Why I lug that heavy gear around

[matthew_hull]

Let's face it -- I get tired of hauling around the big heavy camera body with an asortment of big heavy lenses. I really admire the convenience of a point-and-shoot which you can store in your shirt pocket. But then when I process the photos the evening after the event, I am vividly reminded why I haul that gorgeous gear around.

These photo croppings were taken at the poolside today of my nephew. Both are amongst the very best photos taken. The first photo is a 100% unedited crop from my new Canon SD900 P&S camera (which I still like, despite this rant). I used the Medium-1 (6MP) setting. The second photo is a 100% unedited crop from my venerable Canon 1D w/ a 70-200mm f/4 lens. (I can't show you the full photos because I'm sure his parents wouldn't want it.)

But I think you can see that the "dinosaur" 1D with a nice piece of glass really sizzles by comparison, and makes hauling it around truly worthwhile (IMHO). It also serves as a reminder why the marketing Megapixels hype don't mean squat -- the SD900 is a 10MP camera, the 1D is a mere 4MP.

 

[webshark3]

Nice example. The reason I still lug around my 300D. I was hoping Sigma would have released their DP1 (APS-C sensor in a compact), but it doesn't look like it's coming til late fall. I only (mainly) shoot wide angle, so the prime is perfect for me.

www.sigma-dp1.com

 

[Cricket2]

You can always beat back a mugger with it if you had to too.

 

[alan]

An interesting and well-observed post, Matthew.

I have (perforce) gone through a number of digital cameras (I had a few that kept failing on me) before settling down on two. The 350D for taking stage pictures, and the Canon Pro1 for everyday pics.

The above is a 100% crop; it's an 8Mpixel job, does RAW, has an L-series fluorite lens. Of course, it's not perfect. Anything above ISO 50 is noisy, and it's slow as molasses.

But for everyday use, with its 28-200mm equivalent lens, it's just the job. If only Canon would come out with an updated version...

regards,
/alan

 

[tinksdad]

Totally agree!! Now, it's not always the case. But having better equipment CAN give better results with the rest being equal.

 

[0bli0]

i've been waiting for the sigma dp1 as well. not only is it aps-c (although it's only f/4.0), it's also foveon.

i don't mind lugging my gear around (well i do sometimes when having to deal with airport security...). my rd1 is pocketable and all of the lenses are primes (and very sharp) - i generally have this on my work backpack all the time. i was just down in melbourne for 10 days for a conference and took my 1dmk3, rd1, r4a, bronica etr, and lomo. it is good to be able to use each body/format where appropriate.

one of the things that is very noticeable with the small p&s (and is apparent in the first sample photo) is the tendancy for vertical motion as a result of taking the photo. one of the nice things about holding a 1d or big medium format body is good ol' Newton's law of motion in this case, inertia) working in my favour. a body at rest stays at rest. a 1 series body and big lens at rest stays more at rest... my dw used to do that every time with her sd5 (until i upped the iso and got her to use her elbows), but she can hold her 10d nicely steady.

 

[rotlex]

I can truly relate to this as well. On our last trip to DW back in April, everyone thought I was nuts bringing along a 30D, and an assortment of lenses. When the trip was over, as always, I, as well as everyone that picked on me in the beginning, was glad I did! You can only capture these things once, and frankly, lugging around a little camera gear is NOTHING compared to the diaper bag and other paraphernalia we took when our daughter was younger!

I'm going even a little more nutty this coming week as I'm taking along all the same DSLR gear, plus a new AVCHD HDD based camcorder I just HAD to pick up! Hey, it's small enough to fit inside one of my lens cases, and much lighter than L glass, so what the heck!