 ePhoto 1680 |
The list of camera equipment that I use (or have used) over the past few years.
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The 1680 was the first camera that I ever owned, digital or film. I bought it in October, 1998, right before the World Series between my San Diego Padres and the New York Yankees. It served me well for over a year and a half before I purchased the S100.
The Afga had a number of manual controls for adjusting the aperture and shutter speed, but I didn't know what those things meant at the time so I stuck with shooting on automatic mode.
When I got the S100, the ePhoto 1680 became expendable. I subsequently gave this camera to a relative.
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In May, 2001, I bought the S100 Digital Elph. Coming from the Agfa ePhoto 1680, the S100 was tiny! I could carry this camera in my pocket instead of having to carry a bag to hold my 1680.
Even though the S100 had a higher resolution (2MP versus 1.3MP) over the 1680, I found that the images weren't as good. I started to realize that the camera lens was a very important part of the camera equation.
When I started shooting with the D30 (and 1D), I found that I wasn't using the S100 all that much. When I went out, I usually took the larger camera out, primarily because the image quality was sooo much better over the S100. In the end, I gave the S100 to another relative, who's using it to good use now.
This is the camera that I used to learn photography. I must admit that before I got the D30, I knew little about the mechanics of photography. My art background gave me a keen eye for things, but my lack of knowledge about cameras, aperture, and shutter speeds held me back.
I have shot over 32,000 images with the D30 since I purchased it in October, 2000. If I started out with a film-SLR camera, I would not have shot that many images, nor would I have improved my skills as quickly as I did. The D30, while expensive, is a fantastic camera to get for the beginning photographer.
Since I upgraded to the 1D in December, 2001, the D30 hasn't seen much use. It was sold in the beginning of February, 2002, along with the 24-85mm lens.
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For that old-school feel, I shoot occasionally with a vintage Leica M2 camera. There's no light meter and no autofocus with this camera, so when I use the Leica, I feel like I am making the photo instead of taking the photo.
I typically load the Leica up with Kodak Tri-X 400 or Ilford Super XP2 Black and White film.
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My current digital camera, the 1D is an awesome machine. It has its little quirks (like banding), but it produces very lovely images.
Your choice of which lens to buy for your camera is often more important than which camera you buy. The camera is just a light box, but it's the lens which takes the light from the scene and transports it onto the film plane (or CCD/CMOS sensor in the case of digital cameras).
Over the last few years, I've amassed quite a number of lenses. While I like zoom lenses for their versatility, I find them to be big and bulky. Canon's L-series of zooms are especially large, but they are of very high-quality. I tend to like fast lenses, as they afford the photographer the ability to shoot in extremely low-light situations.
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My wide-angle zoom lens, the 17-35mm is one of the two lenses that I use the most on my camera, the other being the 50. I find the 17-35 to be a little soft when used wide-open, which is what I usually shoot at indoors and at night. The build is solid, but it does have that plasticky feel. The focus switch recently broke off, and I've had to duct tape it to the case to keep it from snapping off.
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The 28-70 used to be my main lens when I bought the camera, but now I only use it when I'm shooting professionally. The lens is a bit too large to walk around in public, especially with the uber-lens hood it has. Still, the 28-70 takes some sharp pictures.
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I got this lens when I bought my D30. It's serviceable, but I find that I rarely use it these days. I guess I'd rather use a lens that has a constant aperture throughout its zoom range. The 24-85 is too slow for my tastes.
I sold this lens along with my D30 in the beginning of February, 2002.
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The 24/1.4 is one of my favorite lenses. It's super-fast and sharp. On the 1D, the effective focal length is 31mm.
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Along with the 17-35, the 50 is the lens that's on my camera the most. It's small, lightweight, super-fast, and sharp. My only wish is that it had a little more range to it. On the D30, the 50 became an effective 80mm lens. On the 1D, it's a 65mm lens.
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The 85/1.8 is a fast telephoto lens that works great for low-light photography and portraiture.
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The 70-200 is my favorite lens, though I don't use it as often as, say, the 17-35 or the 50. When I crank out this lens, I mean business. The image stablization allows me to take shots that I never would have possibly taken with the old 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. For sports and portraiture, this is the lens to get.
The 70-200 is on the large and heavy side, but it takes such great pictures that I don't mind all that much.
No discussion of camera equipment can leave out a short writeup about camera bags. I've put my cameras in a number of bags over the years, some of them designed for cameras and some designed for books or computers. Here's a short list of the bags I've used in the past 2 years.
Most of the bags that I've owned come from Domke. I like Domke bags because they can carry lots and lots of gear without taking up too much space. A lot of the other manufacturers, such as LowePro, Tamrac, and Tenba, overprotect the equipment with loads and loads of padding. This padding takes away from the carrying capacity of the bag and makes the bag heavier and bulkier. Domke bags have padding where they need it and no padding where they don't.
Finally, the best thing about Domke bags is that they don't look like camera bags.
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This bag has been off to the Lost Coast, France, and Big Basin. It's a good bag for taking a few pieces of equipment with on a long hike. Because there's so much padding, there isn't that much space for bulky lenses (like Canon's L-series), but if you have a normal SLR and some smaller lenses, it's great.
My current set of equipment has outgrown the Off Road's carrying capacity. I found myself using it less and less, and as a result I put it up for sale on eBay. It has since found a new home, and I wish it a great number of new adventures around the world before being sent off to the great camera bag heaven.
I took this bag everywhere with me until I purchased the Domke F-3XB in 2002.
This bag looks small, but it carries a great deal of equipment. It's designed like a little box, unlike the F-802, which is shaped more like a notebook bag than a camera bag. The 802 struggled carrying the 1D or the D30 with any of my big lenses, such as the 17-35 or the 28-70. With F-3XB holds this setup with ease. It's easily my favorite bag of all the ones I've used.
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This Journalist-series bag carries all of my essential equipment with surprising ease. When I have a large assignment that calls for bringing all the gear, the J-1 is what I use to carry everything. The only thing that it can't carry is my tripod.
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