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Tearing down Canon’s new 600mm f/11 telephoto lens

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Canon’s RF 600mm f/11 IS STM lens is tiny. At least, it is when you compare it to the typical 600mm lenses that wildlife and sports shooters use. It’s also super lightweight, coming in at around 2lb (930g) and costs a mere $699. Sure, its f/11 max aperture is hitting “diffraction territory” but for social media, it’s plenty good enough.

At least, that’s the thought that convinced Roger Cicala at LensRentals to buy the RF 600mm f/11 IS STM lens. It’s not a lens he needs often, but he regularly spends time near a lot of wildlife and wanted a lightweight lens to take with him. Naturally, after all, he’s Roger Cicala, the lens was dismantled pretty much as soon as it arrived.

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How to thoroughly disinfect your camera and workspace

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The coronavirus pandemic has made us wash our hands a gazillion times a day and taught us to (finally) stop touching our faces. But our cameras are in contact with both our faces and our hands. So, it’s important to keep them clean and disinfected, too.

DIYP’s Dave Williams wrote about it in a recent article, and our friends from Lensrentals are sharing a few more tips that you’ll find useful. Other than disinfecting your camera, they also teach you how to do it with your workspace, and make sure to take their advice and keep your gear and space clean.

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This insane wide-angle lens sees behind itself and it can be yours for “only” $39,000

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If you like fisheye lenses, here’s a real treat. C-4 Precision Optics 4.9mm f/3.5 Hyper Fisheye pretty much reveals in its name what it’s capable of. The “hyper fisheye” lens offers a 270° field of view, or in other words- it can see behind itself. But this impressive feature comes with a price – and the price is $39,000.

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These are Lensrentals’ most popular gear rentals for 2019

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Each year, gear rental company Lensrentals likes to pool their data and see which was the most popular kit of the year. It’s quite an interesting list, showing some of the trends of the previous 12 months or so. They’ve just posted this year’s list, which covers from January 1st until December 12th, 2019, and there are one or two surprising products in there.

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Here are more best and worst sounds of popular DSLR and mirrorless cameras

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I must admit I enjoy ASMR videos of cooking. They’re so soothing, plus I also learn new recipes. But if you’re looking for an AMSR video for photographers, you’ve come to the right place. After their first video, guys from Lensrentals have recorded the sounds of 11 more popular DSLR and mirrorless cameras. Let’s hear them and discuss the worst and the best ones.

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Here are the best and the worst shutter sounds of popular DSLR and mirrorless cameras

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What does your camera sound when you press the shutter? Do you like what you hear? Guys from Lensrentals compared 16 of the most popular cameras from almost every major manufacturer. They include both DSLR and mirrorless models tested for something not exactly common: shutter sound. The team ranked them from best to worst. So, let’s hear the sounds, see their ranking, but also make our own verdict.

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Some insight into the logistics of photographing a NASA rocket launch

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Photographing a rocket launch is something I’ve always wanted to try. For me, though, it’s not easy. There aren’t exactly many of them here in Scotland. Or, well, any at all, really. Yet. But I do enjoy looking at the images and video created by others.

Lensrentals recently featured photographer Justin Hartny and his coverage of the NASA Antares Rocket Launch in April, along with a breakdown of the gear and techniques used to get the shots and stand out from most of the usual rocket launch photography we see.

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Lensrentals found a dead fly inside a weather sealed Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens

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A weather-sealed lens shouldn’t let any dust, sand, moisture or other elements inside of it. But weather-sealed doesn’t make it sealed against insects, apparently. Roger and Aaron from Lensrentals recently had a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens dismantled to remove a dead fly from it. Now that’s what I call a bug fix!

Other than removing the fly, Roger and Aaron tested the lens out to see how it affects the image. And surprisingly enough, a dead bug inside a 70-200mm lens doesn’t affect the image quality nearly as much as one would have thought.

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This 4.9mm Hyperfisheye prototype lens is so wide it can see behind itself

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LensRentals has posted some fantastic teardowns with impressive regularity over the years, but it’s rare that we see them put something together. They thought that it was about time to show off building a lens, after shooting timelapse of tearing down the massive C-4 Optics 4.9mm f/3.5 Hyperfisheye prototype lens from scratch, LensRentals founder, Roger Cicala posted a detailed write up of the lens being reconstructed from scratch.

Unlike most of the lenses today, this lens is all mechanical. There’s no fancy autofocus, image stabilisation or electronics to deal with. And that short 4.9mm focal length offers an insane 270° field of view. Yes, it can see behind itself!

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Bargain Veydra cinema lenses win out over Zeiss CP.2s in new tests

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It’s not often that you see a small company challenge the likes of Zeiss. It’s even less common to see one actually beat them in comparative tests. But that’s exactly what Veydra have done in some new tests from the folks at LensRentals. For those unfamiliar with Veydra, it was only just over three years ago that they were seeking funding on Kickstarter for their new line of compact Micro Four Thirds cinema lenses.

The prices for Kickstarter backers were very low considering the quality people hoped for. Even now that they’re on general sale, they’re still substantially cheaper than Zeiss CP.2 series lenses. Now also available in Sony APS-C E Mount, these small, less expensive lenses seem to be the way for many video shooters to go.

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