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The Hollywood Distagon at f/2: A Single Daffodil and the Contax Zeiss 28mm on the Sony A7RV
April 28, 2026
Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 300mm f4.0 IS PRO
On January 6, 2016 Olympus announced officially their new High-performance, super-telephoto lens, and it sure looks like a winner from the specifications. I can’t wait to get my hands on this baby for a test! For now, here’s their full press release. M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 300mm f4.0 IS PRO (35mm equivalent focal length: 600mm) The powerful image stabilization and excellent mobility that makes hand-held shooting possible on a super-telephoto lens M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f4.0 IS PRO (With built-in lens hood stored) Olympus Corporation (President: Hiroyuki Sasa) is pleased to announce the M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f4.0 IS PRO (35mm
Read moreLens Duel Shows (Gear) Size Matters
French Photographer and teacher in Paris, Serge Ramelli (Artisan Cinema), brings us this story about a pair of photographers attempting to use their individual bottomless bags of photo gear to win the attention of a beautiful lady by staging a lens duel. Filmed in a public park, this red head gal is on a bench eating lunch, when the dynamic duo unpacks and begins their lens duel directly in front of her. The GAS (Gear Acquired Syndrome) lens duel war begins with smartphones but rapidly escalates to point-and-shoots. One said point-and-shoot’s self rising viewfinder looking downright obscene to some prudish eyes, I’m sure. Soon, the battle heats up
Read morePhotographers Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet
In the North of England, within the South Lakeland District of Cumbria, lies the rural costal market town and civil parish of Kendal. In antiquity known as Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal. As small and remote as it is, it is from this rural Kendal setting that Jamie Spencer makes some of the best keyboard shortcuts cheat sheets I have ever seen. I’m sure you’ve noticed how some people just have an art for creating beautiful things nobody else seems to be able to do? That’s Jamie. For cheat sheets (aka technical infographics) his are the BEST! He’s also not a half bad web
Read moreANATOMY OF AN INDIE – Good Is Not Good Enough
As I discussed in an earlier installment, the problems with the movie I am making weren’t discovered until after we had finished shooting, and for the most part boiled down to the animated character. 1. The character had a big presence in the beginning and end, but goes away for a long time 2. The audience didn’t understand who the character was or how to understand him 3. The audience didn’t like the character 4. Since the character looked like David, the audience stopped liking our lead actor 5.
Read moreSchneider Xenon FF Prime Lenses Now In Sony E Mount
Not to be outdone by the strong Zeiss support for the native Sony FF E mount, Schneider Optics announces additional support for the Sony E mount in their new family of prime lenses specially designed and built for digital cinematography with full-frame sensor HDSLR, Mirrorless, and other professional cameras. Built in Germany by Schneider-Kreuznach, the new Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon FF Prime Lenses are the latest addition to the company’s line of high-end optics. These lenses feature a unique interchangeable lens mount that allows direct adaptation to most professional grade cameras of your choice, including the RED Dragon, Canon C100/C300/C500, Arri Alexa, Black Magic, Sony
Read moreSneaker Zoom vs A Zoom Lens
Everyone by now has heard the sage old advice told to every young photographer without a zoom lens. Use your feet. Or Sneaker Zoom, as most of us old timers call it. Sneaker Zoom means getting closer or farther away from your subject to effectively change your angle of view without having to change the lens itself. With Sneaker Zoom, as long as I have the space to get in and out, I can work anything using only a wide angle lens, including getting some pretty unique looking images. I prefer shooting with prime lenses, both for their extra speed and smaller, lighter
Read moreANATOMY OF AN INDIE – Lets Talk About Pixels
There Is Entirely Too Much Talk About Pixels When we set out to make MARRIED YOUNG, my cinematographer and I had a long and detailed conversation about cameras. In fact, the talk about pixels even colored my choice of cinematographer. One of my favorite cinematographers interviewed with my producers and I and was emphatic that we could not shoot with anything less than a 4K camera. He felt that anything less than 4K would not work for a film that was to be projected on a large screen. He was emphatic about it. And while I respect and love a
Read moreThe Best and Most Rented New Photography Gear of 2015
Here at LensRentals, we have a unique perspective to the market trends. With over 100,000 pieces of gear that are rented out regularly, we’re able to effectively monitor what products are the most interesting for photographers and videographers. Here is where we’ll show you all our own market trends, and give you a list of the most popular photography and videographer items rented from the year 2015. We’ll also go through our staff, and they’ll individually explain to you what new items they were most excited about from this past year. Please note that this list is just of
