I left school at seventeen and my first pay packet was around twelve pounds for a month of slave labour. Having bought my lunches, paid for my bus fare, and given my mother not a lot, there was little left for the simple pleasures of life. So it was rather surprising that I managed to save up enough for an SLR camera in three months. Mind you, it was a Russian-made Zenit-E which probably had “cheap and nasty” printed on the base in Russian.
After a while, the Zenit made way for a Canon, and a Canon was to be my camera of choice for the next hundred years or so, and I arrived at a Canon 300. Then came digital and I moved to a 300D, then a 30D, then (because there was no 3D) a 1D. The 1D was to support a small but quite lucrative photography business, and appropriate lenses were also acquired, culminating in the monstrously gorgeous 300mm.
Then I broke my back, which made lugging around 15 kilograms of kit more of a chore than it used to be. And the photo assignments started to dry up; and finally I discovered Micro Four Thirds, the GF1, and a range of equipment with provided great images for less weight and lower cost.
For the last six months I have used my GF1 almost exclusively, and the Canon gear has sat in the cupboard and depreciated. I can carry 18-400mm of lens range and a camera in a small bag of minimal weight. I can shoot unobtrusively and produce photos which please me every bit as much as those which came out of the Canon. And shooting with the GF1 is just more fun.
At some point in the last couple of days I finally decided that sitting on a pile of expensive Canon gear to support the occasional job or sporting shoot was just silly. So today I went to Bangkok and started the dispersal process by selling three very nice Canon lenses for a reasonable price; and immediately celebrated by spending some of the cash on a wide angle lens for the GF1.
Feeling rather pleased with myself, I was driving home to Pattaya when the phone rang. It was an Indian friend, the man who had been instrumental in getting me the job to shoot the Indian National Rally Championship. He was excited.
“I am getting married in December. I would like you to shoot the wedding at a hill station outside Bangalore. You can stay for a few days with your wife and visit the animal sanctuary in the area and take some photos. Just tell me how much you would like me to pay you”.
I had to explain that he had called me three hours too late, and that I no longer had the lenses that I would have used to shoot the wedding…….
My timing, as ever, sucks.
Comments 🔗
2010-08-17| TheSon saysI’ll do it. We have the same surname, he won’t notice the difference (I will need to borrow your beard .. or some white paint)
Is he willing to send a helicopter to the UK to pick me up?
2010-08-18| Spike saysWhite? Surely you mean distinguished grey?
2010-08-18| Jay saysY dont u go ahead and do the photo-shoot with GF1 ?? Like he is gonna take u only with the mighty lens..
2010-08-18| Spike saysBecause, even though I know that the GF1 would take just as good photos as the 1D; the rest of the world has expectations that a wedding photographer should turn up with “a proper camera”.
Plus, to be honest, I think I would be useless as a wedding photographer; so it’s just as well I no longer have the gear to shoot one.
2010-08-18| Camberley saysYou had a Zenit E!? I could only dream to such luxury, my first was a Zenit B. Which I sill have and which still works.
2010-08-18| Q’on saysshow up with the tiny stuff and give’em a ‘get outta the stone ages!’ look if he even blinks
2010-08-20| Jamie says“today I went to Bangkok and started the dispersal process by selling three very nice Canon lenses for a reasonable price; and immediately celebrated by spending some of the cash on a wide angle lens for the GF1”
I have not had the (pleasure?) of going to Bangkok for years… where can you sell 2nd hand gear for a good price and where would you recommend going to buy a GF1? .. I know there will be a GF2 or GF3 by the time I get round to actually doing it…
2010-08-20| Spike saysYou can sell it for a good price by meeting a Singaporean in The Emporium Starbucks who responded to your advertisement.
The best (only?) place in Bangkok for a good selection of Micro Four Thirds gear is AVcamera, next to Saphan Taksin skytrain.
2010-10-29| Gibt es noch das Summilux-M 75mm? - Seite 3 - Leica User Forum says[…] Zitat von nafpie Das ist leider nicht der Fall. Siehe z.B. hier. Stefan Danke für den Link zu Deinen Beispielen, das ist ein sehr interessanter, informativer (und komplizierter) Thread! Ich hatte garnicht berücksichtigt, dass der Bildausschnitt sich mit dem Crop Faktor verändert, und dass man mit dem 2xCrop im Vergleich zum 1.3xCrop weiter weg gehen muss, um überhaupt das gleiche Bild zu bekommen. Dann wird das DoF beim identischen Motiv natürlich weiter sein. Wenn man nun mit demselben Objektiv bei 1.3xCrop an die Naheinstellgrenze geht und bei 2xCrop auch, dann wird die DoF also jeweils gleich tief sein, richtig? Man könnte sich ja ein 13cm grosses Motiv vorstellen, welches man aus 75cm Abstand (Danke Eckart!) mit dem 2xCrop fotografiert, und ein 20cm grosses Motiv mit der 1.3xCrop Kamera aus 75cm Entfernung knipsen, beides mit Blende 1.4 und demselben 75er. Der DoF Eindruck sollte dann gleich bleiben, IMHO. (Der Hintergrund "skaliert" natürlich entsprechend mit…) Beim 75 Lux ist die DoF Markierung für Blende 1.4 nur noch einen eingravierten Strich breit! Selbst, wenn die Tiefenschärfe also beim kleineren Sensor unverändert bleibt, so ist sie immer noch "brutal" Hier die Story vom Equipment-Tausch, have fun My timing sucks | Pattaya Days […]