All leatherette must be removed. Because underneath leatherette, you’ll invariably find screws.

Lensrentals tears down famed Minolta 40-80mm F2.8 Gearbox Zoom

Image courtesy of Lensrentals

Finally, after “about an hour of time and a thorough and complete use of our full lexicon of unprintable words”, Roger and Aaron managed to get the inner barrel out of the outer casing.

Lensrentals tears down famed Minolta 40-80mm F2.8 Gearbox Zoom

Image courtesy of Lensrentals

With the front optics taken out, the aperture blades were revealed. After such a complex disassembly, Roger and Aaron “were glad to see something that looked familiar”.

Lensrentals tears down famed Minolta 40-80mm F2.8 Gearbox Zoom

Image courtesy of Lensrentals

And here is the 40-80mm F2.8, reduced (almost) to its component parts. Roger’s final takeaway, from one of the most complex disassemblies he’s ever done?

“There were some slick engineers working on things at Minolta back in the 1970s, thinking way outside the box”.

If this article whetted your appetite, we’d encourage you to head to Lensrentals for a full explanation of the entire process (including MTF charts!) and read more about the unique 40-80mm F2.8 in Tom Leonard’s article, ‘A forgotten solution: Why this strange 1975 zoom lens is so sharp’. See links below.

Read the full article on Lensrentals.com

Read Tom Leonard’s writeup of the Minolta MC Rokkor-X 40-80mm F2.8

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on The clockwork lens: Lensrentals tears down famed Minolta 40-80mm F2.8 Gearbox Zoom

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Lensrentals shares photos of destroyed camera gear they got back after the eclipse

02 Sep

$ (document).ready(function() { SampleGalleryV2({“containerId”:”embeddedSampleGallery_9619240233″,”galleryId”:”9619240233″,”isEmbeddedWidget”:true,”standalone”:false,”selectedImageIndex”:0,”startInCommentsView”:false,”isMobile”:false}) });

Our friends over at Lensrentals shared an entertaining-if-a-bit-depressing post today: rental camera gear destroyed during the solar eclipse of 2017. It seems that, despite plenty of warnings from other websites and Lensrentals itself leading up to the incredible celestial phenomenon, not everybody got the message that you always need to use a solar filter to shoot the eclipse.

As such, Lenrentals got back everything from melted aperture systems, to burned shutters, to a fried mirror—ostensibly because people were shooting in live view.

LR is careful to specify that they actually got very few damaged units back given just how much gear they rented ahead of the eclipse, and that this post is meant to entertain not criticize:

“Please keep in mind, this post is for your entertainment, and not to be critical of our fantastic customer base,” writes Zach Sutton. “With this being the first solar eclipse for Lensrentals, we didn’t know what to expect and were surprised with how little of our gear came back damaged.”

So, entertain away. You can see a few of the images in the gallery above, or visit the full Lensrentals blog post for more pictures and descriptions of the damage the sun can do to expensive camera gear when you’re not properly equipped to shoot it.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Lensrentals shares photos of destroyed camera gear they got back after the eclipse

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Lensrentals is now renting out drones and VR/360 equipment

11 Aug

Popular gear rental (and astute gear commentary) company Lensrentals announced some big news this morning: they’re going to start renting DJI drones and Virtual Reality/360° equipment.

Lots of photographers are considering adding a drone to their kit or dabbling in Virtual Reality and 360° capture, but if you’re not sold on the idea, buying expensive VR or aerial photography gear might seem excessive. Lensrentals expansion into drones and VR offers a try-before-you-buy option that won’t set you back thousands.

Starting today, you can rent the Mavic DJI Pro, DJI Phantom 4 Pro and DJI Inspire 2 drones alongside “a number of supporting equipment items” in the company’s Drones section, as well as the Orah 4i VR camera, Nikon KeyMission 360 action cam and their accompanying accessories under the VR/360 section.

To give you an idea on price, renting a DJI Mavic Pro will run you $ 213 for 7 days, a Nikon KeyMission 360 action cam costs just $ 57 for the same period, and the more powerful Orah 4i VR camera costs $ 270 for that week-long rental. And if you like what you try, you can keep the drone/camera and apply your rental fee towards a purchase through Lensrentals’ Keeper program.

