Comments on: Right, but I have a 1D.

By: noah django

noah django — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 07:25:00 +0000

you found a true photog!

By: robotnik

robotnik — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 19:39:00 +0000

AllClad rocks.

By: filebunch

filebunch — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:08:00 +0000

But its not a 1D….

By: catgrin

catgrin — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 07:09:00 +0000

So happy to hear you gave him continued support! It’s really a difficult job to do correctly, and with the cost of digital making it an inexpensive way for people to start a “business” – wedding photography has gotten a bad rep. Glad you found a pro!

By: catgrin

catgrin — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 07:07:00 +0000

I do find that people approach me to ask what it is I’m using to take pictures with, but I think part of that is just my subjects. I shoot insects. So I go to local gardens, parks and estuaries and focus on apparently “nothing interesting” or “nothing at all”. I get a lot of questions about my lens because I primarily shoot macro using natural light sources.

So, I don’t mind talking to people about cameras when I’m out. The other day, I told a lady who had a 70-300mm on her camera and was mainly shooting birds and flowers that she didn’t need a macro, and then took comparison shots with her. It helped her to understand my lack of depth of field and my improvement on fine detail based purely on lens. She chose to wait to buy another lens (she had a 50mm as well) until she was better practiced. I’d made her hand-focus all the shots, and it was a new challenge for her.

I’m not into talking up my rig, because it’s a tool and is only as good as the person using it. Also, what works for me, won’t necessarily work for anyone else!

By: catgrin

catgrin — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 06:52:00 +0000

I’ve got an Olympus that I love! It’s a Stylus 790 SW, a great little point-and-shoot, that’s both waterproof and comes with a decent macro function. I use it when I’m traveling and don’t want to carry my better camera.

I also have a Canon Rebel T2i. The lens I typically use is a 100mm macro. I normally shoot insects. Lately I’ve started posting some images to Project Noah, a worldwide site for archiving living organisms: http://www.projectnoah.org/users/christinefisher

Kommkast was earlier raving about Nikon lenses and their great auto focus function, and I do like Nikon, but Canon camera bodies feel more stable to me. (I’m left-handed.) Besides that, I don’t have to worry about anything other than the glass. At my scale – and with moving targets – everything is focused by eye and hand. Not saying I’m great at it, just saying that every camera has a function, and as long as you buy something decent (just like the people who argue Honda v. Toyota) it’s a matter of personal taste and comfort after you figure out which class and type of rig you need.

No lie: I’m currently in the market for a 100-400mm lens because I’ve met some birders, and I have have plans to go shoot more pictures of birds. They’ve convinced me to move out of the realm of the tiny. :)

By: The Life Of Bryan

The Life Of Bryan — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 02:18:00 +0000

Thanks, I’ll be hear all weak. Tip the veal and don’t forget to try your waitress!

By: Neill "Dire" Mitchell

Neill "Dire" Mitchell — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 00:49:00 +0000

I have found the oft mention trick of taping over all marks and idents on my cameras has reduced this kind of “kit talk” to minimum.

By: irksome

irksome — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 22:49:00 +0000

Exactly.

By: Han van der Heide

Han van der Heide — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 22:48:00 +0000

WTF did I just watch?
To be honest, it didn’t make me happy nor sad. It made me feel…. indescribable. But I guess that’s art for you, right?

By: irksome

irksome — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 22:43:00 +0000

You should see what I can do with an Etch-A-Sketch.

By: Cleo

Cleo — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 21:14:00 +0000

It must be tough to be so budget-constrained. My camera is a custom job made from the eyeballs of Jesus.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 21:09:00 +0000

And I bet most of them were toxic.

By: jerwin

jerwin — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 20:01:00 +0000

With the 13mm f 5.6?

By: GrumpySteen

GrumpySteen — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 19:12:00 +0000

“When I can see the grain I know it’s art.”

My pictures are grainy as hell. I thought I was just a crappy photographer who can’t judge lighting worth a damn, but it turns out that I’m actually one of the world’s best artists!

