tests

M2 Pro Mac mini Review

M2 Pro Mac mini Review: Mac Studio-Level Power at a Lower Price

Apple’s Mac mini has always been positioned as the company’s affordable desktop machine, an alternative to the low-end iMac for those that don’t need or want the iMac’s display. It’s a machine that has sometimes seemed to languish while other Mac models got performance upgrades. That has changed.

The Godox AD100 Flash is Unusable for Pro Photography

People always have a love/hate relationship with Godox. For many, they are a cheap entry point to off-camera flash, offering massive bang for the buck. Others see them as cheap imitations of more expensive brands.

CFexpress: A Real-World Performance Comparison

The newest, best cameras coming on the market use a new kind of memory card called CFexpress Type B. They’re fast, but they’re new, so users don’t really have an impression of which ones might be better to buy. This review shows tests from the better of the ones available and presents the results so that readers can use the factors most important to them to choose the best card for themselves.

A Comparison of All High Magnification Camera Lenses

For a long time, there weren’t many options for high magnification macro photography without resorting to solutions like lens coupling and reversals. The only lens on most photographer’s radar was the Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1x-5x Macro. There were also other options, however, so let’s take a look at how the MP-E 65 compares to more modern and vintage lenses to put to 5:1 magnification and beyond – using a butterfly wing.

Comparing Real Film Grain to Adobe Lightroom Film Grain

In my never-ending search for that “special” photographic look that sets me apart from the competition, I recently discovered that overexposing film increases the grain and adds a vintage pictorial look to my images. So I wanted to explore that look further. To that end, I wanted to find out if this film grain can be copied in the digital world using Adobe Lightroom.

Does Sony’s Crop Mode Mean I Need Fewer Lenses?

A major change -- and learning curve -- for me this year has been my switch from Nikon to Sony. I’ve already documented the story of my switch to Sony, but what I have since discovered is the huge possibilities -- or as some of us might call it the “confusion of options” -- that comes with owning a Sony Alpha camera.

This is What a Drone Strike Would Do to an Airplane

As drones continue to explode in popularity, there have been more and more stories of operators flying way too close to airplanes. Now new research is revealing just how much damage a direct drone strike would do to an airplane's wing.

X-Trans vs Bayer Sensors: Fantastic Claims and How to Test Them

Since the introduction of the Fujifilm X-Series line of cameras, reviewers and consumers have struggled to compare them directly to the competition. Fujifilm’s is a tightly integrated system, wherein everything is a little bit different.

The Sony a99 II is a Low Light Monster

Sony's latest E-mount mirrorless cameras have wowed photographers with their low light and high ISO capabilities. Now it looks like its latest A-mount SLT, the new Sony a99 II, will do the same. Above is a 2-minute video showing its performance at ISOs up to 25600 in a room lit only by two candles.

Sony Goes World Class: LensRentals Puts the 24-70mm GM to the Test

I was one of those who noted Sony had some troubles, as manufacturers often do, with some of their first generation lenses for full-frame FE mount cameras. When they announced the G Master lens series I was really excited to test them.

Comparing a VSCO Film Emulation to the Actual Film

I’ve been a user of VSCO Film for Lightroom for several years now. I’ve been happy with the results, but I wanted to see how close VSCO's settings are to actual film, so I decided to do my own tests.

This whole experiment was a learning experience for me, especially regarding the digitization of a film negative. For this casual experiment I shot some Portra 400 film on my medium format Fuji GA645, snapped a few similar frames on my Nikon Df, and did a side by side with the VSCO Portra 400 setting from Pack 01 straight out of Lightroom.

Testing the Sony a7R II on a Huge Canon 600mm Lens

Last week, we shared a video showing how the Sony a7R II has greatly improved autofocusing with Canon EF lenses using a Metabones adapter. Photographer Yannick Ciancanelli did some similar tests using a Fotodiox adapter and a wide range of Canon lenses, including the massive $11,499 Canon 600mm f/4.

Ciancanelli's findings weren't as positive as what other photographers are reporting.

Canon 5DS and 5DS R Initial Resolution Tests

Like everybody else, we at LensRentals were 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.

Testing the Image Quality of the Yongnuo 35mm f/2 for Canon EF

Here's a look at the optical quality of the Yongnuo 35mm f/2 for Canon EF. There’s only so much that can be tested at home without fancy gear (MTF charts and the like) so I did a few tests that gauge common aesthetic qualities, using techniques that are often recommended for testing at home.

Just the Lenses: The Great 200mm Shootout

This 'Just the Lenses' article will take advantage of a Trioptics Imagemaster optical bench to compare lenses from different camera mounts with no camera involved. Why is that different? Because all other forms of testing (DxO, Imatest, or even photography) tests the camera-lens combination.

Shooting with the Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8 in a Cold and Rainy Outdoor Portrait Session

Editor's note: This our third hands-on test of the super affordable Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8 clone lens. We previously shared casual and optical tests.

I was finally able to get the stars to align and get an outdoor session set up to test the new Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8. I booked an amazing model, Halie Jaye from Envy Model Management, and an equally fantastic makeup artist Carly Ryan. We decided to brave the frozen tundra of Mount Charleston outside of Las Vegas.

Comparing the Optics of the $40 Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8 and the $125 Canon 50mm f/1.8 II

I recently did a simple review that compared Yongnuo's new $40 clone of the Canon 50mm f/1.8 II. Today I will dive a little deeper into how the two lenses stack up optically.

