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My Equipment
Sarah Fox
As I have a reputation for being a technogeek and am known to carefully research and test all of the equipment I buy, I'm often asked what equipment I use and why I chose it. I've written this page for those who are interested in such matters. These are only my opinions and should not be construed as irrefutable. Please note that as of September 2008, this page is woefully out of date. Indeed it is ancient and needs a complete revamp! (There is a saying about the cobbler's children who go without shoes.) My equipment inventory has changed considerably, including most notably my current use of an EOS 5D camera body, with the 24-105mm f/4L as my primary general purpose lens. I've made a few rough notes here and there to reflect some of these inventory changes, but this page should be considered "in renovation."
Anyone interested in more in-depth ramblings about my methodologies and equipment can click here.
This is a short list of my most used equipment:
I use primarily Canon EOS equipment. Why Canon? Well, when I took my big plunge into DSLR cameras, Canon was the only serious player in the field. Nikon had their D60, but Canon simply dwarfed Nikon with their breadth of body and lens offerings, image processing technology, image stabilization technology, and support for professionals. Since that time, Nikon has come roaring back and is a viable competitor. I welcome the competition, as it drives further technical development and price competition. As for the optics, Canon has come up in the world since Nikon's hayday in the F era, mostly because it chose to leap with both feet into the manufacture of serious professional gear. Interestingly, Lars Kjellberg, who I consider one of the best independent sources for lens test data, gives Canon lenses an average rating of 3.651, compared with Nikon's 3.499, based on rigorous, standardized optical testing. So Nikon no longer has the optical edge, and Canon no longer enjoys market dominance in DSLR bodies. The playing field is level. Anyway, for whatever it might matter, I'm a Canon photographer -- certainly no disrespect to Nikon photographers.
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The heart of my system is my Canon EOS 5D digital SLR (not pictured here), whose enormous, full frame, CMOS sensor (the size of a 35mm negative) collects much more light than the tiny CCD sensors of consumer-grade digital cameras and therefore captures images with much greater color saturation and less noise (the digital equivalent of grain). Image quality is largely a function of pixel size (ignoring the contribution of microlenses and such), and even at 12.8 megapixels (MP), the 5D maintains approximately the same pixel size as my original camera, the EOS 10D (pictured here). These camera bodies both produce superb image quality, with even the older 10D producing lower noise than most of its modern, pixel-packed counterparts. In addition to the larger pixel sizes, which are particularly friendly to natural light photography (because I generally hate flash), I like the form factor of the 10D and 5D, compared to the bulkier 1 series cameras. Although the 1 series cameras are more rugged and generally crank more throughput, using one is a bit like holding a brick up to one's face. Some photographers appreciate the extra weight and bulk, as well as the vertical grip. However, I don't. There is so much to be said for the compactness of the 5D. I also love the quiet shutters of both the 5D and 10D, which are well suited for the candid work I often prefer.
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I do sometimes shoot film, for instance when a client has a particular preference for film or when I'm interested in extroardinarily long exposures. My Canon EOS Elan 7n (pictured) and EOS 1n (not pictured) are both very competent camera bodies. The professional 1n body has weather sealing for rainy days but has a bit noisier a shutter than I normally like. The Elan 7n is a very smooth, quiet, and unobtrusive camera body, although it has a bit more plasticky feel to it.
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The Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM lens is probably my favorite lens for landscape photography. Its optics are tack sharp, and it exhibits almost no chromatic aberration or vignetting. Its one weakness is that it barrels a bit when zoomed out wide; however, that is easily corrected in postprocessing. Build is excellent, and the lens coatings are particularly noteworthy -- best I've seen on any lens.
