To Keep or Not to Keep

Enfield Bullet 300 - Canon 7D & EF 70-200mm f2.8 IS. Larger.

The Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS USM lens is one of Canon's most popular lenses, especially for pros.  It's relatively sharp, very fast for a zoom at this focal range, and has Image Stablization (IS).  The down side is that it's heavy and expensive. 

I have had this lens for almost four years, and use it less than a dozen times.  Many times I have thought of selling it for something I would use more often, but could never made up my mind at the end.  Even more, I had a crazy thought of selling it and buy the version II, which I probably would use with the same frequency.  I know it's time to have a good look at my lens line up and decide what to do.  The lenses I don't use often are 70-200mm f2.8 IS, 100-400mm f4-5.6 IS and 180mm f3.5 macro.  And, the least used lens is the 180mm macro.  It probably makes more sense to sell this lens and get the 100mm f2.8 IS macro instead.  I would probably use it more often.  But, every time I hold that lens in my hands, I couldn't bring myself to sell it.  It's so %@#$^ nice, both in built quality and optically.  For the few times I used it, the longer working distance really was an advantage. 


Another option is the manual focus lenses.  I simply have too many of them.  Duplicates and sometimes triplicates of the same lens.  Insane! Some of them I have already posted for sale locally, but haven't sold many yet.  They will eventually go to e-Bay.  The proceeds would go toward the 1Ds II body.  I have had enough headaches with the 5D and manual focus lens compatibility issues.  I don't recall having so many problems with my 1Ds, 1D/II/III bodies. Besides, I really miss that EC-L cross split screen.  I have kept it when I sold my 1D III, probably because I knew one day I would use it again.

So, in the next few weeks, I will slowly getting rid of some of the lenses.  Hopefully, they will fetch enough money for the 1Ds II body.

Street Car

Street Car shot through car window -- Canon 7D & Vivitar 24mm f2.0 AI. Larger.

I really like the small fast primes.  24mm on full frame is probably the widest I would use on a regular basis.  Anything wider is hard to control. 

Port of Toronto

Port of Toronto - Canon 7D & Vivitar 24mm f2.0 AI Mount. Larger.

New addition to the Vivitar family.  This Vivitar 24mm f2.0 has the Nikon AI mount, made by Kiron.  This lens should be identical to my Kiron 24mm f2.0 (OM Mount), but I compared them side by side and the coating is definitely different..  Both are great, sharp lenses.  Also have the Vivitar 24mm f2.0 in PK Mount.  The PK version looks closer to the Kiron in terms of coating, as well as focusing.  Both the Kiron and the PK mount 24mm f2.0 have the very short focusing travel, whereas the Nikon AI version has longer focusing travel.  All of them share the same filter size of 55mm.

G20 Security

G20 Security - Canon 7D & EF 50mm f1.2L. Larger.

The G20 Summit in Toronto this weekend has caused a considerable amount of grief to many businesses in the area.  Security has been very tight in the RED ZONE.  I have never seen so many cops in one area before.  Many businesses either shut down or have employees work from home.  I guess the most stunning aspect of this whole is the cost: over ONE BILLION dollars!  I can't imagine how that kind of money can be spent on a two day event.

Boat in the City

Boat in the city - Canon 7D & Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 200mm f2.8. Larger.

One of the big improvements, from previous xxD series of cameras is the viewfinder.  It's now much bigger on the 7D.  However, I find it more difficult to focus than the 5D for some reason.  The view finders seems slightly darker.  Perhaps need to get used to it.

Hey Lucy

Hey Lucy is a popular eatery on King -- Canon 7D & EF 35mm f1.4L

Missing the 5D already.  35mm on 1.6x crop body is just, well, not 35mm.  The 7D is a fantastic camera.  Canon has finally done something right for the pro-sumer market, with no small amount of pressure from Nikon's D300 of course.  Isn't competition great?!?  I think a 7D and a 1Ds II would make a perfect pair.  Gotta save my pennies now.

Run!

Megan -- Canon 7D & EF 200mm f1.8 @ f2Megan -- Canon 7D & EF 200mm f1.8L @ f2

Tried out the AI Servo focus today and it was better than expected.  Not quite 1-series performance but damn close.

Gears Shifted

The Devil made me do it. I swear!

Five days ago I played with a 7D, and I felt in love with it. It reminded me of the 1D Mark III I had. Solid built, nice handling, responsive, but quite a bit lighter. This got me thinking about the inadequacy of all the camera bodies I own for fast actions. I knew I had to do something about my gear line-up.

Yesterday the Devil showed me Henry's flyer on Canon specials: Buy a 7D, and get the battery grip for $99. Also, they have increased the trade in value of many old digital bodies, and they allowed $900 on the 5D, which is very good, consider that most used 5D sold in private at around $1000. Keep in mind that the trade in portion of the $900 is none taxable, which means they will deduct this amount from the price of the 7D, before applying the taxes, a saving of $117, for a total value of $1017 for the 5D.

Then the Devil made read the fine print, that the special would end June 20, which is today, and that I must act fast. I posted my Rebel 550D (T2i) for sale yesterday, and it was sold this morning. A small loss from the price I paid originally, but that's the nature of used gears. I have kept the kit lens, as it's a good lens to have around. Drove up to Mississauga in the afternoon, as the Super Store in Toronto is closed on Sundays, and did the swap.

So, I gained the 7D, but lost the 5D and 550D. I will really miss the 5D as it's one of the best cameras I have used, image quality wise. I will also miss the 550D too, for its super light weight and fantastic LCD screen, even though the 7D's screen is very good.

My plan is to acquire another full frame, possibly the 1Ds Mark II, hopefully by the end of the year. That camera will be used mostly for manual focus lenses. This will be a similar setup as what I had before: 1Ds and 1D Mark II. I will also keep the IR 20D and the Panasonic G1.

Already shot a few couple hundred frames today and really enjoyed the 7D. In many ways I feel this camera is more similar to the 1D III than the xxD series. As expected, the focusing, especially in AI Servo, is far more responsive and accurate. Man, if this is full frame, I would be in heaven. It maybe psychological, but I think the image quality in low ISO is cleaner than the 550D. More test will be done on this.

In the coming months, I will find out how I will like it.

Yum - Canon 7D & EF 85mm f1.2L. Larger.

 Show Off - Canon 7D & EF 85mm f1.2L. Larger.

Rush Hour on Don Valley Parkway

Rush Hour -- Canon 20D IR Modified with Pentax-M 20mm f4. Larger.

DVP is one of the busiest highway in North America.  Unless you drive in the wee hours of the day, it's almost always busy.  I used to drive the DVP up and down a few times a day when my wife worked in Markham.  Drive her to work, drove myself to work, then picked her up after work.  It was a nightmare.

Rest Assured

Rest Assured. Sign outside Mt. Pleasant Cemetery - G1 & Kodak Cine 63mm f2

Passed by this sign a few times, and always thought it was funny, but couldn't stop and take a picture of it until today, when the traffic was really bad.