Summary

Disney fan, urbex fan, I love gear more than I should

Blogs

For my 'professional' work

My blog, Kurt Miller Photography. Yes, I know that's the most original name that you've ever heard.

Camera:

Canon 5D Mark III

Lenses:

* Sigma 15mm f/2.8 fish - Decent fish, very nice and light with sharp IQ.

* Canon 24-70 f/2.8 II - Just bought and my second copy is on the way as I write this, as my first one had a focusing issue. When it nails focus, though, man is it sharp!

* Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS II - Unreal telephoto. The shots are contrasty enough, but they have this unexplainable smoothness to them. I really like telephoto lenses, the compression is very desirable.

* Canon 85mm f/1.2 - The magic cannonball, the ultimate portrait lens... "Magic" is the best way to describe its depth of field.

* Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro - A very good lens that can be used for multiple things. I often leave this at home unless I know I have to get way in close, or do macro stuff.

Other Gear:

* Canon 600EX Flash - I have two of these. With the ST-E2, this is the ultimate flash setup as you can change settings from the camera side.

* Canon ST-ET-2 - Wireless radio trigger for the flashes, this is the ultimate flash setup.

* Honl Gel Filter kit - Love these

* Honl Speed strap - A must have for the filters

* Umbrella and stand

* Westcott 28" Apollo softbox

* Lowepro Fastpack 250

* B+W 77mm 10 stop ND filter - The best screw-on large stop ND filter.

* Lee Filter Holder - This is a must for the Lee Big Stopper. It fits in the Cokin Z, but some light bleeds in, giving an odd 'dimple' on the bottom of the frame. Also, it vignettes less on wide angle lenses, so I've read.

* Lee 2 stop soft and hard grad filters

* Lee Big stopper - Really, the only way to go when you want a large stop ND filter. I've had some luck with the B+W screw on 77m 10 stop, but this is by far the only filter holder 10 stop that's worked.

* Cokin Z pro filter holder - Cheaper and works well for most filters, except the Lee Big Stopper.

* Singh Ray sprocket mount LB Warming Polarizer for the Cokin Z Pro - The piece of gear I probably regret most, VERY expensive and I do so little filter shooting that I don't get the use out of it that I should for the price. I could've bought a lens for this!

Former Cameras

* Canon Rebel XS - A wonderful starter camera, it did everything I needed to get going. My only big issue - the viewfinder was less-than beautiful and the memory writing was slow - 3 shot handhelds were very difficult.

* Canon 7D - A great step up from the Rebel XS, it fixed my two concerns about the Rebel XS and the AF system was much much improved.

* Canon 5D Mark 2 - Got it at a great deal from B&H at the time - got a free printer with it. Only had it a short while before the Mark 3 came out, it was a significant image quality improvement over the 7D, IMHO.

Former Lenses:

* Rokinon 8mm fisheye - Great APS-C fish for the price, I've taken a lot of shots with this and while it's manual focus, manual aperture, it works really well and seems to put out good image quality and is REALLY wide.

* Sigma 8-16 - loved this lens for crop, the ultrawide opens up new compositions that are really interesting.

* Sigma 12-24 f/4.5-5.5 - Ultra wideangle for specific purposes - bought this when I went full frame, sold it when I wanted to get into filtered landscape shooting, as it cannot accept filters. Probably a mistake, as I find 4x4 filtered shooting to be clunky and painful vs. multiple exposures.

* Tokina 16-28 f/2.8 UWA - Returned to B&H as it had rainbow haloing issues around lights in dim lighting conditions.

* Canon 17-40 f/4 Wide - I was frustrated I couldn't get shallow depth out of it, and the 17-55 is a better walkaround lens. Re-bought it when I went full frame and now sold it again. Canon really is missing out on the ultra wide focal length here.

* Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 Wide - Sold for the 17-40. This is a great option for those on a budget and it has a very fast aperture of f/2.8 for a wide angle

* Canon 17-55 f/2.8 EFS w/IS - The best wide angle lens for an APS-C sensor camera, probably was my most-used lens during that time.

* Canon 24-70 f/2.8 - The perfect compliment to the 5D Mark II, the ultimate walkaround lens.

* Tokina 35mm f/2.8 macro lens - A decent walkaround lens due to the very natural 35mm focal length on an APS-C sensor (7D), it takes sharp pictures as well.

* Canon 50mm f/1.8 II Prime (aka nifty fifty). Obviously a great lens for the price, but I replaced it with the 1.4 Sigma.

* Sigma 50mm f/1.4 - The 1.4 makes a huge difference. If you want creamy bokeh and shallow DOF shots, this is the one to get. Replaced with Canon 85mm 1.2L, which is a much better focal length on full frame.

* Canon 60mm f/2.8 macro - It was good and sharp, but not really useful. I think you may want to go to the Canon 100mm for macro (but much more expensive!).

* Canon 70-200 f/4 IS - My telephoto, some of my sharpest and best looking shots come from this guy. A bit tricky to use with an APS-C sensor because of it's long 'zoom', this goes very well with the 24-70.

* Canon 85mm f/1.8 Prime - Rarely used, since I have my 70-200. Flawless, though, really good long portrait lens.

Former Other Gear

* Canon SPEEDLITE 430EX II - Very nice, but the optical triggering leaves something to be desired

* Yongnuo flash trigger (thing was AWESOME for $40 until I went all radio triggered!)