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The Canon EF 24-105 f/4L USM lens (not pictured) is by far my best lens. Pick any lens model, and you'll find good copies, bad copies, and lots of inbetween copies. My copy of the 24-105 greatly exceeded my expectations and produces superior image quality to the (already superb) sample images from other photographers, which had formed the basis of my purchasing decision. Images are tack sharp from corner to corner, with little or no chromatic aberration. The build and the balance of the lens are superb. The image stabilization is intuitive and works flawlessly. The best and most extraordinary thing I can say about this lens is that its image quality is about the same wide open as it is stopped down to f/8 or f/11, and it is about the same at 24mm as it is at 105mm, as it is at 50mm. In other words, there are no "sweet spots." Rather, the lens is "sweet" throughout its entire range of operating parameters. The only down-side to this lens is the rather strong vignetting that occurs at the 24mm end. That is easily corrected in postprocessing, although it does diminish dynamic range a bit in the corners. Where this is a potential problem, I can always use my 17-40.
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My 24-105 f/4L lens sent my EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM into semi-retirement, but this lens still has its place. I mount it (or my 75-300, below) up to my 10D to take out on the water, whether on our 27'cabin cruiser or on our 31' sloop. That's an environment where I don't really want to use my 24-105, even though it is weather-proofed for such applications. (For riskier applications, for instance out in a canoe or on a Sunfish, I use an old Canon T-70 outfit. I have the non-IS, FD version of the 28-135, combined with an excellent Sigma 100-300.) This upper-middle lens performs well above average for a zoom. Its distortion is very minimal, and its chromatic aberration is quite well controlled, except at extremely wide focal lengths (where I use the 17-40). This has got to be Canon's most under-appreciated lens, as it was produced in great numbers as a kit lens for the older film bodies and is somewhat bulky for the APS-C digitals. The lens can be found rather cheaply on the used market by the patient Ebayer.
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Most of my shots are up close and personal, using a wide or normal lens. When I'm shooting telephoto, I use the sister lens to the 28-135, the Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. The strength of this lens is not so much the optics but the image stabilization, which is particularly important when shooting handheld at 300 mm (equivalent to 480mm when used on the 10D). Amazingly, I can shoot very sharp handheld pictures at that focal length at 1/200 sec while flying down a bumpy highway (in the passenger seat, of course!). The chief weakness of this lens is the overall lower contrast compared to many other telephoto zooms, apparently mostly due to stray light, which can be largely compensated during editing. On the other hand, chromatic aberration and distortion are extremely well controlled. I hope someday to find a nice deal on an EF 100-400 f/4L, but I'm in no hurry. I really don't do much telephoto work at all, and so the longer focal length range remains the weaker aspect of my collection of optics. |
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My Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DG Aspherical HSM, in Sigma's professional EX series, is my preferred lens for interior architectural photography. It is tied with the Voigtlander 12mm prime (a lesser lens) as the widest angle rectilinear lens ever designed, but unlike the Voigtlander, it is designed with a long focal-plane-to-lens clearance that enables its use on an SLR. So advanced was the design that it won Sigma the 2004/2005 EISA lens of the year award. This lens enables me to simultaneously photograph all four walls of a rectangular room, with grazing shots of the nearest two walls. Although there are shorter lenses (e.g. in the 10mm range in both the Canon and Nikon lineup, these lenses are designed for the smaller format of the APS-C sensors and are actually equivalent to 16mm lenses in the full-frame (35mm) format. Shooting with such a wide lens may seem like overkill, but rooms almost never appear as large in a photograph as they seem in person, due to limitations in view angle. This is particularly true for small rooms like bathrooms. I boast that my ultra-wide architectural capabilities are the best in the industry for the following reasons: (1) No other photographer has a wider lens. (2) A good copy of this $1000 lens rivals the optical quality of even Canon's and Nikon's ultrawides, none of which are as wide. And most of all, (3) Very few professionals are able to find the lens I have found. Build quality varies enormously for ultrawide lenses, even amongst the top manufacturers, and Sigma has more than its share of problems in this cutting edge lens, with the finished product rarely living up to specifications. I bought, tested, and returned a number of these lenses before being lucky enough to find the rare one that is "perfect." Very few photographers are this lucky. More information on this wondrous lens can be found here.
