Thursday, September 10, 2009

What I Use

In my last post I was asked "I'm looking for an Slr but dont know what brand to buy. What kind of camera would change for if you had the chance?". So for todays post I decided to talk a little bit about what camera gear I use and why.

I will be quite honest, even though I am a Canon shooter I think Nikon cameras are awesome too. I also have no idea why I decided to go with Canon, especially since the person that helped me get my camera shoots Nikon. Who knows? The first camera I bought was a Canon Rebel XTi. that thing is a kicker. It worked so well for my first year. It inspired me to photograph everything. I definitely recommend any of the Canon Rebel series to anyone that is just starting out. During my first year I bought a Canon 50mm f1.8 lens. Wow. This thing has also been a trooper. It has consistently produced some of my favorite shots in my portfolio. To this day it is on my camera at least 75% of the time. It's a great lens especially for its price.

A year ago I decided it was time to upgrade my camera though. So I bought the Canon 40d with the kit lens (Canon 17-85mm f4-5.6) and the Canon 70-200mm f4 lens. This camera has added so much to my business. I feel like it brought me from hobbiest to photographer. Even though I am not doing this full time yet I still feel like this camera has helped me raise the bar so much in only a year.

So far this year I have photographed 3 weddings and I have felt consistently limited to what I could do because of my lenses. The 70-200mm has been great for ceremony images when I don't want to get to close to the action and also for journalistic photos of the guests when I don't want them knowing I'm photographing them. The 50mm has been awesome at getting those great depth of field, sharp images I love. But I am not always able to get far enough away from my couple to get full frame shots.

Thats why a few weeks ago I purchased the Canon 20mm f2.8 lens. I have used it at a portrait session so far and it is unreal how different it is from my 50mm. I'm so far away from my clients now. Ha ha ha. I'll be posting images from the portrait session this week. I can't wait to go out and use it for my next sessions.

To finally answer my readers question I would love to get the Canon 5d Mk II. This camera is a full frame (40d has a 1.6x crop factor), 21 MP beast. It also has video capabilities and amazing ISO capabilities. I think that will be after next years wedding season though :)

So my gear list is:
Canon 40d
Canon Rebel XTi (backup)
Canon 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS USM
Canon 50mm f1.8 II
Canon 70-200mm f4L IS USM
Canon 20mm f2.8 USM
Canon 580EX II
ShootSac

A great website to read reviews on gear is Fred Miranda. Hope this answered your question and helps :)

2 comments:

  1. Awesome! I'm such a weirdo, I love reading about other people's gear. Haha. Thanks for sharing.

    I totally want a wide-angle prime lens! (Next on my list)

    ReplyDelete