There’s only so much that can be tested in home without fancy gear (MTF charts and the like) so I did a few tests that gauge common aesthetic qualities, using techniques that are often recommended for testing at home.

A First Review of the $40 Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8 ‘Nifty Fifty’ Clone

I will be the first to admit that I am not a street photographer, not a wedding photographer, and don’t generally shoot in low light, but I wanted to get a review out since I just received my two copies of Yongnuo's $40 clone of the Canon 50mm f/1.8 II.

Long Exposure Photography of a Moving Car at Night Using a Carbon Boom

I have a passion for automotive photography at night, but for the most part I'm forced to shoot static images. Long exposures require a stable support for your camera and that's only achievable when everything's locked down -- including the car. Sure, light painting, traffic trails and even the occasional star trail all help to introduce dynamism to static automotive images but sometimes there's no substitute for shooting the car whilst its moving.

What an Atomic Bomb Explosion Looks Like from Above and Below

On November 5, 1951, a 31 kiloton atomic bomb was dropped in the Nevada Test Site from a B-45 Tornado bomber. A camera in the air was documenting the test, and captured the video above showing what a large nuclear explosion looks like when looking down at it from above. Notice how the camera begins to shake when the shockwave of the blast reaches it.

The Nikon D3s Can Survive Getting Wet, Muddy, Frozen, Dropped, and Burned

High-end DSLRs by major camera manufacturers are made to be durable. After all, photographers find themselves in all kinds of environments documenting all kinds of subjects, so their cameras need to have serious protection against accidents and the elements.

Ruggedness is often a characteristic that's touted in new camera announcements, but exactly how rugged are flagship DSLRs? French Nikon photographer site Pixelistes recently decided to find out by torture testing a Nikon D3s.

Study Looks Into Whether Photo Websites Play Nicely with Copyright Metadata

How well does your favorite photo hosting and/or sharing service handle the copyright information and EXIF data of your photographs? How do the popular services stack up against one another in this regard?

Metadata handling isn't often discussed when photo sites are compared, but that's what the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) has been devoting an entire study to. The organization has published its findings regarding which companies play nicely with your metadata, and which pretend it's not there.

Overcoming My Photo Entekaphobia: The Fear of Shooting at f/11

Entekaphobia is fear of the number 11. I’m a resolution fanatic. I test every new lens for resolution. For personal use, I’ll choose the lens with higher resolution over the one with creamy bokeh every time. When choosing a camera, I have a (yes, I’m ashamed to admit it, but it’s true) strong tendency to want the most megapixels. I’m a resoholic.

Being a resoholic, I’ve always been somewhat fanatical about apertures. Whenever possible I shoot with the lens stopped down at least one stop to wring the maximum sharpness out of my lens. But I’m always careful not to stop down too far because I was taught, soon after I picked up a camera, that if you stopped down too far the dreaded diffraction softening would kick in.

Canon 6D and 5DMk3 Noise Comparison for High-ISO Long Exposures

Astrophotography enthusiast Don Marcotte wanted to find out whether the Canon 6D or Canon 5D Mark III was more suitable for his area of photography, so he pitted the two cameras against one another in a few noise tests at his local camera store. He simply shot long exposures without any light (the cap was on) in order to see how much noise would show up in the frame.

Nikon D600 Speck Issue May Be Limited to First Few Thousand Shots

Photographer Kyle Clements' time-lapse showing specks accumulating on the Nikon D600 over the first 1000 shots has been seen by nearly 200,000 people around the web in less than a week. Through the exposure his experiment has gotten, Clements received a good deal of feedback and suggestions regarding further experiments and what the specks might be. He has since done two new time-lapse experiments that sheds a little more light on the issue.

Digiscoping: A Look at Using a Spotting Scope as a Telephoto Lens

I’ve always been a bit fascinated by digiscoping. For those who are out of the loop, digiscoping involves taking images through a spotting scope rather than a camera lens. The advantages are obvious. A spotting scope provides magnification equivalent to a lens of 1,250 to 3,000mm. Who wouldn’t want that?

Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 Mark II Trounces the Mark I in Sharpness

Despite its girth, weight, and price, Canon's original 24-70mm f/2.8L is a highly-regarded general-purposes lens. When the followup Mark II version was announced back in February, the higher-price tag, similar specs, and lack of IS had many photographers scratching their heads. Then the reviews started coming out.

First Impressions of the Canon EOS M Mirrorless Camera

I am not a reviewer. I don’t even play one on TV. There are already some in-depth reviews out on the new Canon EOS-M, and more coming daily. But I handle a lot of equipment and test a lot of equipment. When something new comes in I spend a day handling it and testing it. Hopefully this will give you a quick overview of the camera, and perhaps fill in some things that actual reviewers don’t get to tell you about. We recently got a bunch of EOS M cameras, a bunch of the 22mm lenses, a couple of 18-55 kit lenses, and a single EOS M EF adapter.

For those who don’t want to read this but do want to tell everyone what I said later, here’s the summary: it is the best of mirrorless, it is the worst of mirrorless, it is the camera of wise choices, it is the camera of foolishness, it is the epoch of accurate autofocus, and it is the epoch of slow autofocus. In other words, I’ve got mixed emotions.