For me, photography is about being out & about, seeing the world, capturing images & viewing the resulting prints or online images. The photo gear is an important part of the image capture equation - without it there would be no image. However - too often - hobbies & work can become all about the gear, & the true purpose is sometimes forgotten about (at worst) or relegated to second place (at best). So, although the gear is definitely important, & the better the gear, the better the image possibilities (in theory), the fundamental point of photography should not be about the gear, & the gear alone. It is true to say that gear can help you capture an image, but it cannot capture it alone.
The following is a comprehensive list of my digital photographic gear, including lenses, accessories & portable computer equipment (including major upgrades made in November 2008):
Current Photo Gear
- 2 x Canon EOS 1D Mark II bodies, 1 with RRS ArcaSwiss q/r L plate, 1 with standard ArcaSwiss q/r plate.
- Tokina 17, f3.5 super wide angle lens.
- Canon 17-40, f4, L, USM super wide angle zoom lens.
- Canon 24 T-SE tilt & shift lens.
- Canon 24-105, f4, L, IS, USM zoom lens.
- Canon 70-200, f4, L, IS, USM zoom lens.
- Canon 300, f4, L, IS, USM telephoto lens.
- Sigma 120-300, f2.8 telephoto zoom lens.
- Canon 600, f4, L, IS, USM super telephoto lens.
- Canon 1.4x & 2x tele-converters.
- Sekonic 558 light meter.
- Canon Speedlite 430EX flash.
- Canon Speedlite 580EX flash.
- Canon off camera flash lead.
- Better Beamer flash extender.
- B&W MRC UV 010 filters – various sizes for all lenses except 600/f4.
- B&W Kasemann Polarizing filter – 105mm Ø with B&W wide-angle hood & 82mm & 77mm step down rings.
- Optech Hood Hats for all lenses.
- Visible Dust sensor cleaning brushes & accessories.
- Gitzo G1588 carbon fibre monopod & Tamrac 325 bag.
- Gitzo G5531S carbon fibre tripod, Wimberley Head II or RRS BH55 c/w B2LLRII clamp (the BH55 is fitted for air travel, the Wimberley is used where weight/size is not an issue) & Tamrac 327 bag.
- Gitzo GT2931 Basalt tripod with Acratech GV2 ball head & RRS PCL-1 panning clamp.
- Wimberley lens plates & RRS camera brackets for all lenses & cameras.
- More camera bags than I care to mention - inc. GuraGear Kiboko (super for air for travel), LowePro Stealth Reporter 650AW & 200AW camera bags, LowePro ProTrekker 600AW backpack, LowePro LensTrekker 600 long lens bag, LowePro DryZone 200 backpack, CCS Long Lens bag #5...
- 2 x 16GB & 4 x 8GB 133x CF cards & 3 x 16GB class 6 SD-HC cards - all Transcend.
- Canon G10 advanced point & shoot camera.
- Gitzo G1028 mk2 carbon fiber tripod & G1077 ball head for use with G10.
- Apple MacBookPro 15.4" laptop with 4GB RAM & 500GB Hitachi hard drive.
- Various ExpressCards inc. e-SATA card, SD-HC card reader & CF card reader.
- Hitachi 500GB "rugged" 2.5" external hard drive.