As promised, a post about photography gear.
A caveat, if you will, before we begin. I am not a professional photographer by any means. I am strictly a hobbiest. But I think that I’m certainly improving with experience, and I believe I am worthy of my tools toys.
Here’s a breakdown of my photo gear.
Canon Digital Rebel XT 350D – This is the body I shoot with. It was a wedding present from my wife, and gifted to me shortly before our honeymoon in Costa Rica. Would I like to shoot on a 50D? Of course. Would it make a great difference in the quality of the photos I create? I’m not sure I’m ready to justify that.
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 – The “kit lens” that came with my Rebel. It’s my “walking around” lens, and it’s not great. If there’s something I’d like to replace in my aresenal, it’s this lens.
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 – The good old “nifty fifty”. I break this glass out every now and again. Definitely worth the $75 or so that I spent on it – it gives me some freedom to play, and I’ve gotten my mileage out of it. It’s pretty slow to focus in low light, which is a pain, but it’s definitely the fastest glass I own.
Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 – I thought this lens was cool as ice when I bought it (used, natch), but I’ve since found that it’s kind of cruddy. It’s definitely muddy, especially at full zoom. However, it’s telephoto to the max; 300mm on the non-full frame sensor is a ridiculous amount of zoom. It was essential for wildlife photography in Costa Rica, but I rarely use it anymore, mostly because I’m unhappy with the quality.
Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 – My most recent lens. Bought it used, but as we all know, there’s nothing wrong with used glass. The highest quality lens I own. It’s a lot of fun at 10mm, but at 20mm I find it very useful and super crisp. Quite pleased.
Joby GP3 Gorillapod SLR-Zoom Flexible Tripod – This has proven to be essential, so far, with my 52 Weeks project (self-portraits). I wish it had the quick-release capabilities that the smaller Gorillapods have though.
Canon Deluxe Photo Backpack 200EG – I’m somewhat bag-obsessed; I am still struggling to find the perfect bag (Actually, I have found it, I just can’t justify spending the money on it). This is another relatively recent purchase, so I haven’t put it through its paces completely, but so far it’s working out well for storing all my gear. The tripod straps on the side work well with the Gorillapod.
Lowepro SlingShot 100 – This is the smaller camera backpack I use. It is less cumbersome than the Canon backpack, and it holds the body and two lenses pretty well. I find it weird to wear though, and it’s not flattering on someone of the “lunchbox” persuasion.
Canon Deluxe Gadget Bag 100EG – The third and final (for now) camera bag. This exists so that my wife doesn’t think I’m a big dork carrying around a big camera bag. Also, I bought it at Target.
Canon Wireless Remote Control – Another necessity for the self-portraits. I like this one as it has the option of working either with a 2 second timer or an instant shutter.
SanDisk Extreme III 2 GB CF card – I have two of these (as well as some 1 and 2 GB CF cards that are slower). I really like the high speed of these cards, and I prefer to have many 2 GB cards rather than one or two larger capactity cards. It just seems safer.
A couple things that are more on the processing side of the equation:
Adobe Photoshop CS4 – Yes, maybe it’s overkill, and Elements might do most of what I want to do, but I love me some Photoshop. I’m tickled pink with CS4; Bridge is finally useable, and there are some amazing features of Photoshop that blow my mind (Content-Aware Scaling, anyone?) More about how I use Photoshop in a later post.
Dell XPS 630 – It’s a gaming computer, but it’s also a great Photoshop computer. 6 GB of RAM, quad-core processor, and honkin’ video card. I likes it. Prior to this computer I did all my Photoshoppin’ on a Mac Mini.
Pantone huey – Correct color is key. I can’t recommend this enough to anyone who takes their digital photography seriously. It’s a cheap thrill and absolutely necessary.
So those are my weapons. I have a bunch of other items I didn’t include, like some filters, but since I never use them, I figured it was silly to mention them. I’m happy with what I’ve got, although I’d like to ditch the kit lens for something better, and it’s certainly enough to meet my needs for the time being.