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My MC Zenitar 16mm f/2.8 diagonal fisheye lens (not pictured) is a truly unusual find. It is of Russian manufacture, a hangover from the old Soviet military industrial era. Although the build of this lens is not really up to Western standards, the lens nevertheless has the distinction of outperforming some very fine optics from Canon and Nikon of several times the cost! I use this lens rarely -- for ultra-wide shots involving people/faces and other round objects I don't want to distort. (If I were to use the Sigma, which keeps lines and angles intact, round objects in the margins would be stretched into ovals.) I did a writeup on this extroardinarly little lens here.
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My Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 manual focus lens enjoyed legendary status in the 1970's as one of the sharpest portrait-length lenses ever engineered. My lens is in beautiful condition and produces some of the sharpest images I've seen. Truly wonderful, even if its lack of automation makes it a bit labor intensive.
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My Takumar SMC 55mm f/1.8 lens, which I originally used with my Spotmatic F, was among the best of the optical lineup of Pentax, when the company was in its prime in the 1970's. I couldn't let this wonderful lens gather dust, so I adapted it to my EOS system for use as a portrait length lens with respect to APS-C sensors. Its coatings were unsurpassed in the industry and even still rival the flare suppression of modern day professional lenses. That's not to mention that it's sharp!
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My Takumar SMC 135mm f/3.5 lens, like the 55mm f/1.8 above, features virtually unsurpassed sharpness and flare reduction. Although I have no particular use for the lens at this time, I can still use it if the occasion arises, with the adapter I bought for my 55. I'm listing the lens here mostly with the intent of including it with MTF data and sample images I hope to post on all my lenses when I have more free time. I just think it's a great lens, and the data should be findable somewhere on the Internet.
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Part of the reason my lenses are so good is that I know where and when to use them -- and more importantly where and when not to use them. For harsher conditions, I have this Sigma AF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 II Macro, as well as a Sigma AF 100-300mm f/4.5-6.7 DL (not shown). These are middle-grade consumer lenses, unlike my 12-24 EX, but they're actually OK when it's not worth sacrificing a really fine lens to the rain gods.
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Another secret to having great lenses is taking good care of them. I carry my lens cleaning materials with me wherever I go, including a huge Giotto "Rocket Air" blower, a soft brush, a microfiber cloth, and lens cleaning solution. To clean a lens, by the way, first blow it thoroughly, then brush it, and only then, clean it with the dampened cloth. The more important function of the blower and brush is to keep the inside of my 10D completely dustless. Before changing a lens, I carefully brush and blow away all dust on the camera and lens, and then I blow out the inside of the camera and the back of the lens I am mounting. I have never gotten any dust on my sensor.
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I'm pretty old-fashioned when it comes to calculating exposure. In fact I've adapted much of my technique from Ansel Adams' zone system. Unlike Adams, I work with color photography and digital format, both of which require modification of the traditional zone approach. Some of these modifications are widely discussed on the Internet. One of them is not -- and is a trade secret of mine, at least for now. My meter of choice remains my 1970's vintage Gossen Luna Pro CDS (right), which I have recalibrated to use modern silver-oxide cells. (Click here to find out how.) I find that it is dead-accurate and measures light levels a few stops lower than the lowest sensitivity limits of my 10D and my modern Sekonic meter (left). However, my Sekonic Flash Master L-358 is indispensable for setting up flash lighting and balancing it intelligently with ambient light.
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My primary flash is Canon's excellent Speedlite 550-EX, an extremely powerful and sophisticated flash that is bettered only by Canon's more recent (and slightly more powerful) 580EX. It is very well suited for bounce lighting and special effects photography and has provided single-source lighting for some of my best images. However, as a rule, I use flash only reluctantly, and only where natural lighting cannot be used. That is why I am so heavily invested in image stabilization technology.
