Page 5 - Blog

The 70-200mm f/2.8 lens is by far the most popular lens across camera systems, be it Canon, Nikon, Sony or any other system. It is part of the Holy Trinity of lenses: the 16-35, 24-70 and 70-200 but gets a lot more attention than the other two. The Canon and Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 lenses feature on our Top 15 Most Rented Gear for 2018 and one of them tops this list!

However, there are times when you cannot lay hands on one of these babies and need to look for alternatives. Or sometimes you just need to get out of a creative block by trying something different. Here is a list of 5 lenses that may be able to help you get the job done:

1. The 70-200mm f/4: If you are not shooting in low light or if your shoot is outdoors and you can control the distance between your subject and the background, this lens is a great substitute for the f/2.8. It is also significantly lighter and cheaper to rent! You just might like this lens a whole lot better than the f/2.8! We have many customers whose first preference

Sigma’s 50-500mm, nicknamed the Bigma, was an exciting lens when it was released more than 10 years back. Since then Sigma have released the 150-500, 150-600 Contemporary and 150-600 Sports lenses, all of which have been extremely popular. Sigma recently released the 60-600mm DG OS HSM Sports lens which also seems to be a hit. Most of the reviews of this lens are positive and almost all of our customers who have rented this lens are happy with it. If you are shooting wildlife and don’t mind a lens on the heavier side, the 60-600 is an excellent choice. It is sharp almost across the entire zoom range and focuses fairly fast. The lens comes with a new MO (Manual Override) focus mode that allows you to override focus even in Servo / AF-C mode – something most lenses do not allow you to do. It is built well and at 2700 gms, weighs less than the 150-600mm Sports. This lens is not easy to handhold for long periods of time although the optical stabilisation does a good job of preventing shake.

I still remember the early 80s when the only content we got on television was what Doordarshan chose to dish out. Today content is easy to come by – in fact, most content is free and we pay for access. If you are a movie buff like I am, you are probably already subscribed to streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime. It is now a lot more convenient (and cheaper!) to watch movies at home than visit a theater. And if you can hook up a projector and a good sound system, you can get some semblance of a cinema theatre experience! Which is why we recently added the Playback section.

To start with, we have added two items in this section. The first is the Benq W1050 projector, a great entry-level projector that delivers a sharp and vivid image. The W1050 is a Full HD projector capable of projecting an image as large as 6.6 m x 3.7 m at a distance of 10 m. The projector has 2 HDMI ports, one VGA port and one Audio In and Audio Out port each. It is also capable of correcting for wall color

Panasonic recently invited us to a pre-launch preview of their upcoming full-frame mirrorless bodies: the S1 and the S1R. While the bodies we got to see and handle were pre-production models, they carried most of the features that will be finally released. The cameras are expected to start shipping in April and we should see detailed field reviews coming in soon after. However, here is a short summary of what’s noteworthy about these bodies:

1. The bodies are large – larger than other FF mirrorless cameras on the market. However, that said, they feel solid and rugged to handle. The mount is a Leica L-mount, different from the MFT mount on the GHx series. The L mount is an alliance between Leica, Panasonic and Sigma. Sigma are expected to announce new lenses for this mount soon after the bodies start shipping.
2. The S1R carries a 47MP sensor and the S1 carries a 24MP sensor. Both bodies are identical in physical form and interface. The current lens lineup includes a 24-105mm f/4 kit lens, a 70-200mm

Ever wonder what gear we rent out most at Primes & Zooms? I have been curious to know and we now carry sufficient inventory for the numbers to not get swayed by outliers. So we put together the numbers for 2018 and drew up the rankings. Before we get to the numbers, though, a few disclaimers:

1. These rankings are simply a listing of gear ranked by the number of rental days each item has completed during the year across all its copies.

2.These rankings should not be interpreted as an indication of how good or bad a certain piece of gear is.

3.The rankings depend to a large extent on the number of copies we carry for each item. Hence, newer items with few copies will not show up on this list right away.

The 15 Most Rented items show a couple of surprises. The Nikon D750 holds its own well against the Canon 5D Mark IV and even manages to surpass the Nikon D850. The Canon 6D Mark II is a bit of a surprise considering it beats the Canon 5D Mark III. The Sony A7 bodies are missing from this