It’s great having a good camera store in the neighborhood. Besides being there to develop all my film (e-6 developers, so hard to find!), Mike’s Camera puts on some really killer events.
At their demo days, they partner with various companies to bring out tables full of gear: lenses, cameras, tripods, teleconverters, tens of thousands of dollars of good stuff. And all that stuff? Free to rent. Walk up, hand ’em your driver’s license, play with something fun for an hour. Come back, trade off for something else, play some more!
A lot of people use these events to play with big telephotos. Hell, that’s how I found the incredible Tamron 150-600. But at this point, I own my big’uns. I actually had the 400/2.8 with me because I hadn’t had a chance to play with it at Cheyenne yet. So what was my rental toy of choice? The new (and very highly lauded) Tamron 35/1.4. It’s been reviewed by pretty much everyone as the best 35/1.4 ever made. And although tested in a very unscientific manner, I dare say it deserves the hype.
I don’t know if I’d use it enough to actually add one to my collection, but it really is an incredible lens. I hope Mike’s adds it to their rental catalog, because while I don’t have a frequent need for a wide-side-of-normal prime, I would definitely rent it when the need arises.
The Zootographer 