By: DG Scofield

DG Scofield — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 18:32:00 +0000

While attending a friend’s wedding, I noticed the photographer had some nice medium format equipment (Pentax 4×5 or something), but what was most impressive is that he would position himself wel and take 1 or sometimes 2 shots and back off. He worked the room after the ceremony with the same style but it was clear he got everybody there. The photos blew me away especially the candids, of course, and on that stock everything looked incredible. I used him for my wedding and kept recommending him again and again, he ended up getting some very high-end work and out of gratitude gave us the negatives and a large family portrait, sitting to frame. He would have rocked the place with an Kodak Instamatic.

By: Lurking_Grue

Lurking_Grue — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 18:14:00 +0000

Love the 7D it has just the right mix of features/quality that I’m happy with it.

By: Lurking_Grue

Lurking_Grue — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 18:10:00 +0000

I only venture into those forums when there is a rumor of an upgrade coming to the camera I already have. Just to see if say they fix the problems with the current gear. They can at this point only sucker me in if they do some major improvements on low noise high iso speeds and perhaps wireless built in.

Love my 7D and has the right mix of features so the camera gets out of the way as much as I can hope for.

By: calden74

calden74 — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:57:00 +0000

As a owner of a 5D I to now own a SLR, bought a Olympus PEN E-P3 along with an assortment of lenses, absolutely love it. The size of the camera is starting to make a big reason for these SLR shooters being so popular. I heard Nikon also makes a decent kit as well but I’m very happy with the Olympus thus far. I still prefer the Canon for video as I have never owned anything that shoots so well and I had a 1D, waste of money unless you shoot sports, or wild game.

By: calden74

calden74 — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:42:00 +0000

Oh my gosh I almost spat out my coffee, to funny.

By: Matthew Petty

Matthew Petty — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:14:00 +0000

Absolutely agree. I’m getting to grips with my first DSLR (first SLR in fact) and I have terrible “with great power comes great responsibility” anxiety about it.

By: The Life Of Bryan

The Life Of Bryan — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 15:35:00 +0000

I’m not really a pro, but I love my Nifty Fifty. I only have the cheap plastic one so it sucks in a lot of ways. But it’s still my favorite lens for most things and gives such rich, beautiful color.

By: snowmentality

snowmentality — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 15:29:00 +0000

My husband (pro photographer) hasn’t ditched all his gear, but the 50mm prime spends the most time on his camera — both when he’s shooting for fun and at paying gigs. It’s a really fast lens and sharp as hell. If you told him he could only keep one lens, he’d pick that one without hesitation.

By: Drew from Zhrodague

Drew from Zhrodague — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:29:00 +0000

When it was time for me to upgrade to a DSLR, I got a used banged up 20D from craigslist. For the first 6 months, I made my own lenses with tape and those cheap EOS T-mounts from Amazon. Aluminum foil tape is better than duct tape, it doesn’t let any light in. I troll for kids’ toy optics still.

By: Ramone

Ramone — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:16:00 +0000

When people ask me about my NF jacket and I tell them I don’t have “adventures” I just live in Minnesota, they shut right the hell up.

By: Sparrow

Sparrow — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:10:00 +0000

When I need good quality, I shoot a match needle with a prime 50 f1.4 or a 28-75 f2.8 zoom. If I’m shooting distance in good light, I have a 50-200 f5.6 zoom. Most of the time, I leave the long zoom at home, and the short zoom stays in the bag, just in case. When I’m shooting snapshots, my phone is good enough, always there, and doesn’t get in the way.

By: Libbi Rich

Libbi Rich — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:31:00 +0000

I’m a pro concert/event photographer with a (*gasp*) crop-sensor Canon 7D and some good glass. I see kids (literally…16 year olds) from bands’ street teams in the photo pits at concerts wielding their 1Ds and (now) 5DMkIIIs set on full auto.

It ain’t the gear, it’s what you do with it.

By: cleek

cleek — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:05:00 +0000

…the four mostly-unused guitars sitting behind me sadly nod in agreement…

By: Jason Carl

Jason Carl — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:01:00 +0000

Reminds me of the joke about how a music-lover will listen to Mozart on a transistor radio while an audiophile would listen to a kazoo on a $50,000 system.

By: Charlie B

Charlie B — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:43:00 +0000

We use cast iron, each piece of which was picked up at flea markets for under a dollar, all of which is 50 to 100 years old.