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When I do flash photography, I prefer to set up multiple light sources. Canon's Speedlite system has excellent wireless capabilities for balancing multiple flashes with ETTL metering. However, the transmission range and angle are lacking. (The system should be designed with longer-range radio frequency remote!) Furthermore, there are no provisions for balancing flash intelligently against ambient light. Therefore, to do a really good job of flash photography, it is necessary to set up lighting manually. These Vivitar 285hv flashes are workhorses of the industry, as they are enormously powerful and are very well suited for off-shoe work. Furthermore, they are manually controllable at variable power. I use up to 6 flashes for my lighting, usually diffused by umbrellas or soft boxes. I have modified these flashes to recycle off of sealed lead acid batteries and automatic chargers, reducing their recycle time to approximately 2 seconds. (There's a great "how-to" article about it here.) I've also modified them with a more-or-less continuous manual level adjustment from 1/64 power to full power, as well as 1/4" sync jacks. My own "how-to"page can be found here.
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I am able to avoid head-on lighting of the subject (think forehead shine and red-eye) and minimize the bulk of my camera by using this Wein infrared UltraSlave system. It consists of a tiny, fast-recycling infrared flash and two extremely sensitive infrared receivers. These units trigger the primary (most powerful) flashes.
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Once the primary flashes fire, light fills the room, triggering these conventional optical slaves. I actually found these little beauties on Ebay. The base is extremely rugged, all-metal construction, and the plug-in trigger units are extremely sensitive. One caveat: They trigger my Vivitar 285 flashes just fine, but they didn't get along so nicely with my Canon 550-EX. I had to modify one of the slave bases for this flash by bypassing the three diodes inside it. With this modification, it works great. (Access is gained by lifting and sliding out the spring clip on top, removing the three screws, and inserting a small screwdriver to push the round back-plate off of the backside. Use very fine wire to bypass the diodes, and be very brief in your soldering!) There are no published specifications on these units, made by Sonia (Indian); however, I'll offer my own test results on 6 units, for those who are interested. (All units performed the same.) At 0 deg, head-on, they trigger at a maximum distance of approx. 8*GN. At 90 deg, to the side, they trigger at about 2.7*GN. Even at 135 deg (45 deg to the rear), they trigger at approx. 2*GN. These figures are calculated from test results using the Canon 550-EX at 50mm, fired in a large room at 1/128 of full power and reduced further in intensity by two stops. At this power, I could trigger the slave at 50 ft. At full power, I estimate I could trigger the slave at over 1000 ft. Note that it is not possible to do slave synchronization in the HS mode, but my tests indicated satisfactory synchronization up to 1/200s. This slave trigger is extremely versatile, with two sync cord connectors on either side of the base, in addition to the hot shoe connection. These connectors can be connected to infrared or RF remote triggers for dual-triggering. The devices have a few rough edges, characteristic of Indian manufacture. For instance, the threaded hole at the bottom is a through-hole, not a blind hole, so one must take care not to thread a screw in too far, to avoid contacting the internal wiring. However, with a bit of care, these slaves perform flawlessly and are extremely inexpensive. I would highly recommend them to other budget-conscious professionals. You can find them on Ebay from this seller.
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Finally, it is extremely important in some settings (e.g. wedding photography) to take lots of pictures very quickly. That's where my camera, with its fast processing, needs a bit of backup support. I use very fast, write-accelerated memory, which is also very expensive. Consequently I have only two of these cards, along with two conventional cards for emergency and "overflow" usage (with a combined capacity for about 350 RAW images or many thousands of JPG's). While I'm shooting with one card, I back up the other card directly to CD with this Addonics MFR Multi-Function Recorder. I can't recommend this device highly enough. There are no concerns about stuffing a hard drive; total storage is limited only by one's supply of CDs. Needless to say, this is the perfect companion for photographic road trips, easily gobbling down all those 7MB RAW images.
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Of course there are other items of equipment in my arsenal that I've not discussed here. My Epson Stylus Pro 4000 professional wide-carriage printer (a brute that literally weighs almost as much as I do) certainly deserves mention, as do my high-powered computer and my Minolta Dimage film scanner. And of course I have many other cameras, such as my Canon T-70, which I use for photography out in the Chesapeake Bay (where I want neither my expensive lenses nor my expensive camera bodies). However, the items I've discussed on this page are the ones I might bring with me when I show up for a photo shoot.
I would of course be happy to answer any questions about my photographic equipment. Just ask.
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