Wishlist - Camera Stuff
I think this is mostly thinking out loud.
As tax return time draws close, I have been pondering a lot about what I want to try to learn photographically over the next year, and thus what new equipment I might want to grab. This seems to come down to 3 major 'groups':
(1) General Stuff
A nice portable whitebox for shooting small stuff
A portable backdrop, because no where in the house is 'nice'.
A field monitor, since ejecting the card, running to the laptop, checking the photo, running back.. really sucks.
(2) IR - I have been playing with a cheapy IR camera and have run into many of its limitations.
A 7D body, converted to full spectrum (still pondering a 60D instead, but the 7D has really pulled ahead)
A 'Z-finder' LCD viewfinder (would require an additional mounting plate if I get the battery grip)
A battery grip + battery
A monolight with an IR gel
(3) People pictures - This gets hard since the criteria get really scattered.. prepare for paragraphs!
A new portraiture lens. While a Canon f/1.2L would be really nice, I am thinking a Sigma 28mm f/1.8 would be a better deal and get me most of what I want. I will probably keep watching ebay for a used 1.2L, but they almost never sell for anything much less then retail. The Sigma lens, though, would require some 77mm filters, but I can live with that.
Lighting.. lighting is the hard part. I want to start learning artificial lighting, but it is a pretty dense field to read up on. I think AlienBee (monolight) and Strobist (regular off camera flashes) are good options, but they have so many options between them it is scary. I think I want to try a little from both lines.. maybe get a single AlienBee B800 starter kit, and then one of the 'starving student' kits from Strobist which tend to include two LumaPro LP160 flashes.. then top the mess off with some CyberSync triggers from AlienBee (I keep looking at PocketWizzard, the current gold standard.. but it is 4 times more expensive and the only real advantage I can find is reliability at long distances... which is not an issue for me).
I have been told on camera forums that I should just forget the lens and flash stuff and get a new (full frame) body.. but I think I will wait on that for a while longer. I really would like to get a FF body at some point, but I think that is less important right now... plus, it is rumored that Canon will be announcing new FF bodies sometime 'soon', which would bring down the price of older generation ones, so maybe I could pick up a 1Ds or 5D off ebay sometime later. As I said.... that is less important (I think).
Anyway.. back to my coffee ^_^
As tax return time draws close, I have been pondering a lot about what I want to try to learn photographically over the next year, and thus what new equipment I might want to grab. This seems to come down to 3 major 'groups':
(1) General Stuff
A nice portable whitebox for shooting small stuff
A portable backdrop, because no where in the house is 'nice'.
A field monitor, since ejecting the card, running to the laptop, checking the photo, running back.. really sucks.
(2) IR - I have been playing with a cheapy IR camera and have run into many of its limitations.
A 7D body, converted to full spectrum (still pondering a 60D instead, but the 7D has really pulled ahead)
A 'Z-finder' LCD viewfinder (would require an additional mounting plate if I get the battery grip)
A battery grip + battery
A monolight with an IR gel
(3) People pictures - This gets hard since the criteria get really scattered.. prepare for paragraphs!
A new portraiture lens. While a Canon f/1.2L would be really nice, I am thinking a Sigma 28mm f/1.8 would be a better deal and get me most of what I want. I will probably keep watching ebay for a used 1.2L, but they almost never sell for anything much less then retail. The Sigma lens, though, would require some 77mm filters, but I can live with that.
Lighting.. lighting is the hard part. I want to start learning artificial lighting, but it is a pretty dense field to read up on. I think AlienBee (monolight) and Strobist (regular off camera flashes) are good options, but they have so many options between them it is scary. I think I want to try a little from both lines.. maybe get a single AlienBee B800 starter kit, and then one of the 'starving student' kits from Strobist which tend to include two LumaPro LP160 flashes.. then top the mess off with some CyberSync triggers from AlienBee (I keep looking at PocketWizzard, the current gold standard.. but it is 4 times more expensive and the only real advantage I can find is reliability at long distances... which is not an issue for me).
I have been told on camera forums that I should just forget the lens and flash stuff and get a new (full frame) body.. but I think I will wait on that for a while longer. I really would like to get a FF body at some point, but I think that is less important right now... plus, it is rumored that Canon will be announcing new FF bodies sometime 'soon', which would bring down the price of older generation ones, so maybe I could pick up a 1Ds or 5D off ebay sometime later. As I said.... that is less important (I think).
Anyway.. back to my coffee ^_^