Read moreDigital Anarchy’s Flicker Free
I should call this video “Digital Blindz” or something, that horizontal banding is so bad. As an environmentalist, I applaud the conversion from incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent and the new LED digital bulbs. The energy efficiency is so much better it can save a great deal on a monthly electric bill, and give even better lighting coverage with less watts. But as a photographer, these new lights can drive me up a wall trying to shoot video. The cause of this problem has to do with the refresh frequency the LED bulbs are using and that frequency’s harmonizing with your
Read moreMarried Young – No Room For Confusion
What surprised me most from the audiences was how difficult it was for them to follow the opening. Originally we opened on the pharmacy – David, our hero, is tired (pale, dark circles, unkempt hair) and he’s staring at laxatives. It should be a funny image, right? But it wasn’t. The small people I tested the movie with didn’t laugh. We cut wide to reveal the pharmacy and the fact that it is dark outside – the middle of the night. Then the pharmacist comes out and starts talking about his favorite stool softeners. He hands some pills to David
Read moreSony 35mm FE f/1.4 ZA Lens Teardown
Last post, we took apart the Canon 35mm f/1.4 Mk II lens. Continuing the 35mm theme, today we’re going to do the same to the Sony 35mm FE f/1.4 ZA lens. And chill out, we’ll do the Sigma 35mm DG HSM f/1.4 Art lens next and one of the Zeiss after that. Before we start, let’s be sure we’re all on the same page because this teardown of the Sony 35mm FE is going to be very different from the other lenses we generally tear down. The outside of the Sony lens may look fairly similar to the Canon in the picture above, but
Read moreSony FS5 vs a7S II: A Low Light Comparison
https://vimeo.com/148669030 FS5 vs a7S II I’m shooting so much low light video these days that I was very interested to see what the new Sony FS5 was capable of, verses the new Sony a7S II. It is possible I will be using one or the other of these cameras in 2016, and I need to make a client recommendation. I want to thank Dan Chung from newsshooter.com for taking the time and trouble of doing this video and making it available for this article. Dan saves me a lot of testing work, as it is clear the a7S II is still the
Read moreAnatomy Of An Indie – Discovering Your Movie
SYNOPSIS FOR “MARRIED YOUNG” David and Talya got married young. They have an 18 month old and another on the way. But life isn’t the way David expected it: they live in a trailer park (true, it’s a luxury trailer park), David uses his artistic ability to create soul defeating corporate websites and to make matters worse, they haven’t had sex for weeks because Talya isn’t in the mood. Life would be challenging enough without it, but in the spirit of South Park, David has a 2-D animated alter-ego, a comic character he created years ago. This “Party Animal” tells David that
Read moreTell The Story With Soul
What does it mean to tell a “Story With Soul?” I see photographs posted online that often make me stop and shake my head. Perfectly executed technically, but with little soul. These photographs show solid understanding of equipment operation, but nothing of the human condition or emotion that gives a photo soul. These photos are wooden, lifeless, though correctly, in the legal sense of the definition, portraits of people. Being competent as a photographer only means you have developed sufficient craft skills to operate a camera. Getting the art and life into a photograph takes something more, it takes focus on soul. Putting some
Read moreCanon 35mm Mk II f/1.4 Teardown
As soon as we optically tested the Canon 35mm Mk II f/1.4 lens we couldn’t wait to tear into one for a couple of reasons. One was that Canon has been making a lot of interesting advances in lens mechanics lately, so we’re always excited to look inside their new lenses. Another was that Canon claimed this lens had increased weather resistance and durability. You know I’m pretty cynical about claims like that until I see what’s inside for myself. And finally, well, it’s been really busy all fall and Aaron and I really just haven’t had time to tear apart some new lenses,
Read moreANATOMY OF AN INDIE – Married Young – Post #1
Make no bones about it, making an independent movie is nothing less than war. And to have very little money is to go into battle without bullets… or guns… or soldiers. Married Young I am at the tail end of making an Independent movie entitled MARRIED YOUNG. It has taken three years of my life, the bulk of my savings and all of my attention. The unnecessary drama and pain associated with this project is impressive to me, even now. But thank G-d, the final product is pretty impressive and successful. Yet the drama is relentless. Here I am
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