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As I've indicated, to me a camera is an image capturing device and I don't like to get too hung up on which camera is better, or which camera allowed me to get a particular shot. But, as tools, there are always new ways to get things done, improvements in the toolset, and specific tools for specific problems.
Here follows my photographic equipment history with some information about the multitudes of equipment I've owned over the years.
My first camera (that wasn’t borrowed from my parents) was an Olympus OM-PC. I had a few lenses including some off-brand zooms and a Vivitar flash. That camera last me for a few years and when it died, I took over my dad’s OM-2. That camera also ended up dying on me at which point I turned to a Nikon.
Unfortunately, the Nikon I chose was a clunker, in my opinion. It was the N70. All I can remember is an interface that was really difficult coupled with a really cheap Nikon zoom lens which was designed such that it was never intended to be used in any kind of manual mode. But I had this camera through college and after and it was used in my photography classes and as my primary camera for several years.
My high school didn’t offer any photography courses but we did have video production classes which I took, and had my first education in visual arts. A few of us discovered a dark room being used as a storage facility and after cleaning it out tried to get some of the old chemicals to develop some prints, but it never worked. Really it was about having a private room to hang out in and it was never about the photograhy.
In college (as a communication major) I took several photography classes but backed out of the photojournalism class when I realized that I just wasn’t comfortable approaching strangers on the streets to take photos.
Eventually I started to earn enough money where I could start to acquire photographic equipment to my liking.
After my dissatisfaction with the Nikon I sold it and after much research decided on a Contax Aria. This camera was a dream. It had an excellent build quality and the Contax lenses were awesome to use. I took this camera on many trips: to the mountains rock climbing and backpacking; internationally to Europe and Asia; and just around town and on family outings.
I owned a couple of Contax lenses including a 28-70 zoom and a 50mm 1.4 as well as a cheap Vivitar ultra wide 19-35mm that had horrible distortion but was still fun to use. Between these lenses I had a nice setup, though the 28-70 zoom didn’t offer a stable aperture, so as you zoomed the aperture shifted. Ultimately this was a bit of a drag that was only just acceptable given the excellent quality of the lens overall.
But as time went on, I saw the future in digital imaging and (rightly) guessed that Contax would not have the resources to seriously compete and invest in the next generation of cameras. In addition, I wanted the availability of auto focus for those times when speed is key to capturing the image. Since I didn’t have all too much money, I had to sell the Contax in order to move to a brand that I thought would be able to make the transition to digital. Today I so regret that I sold the camera as I’d still get occasional use out of it today for sure. But I still recognize it as the right decision at the time.
I decided to return to Nikon after exploring both Nikon and Canon and not caring for the Canon control layout. Once I decided on Nikon, there were a few cameras that I was considering; the professional line of cameras (F5 or the older F4) were out of my price range (the former) or not feature rich (the latter). There were a few “Pro-sumer” (Professional/Consumer) models that appealed to me, and eventually the price/feature point of the Nikon N80 matched what I was looking for. I would have opted for the F100 but it was a few hundred dollars more and I just couldn’t justify that cost for the few additional features it provided.
The N80 served me well and I still own it today. It’s been all over the world and in all conditions from rock climbing in the desert; backcountry skiing in the Sierra; slogging through the jungles of Vietnam and doing light duty on the beaches of France.
In addition to 35mm SLR cameras I’ve also owned 35mm point & shoot cameras of which the Olympus Stylus Epic is my favorite - it has a great fixed lens that stops down to f/2.8 and is sharp as a tack. This camera cost me only $85 brand new and I loved the ability to always carry it with me as it was small enough to fit in a pocket. As good as this camera was, it’s convenience has long been replaced by the convenience of a digital point & shoot.
Somewhere along the way I also purchased a Mamiya 645 100s medium format camera (120 roll film) which I only owned for about two years. While I loved the larger film format and the deliberateness that the camera required, ultimately the 120 film size became a burden (requiring different enlarging equipment, different digital scanning equipment, or at the very least, different cost structuring for lab developing and printing).
That camera was bought and sold, thanks to eBay. I sometimes toy around with the idea of buying a medium format camera again, but ultimately the money is (for me) better spent on additional equipment to supplement my current setup.
For the Mamiya I only ever had an 80mm lens (the standard focal length for 645 cameras) but for the 35mm SLRs I’ve switched through several lenses over the years.
On the Nikon N70 I used both a standard 50mm 1.4 lens as well as a zoom 24-120 3.5/5.6 AF-D (both Nikon brand). This lens was not all that great (not a very good minimum aperture and not particularly good ergonomics) but it was convenient, especially for traveling where one lens covered the majority of the zoom range that you could want.
Both of those lenses got sold off (again, eBay) when I switched to the Contax so when I came back to Nikon I had the opportunity to reconsider what lenses I’d like.
The first lens that I bought with the camera was the Nikon 24-85 AF-S ED G 3.5-4.5. This lens was pretty decent. The 24-85 was a much more reasonable zoom range than the 24-120 offering better ergonomics and better images; the AF-S meant it had the newer silent-wave focusing motor; the ED meant the glass was more akin to the professional series lenses; and the G indicated that it was among their newer designs, where there’s no aperture ring (this is controlled instead by the camera body) meaning a more compact design.
The problem was, of course, the 3.5-4.5 minimum aperture which is not particularly great, and not fixed (it too floats as you zoom). This has since been replaced with a newer version of the lens that starts with a more respectable f/2.8 minimum apeture but it still "floats" out to f/4.0. Still, the small form factor and good zoom range makes the 24-85 a good option for light-weight traveling.
I took many a good photograph with this lens and its compact size made it very convenient for traveling.
To deal with the shortcomings of this lens, I purchased the Sigma 28-70 EX DF DG lens. This offered a similar zoom range but is considered among Sigma’s pro series of lenses. This got me into the world of professional lenses, but at a reasonable price. This lens produced nice images but ultimately the build quality was not as satisfying as the Nikon pro series.
To get a wider perspective, I next purchased (eBay) a Nikon 20mm 2.8 AF-D. This lens was fantastically wide and produced gorgeous images. As a fixed focal length lens it’s pretty small too so it has accompanied me on several trips. The downside to this lens is the DX format of the Nikon Digital cameras, which bump the focal length up to 30mm, which is just not as fantastically wide.
To get a farther reach I purchased my first Nikon Pro series zoom lens, the Nikon 80-200 f/2.8 ED AF-D lens. This lens (and its updated versions (and its Canon counterparts)) is the lens of wedding photographers and photojournalists. It is beautifully sharp, provides an excellent zoom range, and maintains a fixed 2.8 minimum aperture throughout the zoom range. I haven’t used this lens a lot over the years but every time I pull it out I’m impressed. One of my next lenses will be the updated version of this lens which offers the new silent wave motor, a smaller G form factor, and Vibration Reduction.
Additionally, this is a lens that can benefit from the DX form factor, as it transforms into a 120-300 zoom when mounted on a DX camera which can be a bonus if you’re looking for more reach, but of course a detriment if you’re looking for the 80-120 zoom range.
As time progressed I started the move to digital.
This move began with an unexpected Christmas gift from my parents. It was a Kodak DC-20 that offered 16 images (or 8 (ahem) high res 493 x 373 pixel images) before you had to plug it into the computer to download the images (since there was no removable memory card) - it offered only 1MB of internal memory. But on the positive side, all of the images could fit onto a 3.5 inch floppy disk!
I used this camera for a while (and there’s even a few images on this site taken with the camera) but eventually its novelty wore off.
Next I purchased a Panasonic digital camera but at this point I have no recollection of this camera. It was pretty cheap, I bought a refurbished model, and pretty quickly I got rid of it (eBay!)
The next digital camera that I bought was an Olympus D40. This camera was a decent little camera that I used as a replacement for my Olympus Stylus Epic point and shoot. The image quality was decent - at least decent enough for the uses that intended it for, which was as a ‘party point and shoot’ and I was excited about spending less on film and film developing and making it easier to upload photos online (scanning slides and negatives takes a long time).
