The "New Gear/Willy Waving" thread

V-Spec said:
Bit the bullet..

Spent the last few weeks trying all manner of kit out, tried second hand phase one rigs, Nikon D800s and D800E, ended up going with a 645D:

GlLhaKV.jpg

Almost went for the 645Z, but it's nearly £7k and comes with loads of features I simply won't use.. I almost went for a D800E - which would have been the cheaper option, but having shot 5x4 for the last 5 years, the 3:2 aspect ratio of 35mm just totally turned me off, I missed the height in the frame, most of my shots I tend to work with big foregrounds and stuff - 3:2 is either too wide, or portraits are too skinny.

Managed to get one of the legendary old manual focus 35mm (26mm equiv) A lenses off ebay for £350, sharp as hell - easily as sharp as the P45+ rig and the hasselblad H4D rigs I tried.

Need to learn how to shoot digital now, the thing is like a toy compared to 5x4 rofl :D
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Are you going to give wildlife a miss for now as I know one reason you like the idea of a D800E was wildlife potential.

You could also add a D7100 and the new 80-400mm as a cheaper wildlife addition to the pentax. You get a lot of camera for your money.
 
D.P. said:
Are you going to give wildlife a miss for now as I know one reason you like the idea of a D800E was wildlife potential.

You could also add a D7100 and the new 80-400mm as a cheaper wildlife addition to the pentax. You get a lot of camera for your money.
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I've thought VERY long and hard about this, to the point where it practically made me feel ill..

Basically, I will be doing Wildlife however one of the problems I've had with this is that it means dropping a tonne of money on a 500/600 lens and good body, (way more than the cost of the 645D) the problem as I see it, is that in the time I did Wildlife photography I ended up getting dragged into the same charade as so many other people.

I'm 100% still after wildlife, but not in the same way as most people - I have some pretty big trips in mind for the next few years (South Georgia and the King Penguins will be one of them) it would almost all be landscape-themed wildlife photography, rather than long-lens stuff.

That's not to say there's anything at all wrong or undesirable with long-lens style stuff, it's just that I've got different ideas about photographing this sort of stuff,
 
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New unit arrived :)
 
V-Spec said:
Bit the bullet..

Spent the last few weeks trying all manner of kit out, tried second hand phase one rigs, Nikon D800s and D800E, ended up going with a 645D:

GlLhaKV.jpg

Almost went for the 645Z, but it's nearly £7k and comes with loads of features I simply won't use.. I almost went for a D800E - which would have been the cheaper option, but having shot 5x4 for the last 5 years, the 3:2 aspect ratio of 35mm just totally turned me off, I missed the height in the frame, most of my shots I tend to work with big foregrounds and stuff - 3:2 is either too wide, or portraits are too skinny.

Managed to get one of the legendary old manual focus 35mm (26mm equiv) A lenses off ebay for £350, sharp as hell - easily as sharp as the P45+ rig and the hasselblad H4D rigs I tried.

Need to learn how to shoot digital now, the thing is like a toy compared to 5x4 rofl :D
Click to expand...


I was fortunate (and a bit less fortunate with some stuff) to have to go through an absolute mountain of Pentax gear a few months ago, when I was helping a woman in work, check all her recently deceased uncles gear. I thought I had problems collecting gear, but this bloke had about 50 lenses for all sorts of bodies from Pentax. Sadly, nothing as spectacular as that made it to me as they got rid of that sort of thing before even checking with me. I dread to think how little they were sold for, looking at the prices some things were virtually given away for :(

Pentax do some nice stuff :) (and some awful stuff a few years ago)
 
V-Spec said:
I've thought VERY long and hard about this, to the point where it practically made me feel ill..

Basically, I will be doing Wildlife however one of the problems I've had with this is that it means dropping a tonne of money on a 500/600 lens and good body, (way more than the cost of the 645D) the problem as I see it, is that in the time I did Wildlife photography I ended up getting dragged into the same charade as so many other people.

I'm 100% still after wildlife, but not in the same way as most people - I have some pretty big trips in mind for the next few years (South Georgia and the King Penguins will be one of them) it would almost all be landscape-themed wildlife photography, rather than long-lens stuff.

That's not to say there's anything at all wrong or undesirable with long-lens style stuff, it's just that I've got different ideas about photographing this sort of stuff,
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I like both.

The long lens stuff can give you this:

8454059555_5d9b3c66d2_b.jpg



But sometimes showing the animals in their environment is even more rewarding

8454058319_6a2daf78ec_b.jpg




Although i was very eager to get the former and delighted with the results (even this was actually just a 300mm lens on APS-C), the latter I tend to prefer as there is more interest.


