Category Archives: Equipment

Commentary, Equipment, Ideas

Gear Lust and Shopping

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I saw a post in a forum thread recently that summed up a situation that seems like it should be a red flag to those suffering from Gear Lust*. Here is the exchange, somewhat edited, beginning with the original post and followed by my reply:

OP: I know you are familiar with the situation. Your lens is in the shopping basket on Amazon, all but the last one checkout step is completed and you hover the mouse over “Order” button. And you go again and again pixel peeping, comparing MTF charts. etc etc.

ME: If you find yourself second-guessing to this extent while you are ordering, with all due respect, it is not time to be ordering a new lens.

You should be certain (or as certain as one can be) that you are ordering the right thing before you order it. By ordering while you are in that anxious and ambivalent state you are making it much more likely that your decision will not be an intelligent one, but rather one driven by irrational forces.

I urge you to make a solid and final decision about what lens you want – a decision you can make without then feeling compelled to go back and look obsessively at MTF charts and 20 reviews again – in other words, a final decision based on everything you know about the gear and your needs.

Once you think you have decided, wait. Wait about a month. One of two things will likely happen:

– If your decision does not change and you don’t find yourself second-guessing the choice, you probably made a very good choice and at the end of the waiting period you should buy the lens.

– If you find yourself worrying about the choice or second-guessing the choice or going back and poring over the test charts and reports once more, reset the one-month timer when you have really made a decision.

It is easy to become way too passionate and emotionally involved in gear purchases. Equipment is just equipment. It may (or may not) help you make better photographs, but it is not going to change your life.

* I’m not suggesting the equipment is unimportant, nor that getting good and appropriate equipment isn’t something to strive for. To the contrary, I think that making smart and appropriate decisions about equipment is very important. Gear Lust, however, is a general condition in which the search for and purchase of photography equipment becomes an obsession and ends up being more important than actually making photographs with said equipment. It is unfortunately an all-too-common malady.

G Dan Mitchell Photography
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Deals and Sales, Equipment

Canon Double-Rebates Offer Expiring This Weekend!

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For Canon shooters looking to save a bit of money on certain bodies, lenses, and flashes… the current double rebate offer expires on Saturday, January 8. There are deals on individual items, but if you purchase lenses, etc. with one of several qualifying bodies the “instant rebate” becomes a lot more substantial.

Commentary, Equipment, Ideas

More Thoughts About the Pentax 645D ‘mini MF’ Camera

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I responded to a post today in an interesting forum discussion about the new Pentax 645D “medium format” (or, as I prefer to call it, “mini MF” format) digital camera. This is a potentially game-changing camera. I has a 33mm x 44mm 40MP sensor and a body-only price of under $10,000. Its cost is far below that of competing mini MF bodies and a fraction of the cost of recent larger MF systems – and the price isn’t much above that of the high end full frame DSLR systems. While larger is not always better, for some types of photographers this puts a level and type of digital camera performance within reach.

In the discussion forum thread I referred to above, a writer had suggested that the 1.7x size differential between the Pentax 645D and full frame DSLRs would not be significant. In a sense he is right – it will not be significant to most photographers, and I surely cannot imagine why anyone would get one in order to make family photos to post on the web. However, I thought I’d share what I wrote concerning why I think that this might be significant for at least some photographers. My response (slightly edited) follows:

Photosite density is rarely the limiting factor when it comes to maximum print size from DSLR originals. As [the other poster] points out, “technique” stuff tends to be much more critical. Enlargement limits are more likely the result of stuff like camera movement, slight mis-focus, lens issues, etc.

I disagree that the size difference between the 24mm x 36mm full frame DSLR sensor and the 33mm x 44mm “mini MF” sensor isn’t significant. There are several reasons I feel this is the case: Continue reading More Thoughts About the Pentax 645D ‘mini MF’ Camera →

Equipment, Technique

Tripods and Shooting in High Winds

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I recently saw – and replied to – a question posted in a photography forum regarding tripods and shooting in high winds. The poster wrote something very similar to the following:

I realized that many shots from a recent trip are blurry because of wind shaking the tripod. Even hanging 10lb weight did not help. So now, I am looking for a new tripod that won’t be affected by wind.

What the writer has discovered is that no tripod is immune to strong winds, especially if you make long exposures and/or use long focal length lenses. Even if you had an absolutely rock-solid tripod, in a 40 mph wind your camera and lens will vibrate enough to create a slightly less sharp image.

So, what to do? You could get the heaviest tripod you can find and weight it down with bags of rocks and what not. But then you are stuck hauling around the dead weight of this tripod the other 95% of the time when you don’t need it.  Yes, get a good solid tripod and a good head with good camera brackets, but other things can help in high winds and, in fact, may be necessary even with the best tripod:

  • Use a shorter focal length if possible.
  • Use a higher shutter speed, even at the expense of a higher ISO, larger aperture, and accept the slightly increased noise or slight loss of DOF.
  • Consider using image-stabilization (IS) even with the camera on the tripod in extreme conditions.
  • Don’t extend the tripod legs all the way – if possible shoot from down low to the ground with the legs retracted.
  • try to brace the tripod against something – rocks, your legs, anything that will dampen vibrations a bit.
  • Try to use natural wind screens when you set up – sometimes being in the lee of a wall or tree or rock can diminish the wind enough to make a difference.
  • Time your shots for moments of less wind.
  • If your exposure times are not extremely long, gently resting a hand on the lens or camera body can dampen the wind-caused vibrations.
  • Rather than relying on a single exposure, make many redundant exposures – some will likely be less affected by the wind than others.
  • If you have a strap attached to your camera, take steps to make sure it doesn’t flap. Wrapping it around the tripod may be sufficient.
  • If conditions permit, consider removing your lens hood.

I recall once shooting on top of a bluff at the far reaches of Point Reyes, normally a very windy place and on this day windy enough to almost be scary. But the light was beautiful and I wanted to make photographs from the edge of the bluff. I ended up retracting the tripod legs so that the camera would be lower to the ground, sitting with the tripod braced between my legs, using IS, leaving a hand on the camera to dampen vibrations, raising the shutter speed, and making many exposures. In the end, a good percentage of the images were adversely affected by the wind… but among them were some good ones that were sharp.

Point Reyes Shoreline

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