I was pretty happy with the camera at the time but my complaints were similar to most digital users at that time: it took way too long between powering on the camera and when you could take the first shot and way too long between depressing the shutter release and having the image captured.
Eventually I tired of the poor experience of an early digital point & shoot and I switched to a Canon Powershot which my Brother-in-law had and had great experiences with. At the time I made the purchase the SD550 was near the top of the Powershot line, but not the newest camera and therefore a little cheaper. This camera has served me well over the years as a small pocketable point and shoot camera that can make sure that I always have a camera with me.
After enough experience with digital point and shoot cameras I was ready to make the move to digital SLRs.
My first digital SLR was a Nikon D70. At the time that I bought the camera there was also a D100 available, but similar to my decision to buy an N80 rather than an F100 I opted for the cheaper D70 over the more-featured D100.
I bought the D70 in the spring of 2005 and Vietnam was my first international trip with a digital SLR (though half of the photos from that trip were taken on my N80 which I also brought along). The D70 is very similar to the N80 so the transition was an easy one. The picture quality of the D70 is very good and I’ve been able to make decent size prints (11x17) with great results.
The DX form factor of the D70 though meant that my film lenses were bumping up my zoom range so that I no longer had a nice wide perspective. To mitigate this I bought the DX-format Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S. This lens translates into a 24-80mm perspecitve which is more similar to the other “standard” zoom lenses providing a nice zoom range with a decent wide perspective and nice short telephoto.
This lens has produced great images and I’ve been very happy with it, though ultimately I’d prefer not to have to deal with the DX form factor at all.
To supplement the Canon point and shoot camera I wanted something in a smaller form factor but still provided more manual controls than the typical point and shoot camera. After much research I eventually settled on the Canon G7. This camera falls squarely between the smaller point and shoot cameras that are designed to be used in fully automatic mode (regardless of what features and manual capabilities the camera might have) and the large SLR that enables full manual control. I find it to be a great camera when I don’t want the bulk of the SLR but still want the great image quality and controls that the point and shoot provides. In fact, this camera has been so handy that I find I almost never use the SD550 anymore. Unfortunately this camera has since developed a spot on the image sensor and with cost structures these days it’s probably going to make more sense to replace the camera rather than try to get the G7 fixed.
This camera has since been replaced by the Canon G9 which adds RAW format image capturing. This feature alone was not enough for me to upgrade but with my new image sensor spot, this may be my new camera. That said, it looks like there is no more availability of this camera so perhaps a new camera is due out.. Also there are serious competitors now from Panasonic and Nikon (though the Nikon has stupidly opted for a proprietary RAW format that appears to be quite limited in its acceptance so that will probably not be a serious option).
In 2007 I upgraded my digital SLR to the newly released Nikon D300. This camera is a huge upgrade from the D70, not only in pixels and image performance, but also in features and functionality. Not only is it a much newer camera but it’s also in a different place in the Nikon line, representing the top of the “Prosumer” line. I am incredibly impressed with the D300 and if it weren’t for the DX form factor I’d be hard pressed to find a reason to upgrade.
The Canon G7 has a nice macro capability and after playing around with it for a while I found a renewed interest in marco photography and that, linked with the desire to get a nice fixed focal length lens guided me to the Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Lens. This lens is amazing and is by far the best lens that I own. The images that it takes are just gorgeous, the construction of the lens is top notch and it provides not only an awesome macro perspective but also makes an excellent portrait lens. I haven’t yet fully appreciated the vibration reduction capabilities of this lens but that could be just that I haven’t been in the right circumstances yet.
In preparation of my trip to Africa in 2008 I decided I needed a further reach than my 80-200 zoom would provide. Looking online, many of the professional images are taken with zooms up to 600mm or more and I just wasn’t sure how well the 80-200 would hold up.