The problem with the closeup is it is very static. the interest comes when the animal does something unusual or there is some interaction.
 
SDK^ said:
So my Canon 6D arrived today, such a jump from a 20D and 40D. The viewfinder is huge, High ISO noise control is amazing and full frame at last - I absolute love it !!
I ordered the model without Wi-Fi and GPS (N) model but they sent me the version with those features (WG). Happy days :)

Here it is paired with my 9 year old 17-40L F4, which can now finally be used to it's full potential.
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It's nice innit? :D When I went from my 60D to the 5dmk3 I nearly cried at the loveliness :D
 
ElDude said:
I was fortunate (and a bit less fortunate with some stuff) to have to go through an absolute mountain of Pentax gear a few months ago, when I was helping a woman in work, check all her recently deceased uncles gear. I thought I had problems collecting gear, but this bloke had about 50 lenses for all sorts of bodies from Pentax. Sadly, nothing as spectacular as that made it to me as they got rid of that sort of thing before even checking with me. I dread to think how little they were sold for, looking at the prices some things were virtually given away for :(

Pentax do some nice stuff :) (and some awful stuff a few years ago)
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The old pentax 645 "A" manual focus lenses are legendary, freakish sharp and very low on distortion, you can pick them up very cheap off ebay and they're as good as any of the Mamiya/Phase one lenses (Schneider I think)

I looked at a lot of different setups, some P45+ backs, some Leaf Aptus backs and a Hasselblad H4D -they were all very good, but the Pentax 645D has the same sensor as the Hasselblad H4D (Kodak KAF 40000) plus it's fully weather sealed and mag-alloy so it's far more suited to being outdoors, and the IQ is really good.


D.P. said:
I like both.

The long lens stuff can give you this:


But sometimes showing the animals in their environment is even more rewarding


Although i was very eager to get the former and delighted with the results (even this was actually just a 300mm lens on APS-C), the latter I tend to prefer as there is more interest.


The problem with the closeup is it is very static. the interest comes when the animal does something unusual or there is some interaction.
Click to expand...

Nice shots,

Since i've been shooting 5x4 it's taught me to think totally differently about photography, over the last 2 years i've been stuck in central london and it's been difficult get out and do anything so I don't feel like i've progressed that much, however things are different now and i've got some big trips scheduled.

It's probably a combination of inspiration from different people, i've gone through some of Art Wolfe's books recently and his stuff knocks me for six - his use of light, the way he designs his images - his work in south georgia with king penguins is amazing.
 
CGrieves said:
Nice! One of the best bargain cameras at the moment. Gave mine to my son when I got my X-E2, but still miss the ultimate pocketability.....
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Yes I'm looking forward to taking it out this weekend!

I'm reading the user guide as we speak to better understand it all

M
 
messing around with this new camera, seems to deliver in terms of detail and sharpness, not quite as sharp as 5x4 in the corner at 100% but not *that* far off,

Shot from my window (which is a bit grubby and does reflect a little), straight from raw to tiff to jpeg, no sharpening or corrections at all,

Quite happy with the results, the buildings are falling over a bit due to there being no movements :p I assume I get rid of that in photoshop, but I have some stuff to learn there lol


hAu0qxm.jpg

Middle

vOIM0IQ.jpg

top right

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middle left

XjU8OFI.jpg
 
A few shots with the 70-200 f.8 vdii + nikon 2x teleconverter... in low light with high iso... quite happy with the quality really... I can definitely tell the difference bare lens vs with tele converter and it's most definitely sharper at f8... but it's ok for now... it'll tide me over til I can put the money down on a 200 f2 & 300 f2.8

DSC_4122 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

DSC_4129-Edit by CosmicLogos, on Flickr

DSC_4134 by CosmicLogos, on Flickr
 
I'm sorry but I thought this thread is for new gear, so why are people posting pics of what they are shooting. There are plenty of threads to show your photography skills. All I want to see is new gear people have bought not pictures taken with new gear
 
I like to see the pictures people have taken with the new gear, don't see a problem with it.

A picture of a new lens is fine and all, but I think its pretty helpful to see a couple of shots taken with the lens.
 
flame696 said:
I'm sorry but I thought this thread is for new gear, so why are people posting pics of what they are shooting. There are plenty of threads to show your photography skills. All I want to see is new gear people have bought not pictures taken with new gear
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lol, relax, he didn't steal your pension !
 
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