To learn more about the company’s new rental options, or take advantage for yourself, head over to the Lensrentals website.

Press Release

Lensrentals Adds Drone and Virtual Reality / 360 Equipment to Nationwide Rental Program

DJI Mavic Pro, DJI Phantom 4 Pro and DJI Inspire 2 Drones, Orah 4i and Nikon VR Gear Added to Inventory

Memphis, TN – August 10, 2017 – Lensrentals, the largest online provider of photography and video equipment for rental throughout the US, today announced a trial of drone and virtual reality (VR) equipment for rental nationwide. From today the Mavic DJI Pro, DJI Phantom 4 Pro and DJI Inspire 2 drones, and a number of supporting equipment items can be found under the video section of Lensrentals.com. Similarly, Orah 4i and Nikon virtual reality/360 equipment will also be available on Lensrentals.com, with a variety of accessories to enable professional quality image capture.

Following a recent successful trial, Lensrentals will extend the nationwide drone rental program to identify the most robust packaging, efficient maintenance and supplemental equipment options, to ensure the company continues to provide equipment with the lowest failure rate in the industry.

“With any new photo and video rental categories, we need ensure we’re maintaining our high standards for providing ‘like new’ equipment to enable our customers to capture the best quality imagery. ” said Lensrentals, Co-owner, Drew Cicala. “As drone technology has improved, especially stability control reducing the chances of accidental landings, and VR gear quality has increased, we’re more confident that we can maintain an inventory of professional equipment that can be rented repeatedly throughout the U.S.,” Cicala added.

Lensrentals expansion into drones and virtual reality equipment categories create opportunities for individuals seeking to try and buy gear through the Lensrentals Keeper program – that allows customers to rent equipment, keep the equipment and apply rental fees towards the purchase.

To comply with FAA regulations, customers adding a drone to their cart for rental or purchase will be directed to the remote pilot airman certification page at checkout.

In addition to new equipment packages, updated branding, amended layout and a smart shopping cart, customers that visit the Lensrentals website, will notice more streamlined navigation beginning with the type of content they are looking to create. By choosing photo or video customers are able to explore by type of equipment, brand etc., and receive recommendations of packages of equipment compiled by staff members based on the items most frequently rented together.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Lensrentals is now renting out drones and VR/360 equipment

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Lensrentals on the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 Art: a lot for less than the competition

29 Jul

Following some initial lab testing results, Lensrentals has published a full review of the highly-anticipated Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 Art. While lab testing suggests that it doesn’t quite keep up with the established, much more expensive options from Canon and Nikon, a competitive price tag is one of the lens’ major selling points. Depending on your budget and needs, that price difference might tip the scale. Reviewer Zach Sutton sums it up:

“However, here is where the Sigma shines once again, offering itself at a $ 1,300 price tag, whereas the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II sits at $ 1,750, and the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E at $ 2,400. The Sigma provides a lot for significantly less than the competition.”

Check out the full review and let us know what you think of the 24-70 in the comments.

Read Lensrentals’ full
Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 Art review

See our Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 Art sample gallery

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Lensrentals on the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 Art: a lot for less than the competition

Posted in Uncategorized

 

Lensrentals blog looks at off-camera recorders

18 Apr
Lensrentals looks at digital off-camera video recorders.

Most still cameras today are capable of shooting HD, and often 4K, video. Unfortunately, video quality is frequently limited by factors such as codecs, bit rates, or write speeds to memory cards, and often doesn’t reflect what the camera and sensor are capable of capturing when unshackled from such limitations. 

To work around this, many videographers use digital off-camera recorders that leverage a camera’s ability to output higher quality video to an external source via the HDMI port. Joshua Richardson over at Lensrentals has published a helpful article about digital recorders and why you may want to consider using one, and calls out some common models worth considering.

We’re working on on some in-depth articles about some of these recorders to bring you even more detail. Stay tuned!

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
Comments Off on Lensrentals blog looks at off-camera recorders

Posted in Uncategorized

 
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »