I’ve been shooting with Nikon gear since 2007 or so, when I bought my first DSLR used from a guy off Craigslist. Before that, I had a Canon G3, which was (at the time) a very powerful prosumer fixed-lens camera, and I loved it. Why I jumped to Nikon I don’t remember, but I’ve been loyal to the brand ever since. In that time I’ve used several prosumer DSLRs with a variety of lenses, and as time has gone on the quality has gotten better. When I bought a used 18-70mm/f3.5-4.5 to work with my D7000, I was in heaven. The shots I was getting started to align with what was in my head.
Meanwhile, at work, I’ve got two professional Canon bodies and a host of lenses to work with–fast full-frame glass that I’ve only ever dreamed about. I’ve started bringing different camera/lens combinations home to practice with so that I can get a feel for everything, and I have to say I’m very impressed with the Canon gear.
This weekend I had a 7D with a 35mm/1.4 EF lens to shoot the car show, a backyard party, and various events around the house. What I got were about 300 shots in varying light and subject conditions, with mixed results mainly due to the equipment being smarter than I was. The 7D is a wonderful camera with a confounding control setup (the on/off switch needs to go on the right side, guys) and a noisy shutter, but god, it takes beautiful pictures. I’ve been using it mainly because the 5D MKII has such a lousy focus system–I got burned last Halloween–but even in optimal conditions I found I was behind the lens and scrambling to keep up. It’s laser-sharp at f1.4 but you have to be on the ball with focus; I was doing a lot of run-and-gun and I found that it struggled to find the right focus point at that speed. Once I opened it up to 2.5 or so things evened out nicely and it settled down.
When I had the time to compose and concentrate on focus, the lens sang for me. Still, A lot of the stuff I got was like the shot above; I’m getting better at getting on the focus lock button, but if I’d been a half-second faster I would have had her eyes in focus and nice falloff in her hair and on her shirt. With kids it’s hard to get them to stand still for more than two seconds, especially when you’ve been shooting them nonstop all weekend, but I’m going to keep working on my skills both with live subjects and with the technology to improve.
As for Nikon vs. Canon? I’m considering an eventual switch to a full-frame Canon body to take advantage of the quality glass I can borrow. It’s just that good.
I received a medium-sized box in the mail this afternoon with a new Rickshaw messenger bag inside. Ever since pressing the “BUY” button last Wednesday I was nervous that I’d ordered the wrong size, especially after my blunder buying a large Timbuk2 messenger bag on eBay (large is huge, what I really wanted was a medium) now that I have a 13″ MacBook Pro for work.
The verdict: I think this is going to be perfect. It’s just big enough for the laptop, a Moleskine or two, my iPad, and the few other things I carry on a daily basis. It looks like it’ll also hold a DSLR lens-down without a problem, and the fit is just snug enough that a camera won’t bounce around in the bottom. I chose waxed black canvas on the outside (for a nice weathered look in the future) and what they call Saffron–a shade darker than primary yellow–on the inside. Because it was 40% off, I splurged on a waterproof liner (hidden between the outer and inner layer), the smaller interior organizer, and a laptop case. I passed outside clips, because I never use those on my Timbuk2 bags, and I hate having lots of dangly nylon straps swinging around everywhere. I like the way they integrated the strap with outer flaps so that the bag doesn’t fold in on itself when filled with weight; everything feels sturdy and solid. The shoulder strap is a little lighter than Timbuk2’s but I like the buckle mechanism better on the Rickshaw.
Plus, it’s custom-made in San Francisco.
At work, I inherited a gaggle of older Canon point-and-shoot cameras from the middle aughts, which are mostly useless for serious work. Recently I read a news item about CHDK and the gears started whirring. CHDK is an open-source project to extend the abilities of older Canon gear by loading new software via firmware update, including RAW support, scripting, motion detection, and manual control. I’d read about it a long time ago when I was still using my Canon G3 regularly, but was sad to find I that camera’s wasn’t supported. A quick scan of the list showed me I’ve got three viable cameras, so I followed the directions, had to use a workaround, and loaded one up. Within minutes I’d shot a RAW image and was editing it within Photoshop. It’s a wee bit clunky, but just to have RAW support and a way to script event triggers opens up some interesting possibilities. I’ve got a vague plan for a large box kite carrying a camera rig for the beach this year; we’ll see if I can pull it off in time.
