Up to 2009 I mostly took shots of what I saw when traveling, without too much thinking and using automatic modes most of the times. The purchase of a Canon XSi changed my attitude to photography, which I think of now of as a creative hobby.

I do not know yet what kind of a (hobbyist) photographer I aspire to be one day; I just enjoy taking pictures.

 

I am talking of my gear below in terms of functionality: hope that the few flicker guys that are less experienced than me

can use my comments to make up their minds, when choosing a lens or a camera.

 

I have been shooting:

 

1) Canon 2000v 2005 -2009:

taken by the Pacific Ocean on a trip to Panama :-(

Got some very nice pics, even without thinking to much of them (most of the time the automatic modes did the job). I was not considering DoF at all those days.

 

2) Panasonic Lumix LMC 2 2007-

without much success, made me realize I am incapable of shooting without a viewfinder and made me stay away from digital SLR for a long time too, what a mistake! It is very compact and the Leica glass is good, but the processor is weird. You need to shoot raw and do a lot of post processing to compensate for the horrible noise: not what you want from a snap and shoot. Its use is now restricted to a counterweight in my bag, when I am not carrying a slr around (almost never). Not recommended

  

3) Canon Rebel XSi 450D 2009-

pretty happy with it, made me start shooting much more than I used to. Very nice performance on sunny days; low light high iso performance is sometimes disappointing because of chroma noise. Some chroma noise now and then also in not so low light, but that is easily fixed with post processing without loosing sharpness.

All together I would recommend it to anybody starting to shoot digital slrs. I'll stick to it until full frame digital slrs' price gets down to my budget.

 

4) Canon Elan 7E 2009-

very happy with it, after beginning to shoot my XSi, i realize that IQ of 35mm film best pics is still better than entry level dsrl pics (usually). Got it on ebay for 53$ ;-) ! Use it when I am not taking a godzillion of pictures a day (trips) or on vacation (adventurous trips, because of the price I can get another one and the fate of my late 2000v ...).

 

5) Yashica Mat 124G 2010-

without much success so far. I am afraid the guys that develop my medium format films are incompetent, get very strange (acid) colors and all kinds of dust, fingerprint and chemical marks on the prints. Still, part of the unsucess is my fault: I think I should restrict its use on a tripod, since I seem not to be able to keep it steady hand held.

 

[update: found new photo lab and having much more fun:), works well on the largest gorillapod with medium ball-head]

 

6) Fujifilm x100: 2011-

Excellent shooter, perfect for handheld street photography . The high iso performance is spectacular, so no problem for night pics and portraits in low light. I thought that the fixed lens [35mm equivalent in full frame] would have been a limitation. Quite the opposite: the angle of view is pretty versatile and not having to think of which focal length to choose allows for more thought to composition. It is always in my bag now

 

7) Yashica Electro 35 CCN

On it's way ...

   

Lenses:

 

My usual walk around set up

 

1) Canon 50mm f/1.8 II:

Love it (as long as it does not fall apart!): very nice portrait lens on APSc, fine standard lens on full format. The bokeh is not as bad as they say (most of the times). I use in low light and whenever I want to control DoF.

 

2) Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG:

It would be a very good fast walk-around lens on APS-c and (especially) full frame, was it not for poor flare resistance in some lighting conditions. When flare is not there, pics are good. A bit too large and heavy, but well built. Also, when traveling alone, it is perfect for making new friends: every once in a while somebody approaches you saying "Wow, your thing is sure big!" or "are you a profi? Would you take a shot of me?".

Altogether, since I do not have the money for the Canon 24-70L, and the range is perfect for me (also bring around a Sigma 10-20), I am going to stick to this lens for a while.

 

Side remark: I had an issue with the focus ring (it got stuck wide open sometimes) under warranty. Shipped it to Sigma US in New York after filing a service notice online: problem solved in no time, lens was shipped back promptly (I think it took just 5 days from my shipping to when I got the lens back): praise to SIgma Costumer service!

  

3) Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6

Absolutely love this lens: on APS-C (16-32mm equivalent) it is as wide as most of people will ever need, on full frame it works from 15mm up (reduced image circle below 15mm) without terrible vignetting and-or distorsion. Compact, well built and optically good enough, only issue is that it is a bit slow, not allowing for hand held low light pics.

    

Adventurous travel set up (on Elan 7E + gorillapod SRL Zoom):

 

This set up wouldn't cost me a fortune to replace if stolen and-or damaged, it is capable of taking good pics and shooting film (way many less pics taken, every pic is essential) allows me to enjoy more the place I am traveling around. When shooting digital I might spend way too much time taking the same pic over and over again to get it as good as I can, then selecting among the thousands of multi-braketed pics: this is not good if you are traveling and you have limited time to discover the most.

 

1) Canon 50mm f/1.8 II

 

2) Tamron 24-135 f/3.5-5.6 SP Aspherical

Simply put: a very nice, sharp lens. The range is ideal for full frame, as a walk around lens. Not as fast as I would like, but it goes around with a fast standard lens. Also found it used on ebay for a real bargain price.

 

Old lenses

I bought a couple of fd mount lenses since they were on sale on ebay for nothing, and many people talks very well of 3rd party lenses of obscure names dating back to the FD period: have not tried them yet extensively. Mind you that they require an adapter and the adapter must have glass inside if you want to keep focus at infinity; you loose 1/3 or 2/3 stop speed and increse the focal length by a factor 1.2 more or less (practically a short teleconverter).

 

1) Sears 135mm f/2.8 Macro

very long and heavy, requires a tripod. The macro ring is really a soft focus ring. But it is very sharp and colors are very good, also nice to have a gradual soft focus option. On APS-C is very long, still trying to figure out applications

 

2) Sears 85-205 f/3.5 Macro.

Very very long and very very heavy impossible to use without a tripod. Did not have time to test it properly yet, but it seems sharp and contrasty enough for macro photography.

 

Special lenses

 

1) Peleng 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye

Optically it is not perfect [usual problems with fisheyes are there, plus it is not very sharp even stopped down], but solidly built and a bang for the bucks. Allows for creative shooting without breaking the bank.

It works in aperture priority on EF-s mount, it seems not to work on older Canon EF mount on my 7E.

  

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