My Stuff: Tools of the Trade

Canon 1D Mark II - This is my main camera. Announced early 2004 and available since June 2004, the Mark II is the sucessor to the Canon 1D. Like the Canon 1Ds, the 11 megapixel wonder, the Mark II is Canon's "co"-top-of-the-line professional digital SLR. While the 1Ds is designed for ultimate image quality with no compromise, the Mark II is the tool of photojournalists and action/sports photographers.

The Mark II is to say the least revolutionary, with a blistering frame rate of 8.3 fps up to 20 RAW images or 40 JPEG images. This is an 8.3 megapixel camera with a crop factor of 1.3.

Currently there is no comparable competitor to the Mark II other than the Canon 1Ds. There is the Nikon D1h which has comparable frame-rate, but at half the resolution (4mp vs 8mp) it's hard to really consider it competitive. This camera, as of September 2004, represents the state-of-the-art of digital SLR's capable of taking exceptional quality images with blistering frame rates required by professional photojournalists.

Canon D60 - This was my main camera for a long time; it now serves as my backup SLR body. Yes it is all digital, producing exceptional 6 megapixel images that in my humble opinion are just as good as the images I can make using my standard 35mm camera--for certain sitations. This camera has been discontinued and has been replaced by the Canon 10D. It certainly would be nice to get a 10D, but I'm not rich and the D60 does just fine. Oh, now that's been replaced by the 20D--it just never ends.

The D60 is a pro-sumer/semi-pro digital SLR camera body which accepts all Canon EOS lenses. It doesn't have all the features I would want, most of which would be a built-in spot meter, but it does have most everything. It produces incredible images. It has exceptional color accuracy and its exposure rage is much wider than that of film. There is a big difference between a 6-megapixel image created by this camera versus other P&S 6mp digital cameras.

Perhaps the most annoying thing about this camera is the approximately effective 1.6 multiplication ratio. Because of that, a 20mm lens is functionally equivalent to a 35mm lens. This can be quite useful if you like telephoto lenses, but if you want to take wide landscapes then this becomes a real problem. Another odd thing is the USB 1.0 connection, so painfully slow it's practically useless. Instead I spent the extra $30 and got a Firewire compactflash card reader.

The best thing about this camera--it doesn't cost a dime to make images--no film costs, no development costs and the images are absolutely stunning.

Canon EOS 3 - This is my main film camera. It is one step below Canon's flagship 1V model and costs 60% less and has just about all the same functions. This is a professional level camera. It is quite rugged and sturdy, all the critical points sealed so you can take it into really bad conditions (and believe me I have).

I have been using this camera for four years now. It is quite banged up but still functions perfectly and for the foreseeable future it will remain one of the main cameras I use.

Currently my EOS 3 is having problems and is need of repair. Since it's this or the mortgage, I guess I won't be able to fix this for a little bit since now it's been relegated to 3rd-string.

Contax G2 - This is one of my favorite cameras. It is a rangefinder, but not in the traditional sense. Unlike most rangefinders, focusing is done by a computer. Although you can "manually" focus, it mostly "fly-by-wire" in that you have to approximate the distance to your subject rather than line up two parallax images in the viewfinder as you would see in a Leica M-series camera.

It's a relatively small camera. It's perfect for travel because of its size. You can easily carry the camera body, several lenses, the flash and some film in a fanny pack. But what makes this camera very special is the use of Carl Zeiss lenses, arguably some of the best optics money can buy. And unlike most Zeiss lenses which cost thousands, lenses for the G2 are incredibly inexpensive.

You can find a more detailed look at the Contax G2 here.

Some of my best images were taken with this camera.