Update:
I used a different utility, called Stick, to format the card and install the latest version of CHDK as bootable firmware, and it works flawlessly in the camera. More experimentation to follow.
What’s inside your camera bag? Shotkit dives in. There’s lots of good info in there. As someone who obsesses over gear and usable storage of gear, this is like crack.
At some point, I want to mount an LCD to my DSLR so that I can shoot video out from behind the live preview. This article lists the best & most affordable DSLR monitors, some of which are surprisingly affordable.
I’ve had my MacBook Pro for almost 4 years and up until last night never realized the slot in the side is made to read SD cards. (This could be because it’s only been until recently that I’ve had a camera that uses SD cards).
If I was the kind of guy who had thousands to blow on lifestyle accessories, the Nikon Df would be a tempting purchase. It’s essentially a D4 packaged in a throwback F-body; silver metal and leatherette are the design cues. Add a bespoke brown leather case and I’d be ready for the GQ photoshoot.
I’ve been spending a little time during my lunch breaks looking through old photo archives from 2002-2003 and finding the original shots to repost on Flickr. It was inspired by this page on my other website, which was an incomplete compilation of shots I took about five designs and ten years ago.
A good portion of these shots were taken with my first real digital camera, a Kodak DC3400, which, for its time, was a pretty good camera but is hopelessly outclassed now. Still, looking back through these shots, I was managing to get some decent depth of field, motion blur, and effects shots from a f/3.1 lens and a 2 megapixel sensor.
I’m also noticing that I used to shoot almost every day. If it wasn’t something interesting it might have been a simple shot of my house or the cats. I don’t have a ton of shots of that house, which is kind of disturbing given how much history I had there, but I just discovered a series of pictures I took right before the place went on the market which document what was where before it all got packed away.
Having gone through the last ten years of photos for completeness’ sake (I just found and restored all of 2003 from a catastrophic hard drive crash a year ago) I’m noticing that I’ve been consciously or subconsciously returning to certain subjects and places for updated photos. It’s time to shake things up, I think. More portraits, less objects.
A few weeks ago, I bought a really nice Crumpler camera bag off Craigslist to take better care of my gear. I’d been bumping it around on my shoulder like my old D70, which is dented and scarred, and after one frightening near-drop situation I decided it would be wise to protect my investment. This evening I answered an ad for a Nikon 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 lens, and Finley and I drive out to Randallstown and met a nice man in a CVS parking lot to look it over. It’s a replacement for the kit lenses that came with our cameras (Nikon 18-55 f/5.6); it’s a faster pro-level lens so it’ll last much longer than cheaper plastic and add more flexibility to our bag. My strategy is to keep my eye out for good used gear to build up our DX collection until the time when we’re ready to invest in a full-frame kit.
I’m writing this as I sip on a Texas Bock I brewed from an Austin Homebrew recipe; I’m very pleased with the flavor and the color. It worked out to be about 4.5% ABV, and it’s smooth with a hint of caramel that I like very much. It’s lighter than the IPAs I’ve been brewing which makes it more of a session instead of a sipping beer; I tend to have half a glass of IPA after dinner while I can drink a pint of this and not feel intoxicated. It’s also a friendly beer; the Belgian IPA I brewed in the spring guaranteed a dull next-morning headache while this has none. I have to try and squeeze some time in in the next week to brew the Belgian Dubbel I’ve got to be ready in time for Thanksgiving.
Wow, this is a nice little gizmo: the Triggertrap is a $30 intelligent remote shutter release for high-end DSLRs. I could have used this for the UB shoot last Friday night.