MY GEAR-What's in my toolbox.

 

People sometimes ask what type of gear I use...

I built this page to to make it easy to answer that question, but honestly I think that there is largely too much emphasis put on the type of equipment a photographer uses. The only thing that matters is that your equipment can make the images you need it to. They're tools...thus the "toolbox" title for this page. I know from years of experience restoring cars, as long as a tool can get the job done, it's the right tool. It doesn't matter if it's a Snap-On, MAC, Craftsman, or some other brand...if it works for you, use it. The same applies to camera gear...Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, etc. There are some shooting situations that do have technical requirements like sports where you need really fast gear, or a wedding where you need low light gear. Generally speaking though it's really just a matter of personal choice. I happen to like the ergonomics and lenses for Canon, so that's what I use. The other big advantage for me with Canon is the relatively short register distance of their camera bodies. It makes it possible to adapt lenses from other camera systems.

Anyway, here's a basic rundown of what I use:

 

Camera Bodies:

Canon EOS 1Ds Digital

Canon EOS 10D Digial

Leica M3 35mm rangefinder

 

Autofocus Lenses:

Canon 28-70mm f2.8L

Canon 70-200mm f4L

Sigma 15-30mm EX

Canon 50mm f1.8

 

Manual Focus Lenses Medium Format (adapted to EOS):

Carl Zeiss Sonnar 180mm f2.8 Pentacon 6 mount

Carl Zeiss Flektogon 50mm f4 Pentacon 6 mount

Hartblei Super Rotator tilt/shift 45mm f3.5 Pentax 645 mount

 

Manual Focus 35mm Lenses:

Pentax Super Takumars:

28mm f3.5 Super Multi Coated

35mm f3.5

55mm f2

135mm f3.5

135mm Super Multi Coated

150mm f4

200mm f4

 

Other Lenses:

Leitz Summarit 50mm f1.5

Carl Zeiss Tessar 50mm f2 (Exakta mount)

Albert Schacht Travenar 35mm f3.5 (Exakta mount)

MTO 1000mm f8 catadiopteric lens

 

Flash Units:

Canon 550EX ETTL

Nikon SB-21 Macro Flash

 

Tripod:

Carbon Fiber N86C2

Tripod Head: Arca-Swiss B1 Monoball

Kirk Enterprises L bracket

 

Other Equipment:

There seems to be an almost enless list of "other" equipment...filters, adapters, brackets, a macro bellows, etc. etc.