Hasselblad X-Pan - This is a most unique rangefinder camera in that it is a true panoramic camera that spreads images across roughly two frames on 35mm film. It is fully computerized, except for the old style manual rangefinder focusing system. This camera generates incredible panoramic landscape images. The Hasselblad comes with an excellent 45mm lens--while interchangeable I can't afford to buy any new lenses (and honestly the images it creates with just the "basic" lens are already quite adequate)

Contax 645 - This is my medium format camera. I don't take many pictures with it, mostly because right now I can't really afford it and I don't have a film scanner to digitalize the images this thing takes.

This is a big camera. However compared to other medium format cameras (not including rangefinders) it's actually quite small. I liked it because it was very modern, controlled mostly by computer. It has auto-focus unlike most medium-format cameras and uses Carl Zeiss lenses. Unfortunately, Contax 645 equipment is outrageously expensive so I'm pretty much stuck with the gear that came with the camera kit.

Leica M4 - I didn't buy this camera, my father handed it down to me--it was my grandfather's camera at one time. Obviously Leicas are in a class of their own, the bread-and-butter tool of many of the greatest photographers. The master photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson relied on his Leica and his 50mm Summicron. There is an unmistakable mystique about the Leica M-Series rangefinder cameras.

I don't use my M4 much because it is priceless to me and I've moved pretty much over to digital photography. I do want to try using it more in the future--on the occassions I have taken it with me I've found it to feel more comfortable than any other camera I've tried, as if it were a natural extension of yourself.

Someday perhaps a digital version of the M-Series will arrive. That would be heaven.

Minolta A2 - My newest camera is this "small" 8mp digicam by Minolta. Why when I already have a DSLR? Simply because it is much smaller, lighter and more convenient and in sitatuations where that is a major factor (travelling, hiking, etc) it just makes more sense. Unlike other digicams in its class it has a mechanical zoom (you twist the ring to zoom rather than control it by computer with buttons--FAR more precise and fast), has image-stabilization, excellent optics and a very rich feature set. Other goodies include excellent RAW capabilities (much better than others in its class), built-in Adobe 1998 color space and by far the best electronic viewfinder (EVF), you have to see this viewfinder yourself to know what I mean.

My only qualm--after 3 RAW images, the camera's buffer is full and you have to wait a long time until it empties. But its performance even in this case is superior to many other cameras in its class.

Canon EF 35-350mm f3.5-f5.6 L - It has an incredible focal length range, a 10x optical zoom range. It looks like the barrel of a cannon (and weighs as much unfortunately). Incredible optics, quite capable of producing magazine-quality photographs.

During my early years of photography I relied on this lens heavily. Over time I've sort of stopped using it, relying on the combination of the EF 24-70mm F2.8L and EF 70-200mm F2.8L to do my work. In addition using it with my D60, the minimum effective focal length was equivalent to 50mm--not wide enough for me in many cases.

However when I need longer focal lengths, those that exceed 200mm, I go with this.

Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8 L - This lens replaced the highly-regarded 28-70 f2.8L. Incredible lens, sharpest I've ever seen at this zoom range. Excellent bokeh. Beautiful colors. Incredible resolving power, near perfect optics.

This is my primary lens. I've taken more photographs with this lens than another for good reason--it is simply the best lens in its class, with the most commonly used focal length range. It has the ability to do some macro photography too.

If there is any lens to get, this is it. The price is steep but it is worth every penny. It is a professional grade lens in every sense.

Carl Zeiss 28mm Biogon f2.8 - My wide angle lens for th G2. Incredible sharpness, absolutely no distortion to speak of.

No other camera uses this lens design (you'll see distagon configurations for other Contaxes, et al. at this focal length) except one Hasselblad body designed exclusively for use with it.

This is a really good lens; a rare treat.

Canon ST-E2 Remote Transmitter - It doesn't seem like much but it's an invaluable tool. With this I can control one or more Speedlite 550EX flashes, individually or in groups remotely. In addition the ST-E2 has a much larger and more sensitive infra-red sensor which greatly improves autofocus performance, especially in low light situations. With this unit combined with my 550EX I'm able to achieve near or equal professional-quality results.