Jana at a test shoot for a book project.
Little City Coffee Shop on Congress Ave.
Canon 5Dmk2 + 85mm 1.8
I think sometimes we forget how many really fun and wonderful photographs we were able to make with the gear on the market ten or twenty or even thirty years ago.
Looking back is always a good exercise.
My Canon 5D mk2 always worked and never even thought about overheating....
11 comments:
This is one of my favorite B&W shots of yours. Isn't it funny how test shots have a way of turning into keepers?
Taking photographs anbd buying/selling gear are two separate activities with not much overlap.
What do you think are the important things that we've gained in cameras since the 5D ii, D700 days?
Jeff, About the only thing that makes any difference to me is probably more accurate AF. Not faster, just more accurate. That was one of the Achilles's heels of the D700. In terms of the look of a well exposed file? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Every other "advancement" has been for faster, faster, faster stuff. But if you look at my photos it's rare that speed has ever been an issue.
You?
Kirk, I have been using a Nikon Z6 for about a year now and was planning on selling my five year old D750. I took images and filled out the information on EBay along with pictures of the camera. For some reason, I couldn’t do it. I just could not part with that camera. I just used it today and really liked holding and shooting it. It feels so much sturdier than does my Z6 and feels much better in my hands. It is much larger and heavier, but unless I am climbing a mountain with it that is not an issue. Plus I can buy so many F mount lenses on the used market that I can’t acquire for the Z6. Older cameras are great. Good post, thanks.
That's the thing about Canons. They just work.
The Canon 5D II was too good for Canon's liking, especially the video.
Hence up until now, poor video specs. For example, I was shooting some 4K video with the 5D IV and 35mm f1.4 II lens, and it will only do that with a 1.7 crop factor!
I'm a hobbyist, not a professional so my camera needs are much more limited than yours.
I would have said that we've gained lower weight but with the new big heavy mirrorless lenses I'm not sure that's true now.
Autofocus is certainly better in a lot of cases.
But I think we have really lost on complexity. Newer cameras are so complicated that it's very hard to use one after not using it for a few weeks without studying it again.
I rented a Nikon z50 and I've spent most of the rental period trying to figure out the autofocus menu and eye focus. I would much rather use something like an old, easy to use Canon 6D.
Jeff
What Dave Jenkins said. I am always shocked when I see the color in images I made with my original Digital Rebel or my old Canon D30. Even now, I am taken aback at how nice some of the images are that I make with my Canon G7X Mark II. I appreciate the need for video for some professionals, but the cameras have been able to make professional-quality still images for YEARS.
I recall an anecdote that men are the primary buyers of Sony and Fuji cameras, that women continue to buy the tried-and-true Canon bodies. There might be something to glean from that.
With each of your blog posts, I get a take home message. For me, as an aging, but not yet THAT old, hobbyist prosumer-kind of photographer who started taking photos 60 some years ago, maybe it is time to end my continual quest for the next camera to rule them all. Decades ago I walked around with a Pentax MX with a 28 f/2.8 SMC-M mostly glued to it. I cannot count the number time when I held that outfit to my eye, my brain would spit out, "God, I love this camera." After that camera ended up on the shelf so that I could have auto focus for my older eyes, leading me to experience the amazing eye-controlled auto-focus in the Canons at that time, subsequent cameras did not create the same MX-love response from my brain. My EOS 3 was getting close, but then DIGITAL happened. My red Pany G1 was next one that came close. But then 16 MP happened as did a Pany G3 as my "next great thing." It was, however, just too small for its 100-300. Nevertheless, it went to Africa with at GX1 as backup. I dabbled with having both the E-M5 and E-M1. Very nice cameras, but their menus just sucked causing no real love. I got a GX7 which I liked, but then the 20MP MFT sensor happened and a GX8 became the next entering the bag, which is still here because it has become the closest yet to produce that old MX feeling, but not quite totally. So, I added a G9, a truly great camera, but behind the GX8 in my MX-love category. My 6D was another almost there causing me to added to keep adding to a small stack of nice glass. Then it was replaced by an used a7ii and EF adapters for its somewhat better sensor and great IBIS for this old guy's needs. But it has perhaps the worst possible menu system and a relatively poor feel in my hand, putting it far down the stack for my MX-love comparisons. That is where I now am. I have three cameras, each with a small stack of good to very good glass, all capable of producing better digital photos than my abilities and needs require. But I am still missing that old MX-love feeling and nothing out there really looks like it may fill that void any better than what I now have. So, I think this blog post of yours may be telling me, if I can't be with the one I love, love the ones I'm with. But, can that just be an old cliche? Your G.A.S., Kirk, is not providing me a great follow-up example.
Of course, you are one of the very few photographers that can understand why I keep using my D3, it produces magnificent files. And I've taken files up past 17x25 by cropping and the images still look great.
Yes, someday it will die, and I'll just go to my Panasonic m4/3 cameras. By then I'll be too old to know the difference.
Bill
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