Lens rendering meaning

I saw this mentioned in someones comment, but not a clear indication on what this means.  Google didn't help either.  Just a couple other post on other forums with no clear answer.  

How can a lens render anything?  The term from first glance doesn't make sense.  

It doesn't.

Any lens may be an important part of a capture. Capturing
with or without optical qualities or deficiencies but never
render anything.

That's what I thought.  I just couldn't come up with reasoning behind the meaning. 

This is all I could find

I don't taste his communication skills…
among other things.

Liem Stailey wrote: I saw this mentioned in someones comment, but not a clear indication on what this means.  Google didn't help either.  Just a couple other post on other forums with no clear answer.  

How can a lens render anything?  The term from first glance doesn't make sense.  

In a way it does render an image. What it means is each lens will produce (a/k/a render) a different look as far as contrast, color tone, sharpness and quality of bokeh it produces or as some say renders. The image you see through a lens does not exactly replicate the real world thus it renders the image. This is what they mean when they discuss or refer to a lens rendering the image. 

Shadowfixer1 wrote:

Liem Stailey wrote: I saw this mentioned in someones comment, but not a clear indication on what this means.  Google didn't help either.  Just a couple other post on other forums with no clear answer.  

How can a lens render anything?  The term from first glance doesn't make sense.  

In a way it does render an image. What it means is each lens will produce (a/k/a render) a different look as far as contrast, color tone, sharpness and quality of bokeh it produces or as some say renders. The image you see through a lens does not exactly replicate the real world thus it renders the image. This is what they mean when they discuss or refer to a lens rendering the image. 

^^^This. 

It's a "figure of speech". Each lens has the potential to bend and manipulate light in its own regard. It's not technically rendering it, however, it does play a role in how the light hits the sensor so that the sensor itself can render the image. When I use the term "rendering", I usually accompany it with a description of what I am referring to and not necessarily referring to the lens alone, but the entire set up. 

I don't watch internet videos so I'm not sure what the message was.  But I can tell you that single focal length lenses "render" with higher contrast than zooms.  Slow lenses also produce higher contrast than fast lenses.  But I wonder if it matters since contrast is easily adjustable in post process to a degree greater than the differences in the lenses.  Lenses with more aperture blades produce out-of-focus highlights in a manner that some people think is better than those with fewer blades.  Optical aberrations produce various "renderings" that differ from lenses with different amounts of those aberrations.

I don't think the issue is any more complicated than that.  Some lenses just have characteristics that differ from other lenses.  These things mattered more in the film days than they do today.

fmw wrote: I don't watch internet videos so I'm not sure what the message was.  But I can tell you that single focal length lenses "render" with higher contrast than zooms.  Slow lenses also produce higher contrast than fast lenses.  But I wonder if it matters since contrast is easily adjustable in post process to a degree greater than the differences in the lenses.  Lenses with more aperture blades produce out-of-focus highlights in a manner that some people think is better than those with fewer blades.  Optical aberrations produce various "renderings" that differ from lenses with different amounts of those aberrations.

I don't think the issue is any more complicated than that.  Some lenses just have characteristics that differ from other lenses.  These things mattered more in the film days than they do today.

I disagree that it mattered more in the film days. How a lens creates an image is what the term means, and the characteristics of the lens will be evident in the result (as mentioned above).

Rendering: the manner in which a result is produced.

Just want to chime in and thank you all for the comments.  I have to say, this really makes my day.  Thank you.  

Update:  I'm crystal clear on this.  Thank you again for the help! 

garyrhook wrote:

fmw wrote: I don't watch internet videos so I'm not sure what the message was.  But I can tell you that single focal length lenses "render" with higher contrast than zooms.  Slow lenses also produce higher contrast than fast lenses.  But I wonder if it matters since contrast is easily adjustable in post process to a degree greater than the differences in the lenses.  Lenses with more aperture blades produce out-of-focus highlights in a manner that some people think is better than those with fewer blades.  Optical aberrations produce various "renderings" that differ from lenses with different amounts of those aberrations.

I don't think the issue is any more complicated than that.  Some lenses just have characteristics that differ from other lenses.  These things mattered more in the film days than they do today.

I disagree that it mattered more in the film days. How a lens creates an image is what the term means, and the characteristics of the lens will be evident in the result (as mentioned above).

Rendering: the manner in which a result is produced.

It mattered more in the film days because we didn't have digital photo editing.  Certainly you remember that.

fmw wrote:

garyrhook wrote:

fmw wrote: I don't think the issue is any more complicated than that.  Some lenses just have characteristics that differ from other lenses.  These things mattered more in the film days than they do today.

I disagree that it mattered more in the film days. How a lens creates an image is what the term means, and the characteristics of the lens will be evident in the result (as mentioned above).

Rendering: the manner in which a result is produced.

It mattered more in the film days because we didn't have digital photo editing.  Certainly you remember that.

Well, I'm not entirely sure I'm following your point, but if you mean that we can now manipulate an image in a manner that replaces a lens' characteristics, then I'll say, sure, in some respects. But there are things that you can't do in post. So I stand by my statement: lens characteristics matter.

As for the "film days" I, happily, never did film. Other than a 110 pocket camera. My experience is 100% digital.