contains Festival/Fiesta/Art photography.
www.thisfabtrek.com > equipment > camera
Cameras and Lenses, some other stuff.
"Only using the equipment all the time makes a photographer one day".
1997, first money, first SLR, a F70 (1994) Nikon and a few cheap Sigma and Tamron lenses, so I was on Nikon as opposed to Canon; hard to switch once you paid out for good lenses. In fact till date I know nothing about Canons.
2000 get a manual Nikon FM2, keep things simple, use it with a fixed Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens, later with a Nikkor 28mm f/1.4; nice.
2003, want a 'good' camera, invest in a Nikon F100; should have gone digital then... used a Minolta slide scanner ... a cumbersome process. Still I take the scanner and film camera travelling on the fab trek in 2004.
2005, only half a year later, buy a FujiFilm FinPix S3 Pro DSLR, later another one, this was a lauded camera. Each camera its own lens, Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 AF-S and 70-200mm f/2.8 AF-S VR. The optimist then thought that prevents dust on the image sensor. These lenses are awesome, good lenses do make happy, this is where love starts.
2007 Sep in Bamako, Mali, I finally leave the slide-scanner, the Nikon F100, a smaller Manfrotto tripod behind; all turned into chunk in so little time. I keep the FM2 and the 50mm; is emotional.
Mostly I used the 17-35mm lens; with the S3's DX-format this really meant shooting at 24-50mm, so quite normal; for 90% of all shooting. The 70-200mm is used on festivals, sometimes with the 2x teleconverter to hunt birds and elefants; that meant shooting at 600mm, nice.
The S3 was known for its color rendering, but also it was slow, but the fabtrek is a slow journey, so I justified and hung in with it. The S3 didn't really shoot RAWs either; this clogged it down. Though jpgs are handier on the road where storage is scarce, the S3's JPGs are noisy, especially in the blue skies. Amazing is how the two S3s held over 6 years, taking all the Sahel dust, red and palm wine, they became buggy over time, and the first picture after turning on was always black, the rubber grips came off, the plastic on the ISO wheel too, but surprise they kept going. "Treat yourself to a new camera," hinted Pieter van der Houwen in Feb2011.
2011, and there has been a quantum leap happening in photography technology over 6 year. One day in April I just close my eyes and buy a Nikon D700 and a 24-70mm f/2.8. I simple had to!
Mar2012, the beloved 17-35mm f/2.8 I drowned in the washing machine in Panama.
Aug2012, the D700 and 24-70 get stolen in Cusco, Peru and I managed to buy my gear back for 800USD.
Oct2012, I get myself a GoPro HD Hero 2, to produce a few videos.
| AF 28 mm f/1.4 Nikkor | Nice but no fast silent focus, is yestergear, hardly used it, sold it. | 578g |
|---|---|---|
| AF 50 mm f/1.8 Nikkor | Still mounted on the FM2, hardly use it. | 214g |
| AFS-Nikkor 17-35 mm f/2.8 ED-IF | Wide-angle zoom lens, the standard when I bought it. It is an expensive paper holder now, as one sad day I put it in the washing machine. | 794g |
| AFS-Nikkor 24-70 mm f/2.8 ED | Now the standard. | g |
| AFS 70-200 mm f/2.8 G ED-IF VR | VR's the thing, for stage. Read review. | 1,536g |
| Nikon 2x Teleconverter | Works nicely with 70-200mm, for birds in the sky. | g |
| D700 | Full frame 12mp and sensor cleaning technology and a lot more. | 1074g |
| 2 Fuji FinePix S3 pro | My old cameras with sensors full of dust, read review1, review2, review3. Not for the speed, but the colors, still working after all those years on the road. | 815g |
| SB 600 Speedlight | a new investment after the old fell down. review. | 300g |
| SB 26 Speedlight | from my 1997 investment (repaired for back up). | g |
| Nikon F100 + MB15 | Who cares about the F100 these days. One day just left it behind in Bamako. | 1,195g |
| Nikon FM2 | Refreshing basics, just who wants to spend on film, processing, scanning... | 608g |
| Sekonic Dualmaster L-558 Exposure Meter | Whereever I left this... | 342g |
| Photoflex Lightdisk | Never used it. | 330g |
| Manfrotto Tripod | Not heavy enough for windy conditions, unsharp images ... | 2,800g |
| Manfrotto Monopod | Never used it, it kind of rusts/oxidizes. | 890g |
| Large Gitzo Tripot | 400 Euros, piece of sh!t, 2 legs got stuck and they weren't able to repair it in 6 weeks. | Too heavy to take anywhere... |
| Manfrotto 303Plus Panoramic Photography Head | Panoramic Photography, something I wanted to get into... which requires so much work and time which I don't have. | 2,340g |
| Manfrotto Levelling Base | For the panorama shots. | 600g |
| GoPro HD Hero 2 | For videos, comes with a ruggedized clear plastic case. | 100g and 190g the case. |
www.thisfabtrek.com > equipment > camera