After a bit of research I decided against teleconverters and the unreasonably priced 200-400mm lens which would have fit in nicely with my current lens coverage. I settled on the older Nikon 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED VR Lens over the newer 70-300mm lens because of the additional reach it provided. In retrospect the 70-300 would also have been a great lens as the newer construction would have provided quicker focusing and the newer VR system would have been more reliable. The 80-400 proved to be an excellent lens though, and on a few occasions the additional reach of the 400mm (600mm equivalent) was certainly handy - especially while photographing some of the smaller birds or the more skittish animals that just wouldn’t let us get too close.
In addition to the cameras and lenses listed above, there’s a bevy of additional equipment that I own.
I have recently bought my first flash since the Vivitar that I bought for the Olympus all those years ago. The primary reason that I haven’t owned a flash since then is that all of the cameras (minus the Contax Aria) included an on-body pop-up flash. And while those flashes are far from great, I’m not too huge a fan of flash photography, preferring instead natural light. When it’s not available, the pop-up flash mostly does just fine for snapshot type photos but anything beyond that requires a better system. I decided on Nikon’s SB-800 flash for its feature set. Compared to camera bodies and lenses, pro-level flashes are much more reasonable in terms of features per dollar. I’m still playing around with the flash, and I still prefer natural light, but so far I’ve been impressed with the SB-800. The trip to Africa was the first time I brought the flash on a big trip and I only used it occasionally but when I did it worked really well.
I’ve used lots of different camera support systems over the years, from the cheap all-in-one tripods and desktop tripods to my current system.
I currently own and regularly use one of a couple Bogen supports. My first ‘real’ purchase was a Bogen tripod. A lot of money can be spent on tripods and systems, but for my first real system I chose a lower-cost set of Bogen legs and a tilt/pan head as this was the attachment system with which I was most familiar. That system is great - significantly more stable than the cheap consumer stuff you see at the local chain camera shops. The difference between my system and the more expensive is weight - both in what the tripod can hold and how much the tripod weighs. My tripod is pretty heavy, making it an unrealistic option for significant travel, as it’s too heavy/bulky for luggage or backpacks. It is a great option for shooting near the car or on smaller day hikes.
To provide a solution on longer journeys, I supplemented the tripod with a Bogen monopod. Once again I opted for one of the cheaper models so it’s still fairly heavy, though much more convenient than the tripod. I have taken this tripod through Europe, Asia, Africa and on a few skiing and backpacking trips.
At the same time I purchased the monopod I also bought a ball head. This is far superior to the tilt/pan head as it is much more convenient to use as the whole camera can pivot around a single point. The tilt/pan head would be a better option if this equipment was going to be shared with a video or panorama camera that requires leveling the tripod providing a level panning plane.
In both tripods and monopods, if cost were no obstacle I’d opt for the lightest-weight supports that are still capable of providing the necessary stability and this currently means carbon fiber. In the mean time, The supports I have now do just fine.
To hold all of this gear I’ve got a whole selection of bags and accessories.
I’m a big fan of Zing camera cases. These neoprene sleeves hug the camera and provide a decent amount of shock protection, excellent scratch protection and moderate drizzle protection while being convenient to store your camera in a normal backpack. It’s also really easy to remove the camera from the case for quick shooting. I have a few sizes of these for the different size SLR cameras that I own.
I’m also a big fan of Op-Tech camera straps. The stretchy shoulder strap reduces strain and makes your camera feel pounds lighter - that’s no exaggeration. I’ve walked around for days on end with my largest SLR and lens combination with no problems. I own one of these straps for each SLR as the 20 or 30 dollar cost is well worth the convenience of not having to swap a single strap between cameras. I have a few different sizes but I would just opt for their biggest pro-series strap as it is the most comfortable.
Thanks to the Nikonians.org website, I became aware of Think Tank camera bags. As a bonus they are a local Bay Area company so I get to support a local entrepreneurial endeavor.
I own several of their bags including a camera holster, a few lens holders and a memory card holder. The build quality is excellent, the features on these bags are really well designed and well thought out and they just work really well. I have several of their bags on my long-term wish list.
Copyright 2008 Christian Knuetter, All rights reserved
