Packing My Photo Gear Bag

I have some heavy gear -- more than my back likes me to carry, but what to take? Having taken everything but the kitchen sink for years and felt a bit sheepish when a lot of the gear didn’t get used, I’ve taken to thinking through the “absolutely must-have” gear before going on a location shoot. Here’s why.

I move around a lot. And my bag moves around a lot. And that means I carry my bag around a lot. Which gets old, and in a hurry. So, I’ve taken to examining likely shooting scenarios and taking the camera bod(ies), lens(es), and light(s) that are most likely to be useful. In making these selections, I know there will be times when I will think, “if only I had my …”, but I also know I will make more images if I have a lighter load.

So, here’s a thought exercise I often run through:

• What’s the best camera for the job. Most of my gear is pretty interchangeable, but one stands out for action photography and that’s the 1D Mark II. It’s super fast and never misses a shot. Another consideration is how long do I expect to be carrying it. The weight difference between a 1Ds Mark III Canon body is about 49oz. Compare that to the 5D Mark II at 30oz. The 5D is only 60% the weight of the 1Ds. Over the course of a day walking around, especially if it’s hot, and you have something you’ll remember. The other consideration is do I need gazillions of pixels. One great reason to bring a high-resolution camera is that the images can be used in many more applications than images made on a camera with a smaller sensor. If I think I’m really onto something and not on a scouting shoot, I’ll typically bring as much camera as I think I can lift.


• What range of focal-lengths do I expect? If this is a subject I know well, I might only bring one or two lenses. If not, I will normally bring a set of zoom lenses that cover the expected range. Some great lenses from Canon are:
  
  
  
  • 16-35mm wide-angle zoom
  • 24-105L zoom
  • 70-200L zoom
  
  
• How much battery power do I need. I know about how many shots I get on a charge, and have prepared fresh batteries, but no need to carry more than necessary. They are just dead weight. If I don’t know, then I carry one more than the maximum I think I might possibly need. Two are often enough. Especially now that Canon has gotten their power systems to the point where you get quite a number of RAW images on a single charge. I take into account the amount of burst shooting I might do (more battery intensive), how much AI Servo focusing I expect, and any other things that might negatively affect battery life.


• How many lights will I need? If I am doing available light photography such as scenics or night, then I might leave all the flashes behind. If I’m doing people, do I need one or more lights, and how about remote triggers/stands? One thing with the lights: A small diffuser will go a long way toward making subjects look more natural, and they weigh practically nothing. I like the ones from Lumiquest, but any diffuser will help.


• Does this shoot require a tripod or am I better off hand-holding. A tripod is a mixed blessing. It will get in the way when I’m in tight quarters, and it’s more weight to pack. But, there are some shots that simply don’t happen without one. If I know I need a tripod, I also need a remote release.

One thing I think about less often with digital are filters. They are simply not the issue that they were with transparency film, where the point of capture was pretty much the photographer’s last chance to influence color. The two that are normally in my bag are polarizers (not too often used), and a UV or Skylight on every lens. If I’m looking for some particular effect I’d prefer to do at the point of capture, such as a star or soft filter, I might bring these. But not so much anymore.

Comments are, as always, welcome. What’s in your bag?

Canon 5D Mark II

The Canon 5D Mark II is a very capable camera, combining the compact footprint and light weight of the 40D with the full-frame 21 megapixel sensor of the 1Ds Mark III.

I didn’t race right out to have a look at the very first 5D Mark II off the production line. However, the 1Ds is a somewhat bulky camera for certain field work and I decided to give the new 5D a look. Here are some initial impressions:

Sound too good to be true? Is it a 1Ds Mark III for less money that won’t put a permanent dent in your shoulder. Qualified “no.” I shot the two side-by-side and here is what I found:

• The 5D is amazingly quiet. So quiet, if fact, that it doesn’t seem you’ve made your exposure. Spooky… but cool in a way.
• Canon implemented a feature called “Live View” on the 40D and later 1-Series DSLRs. This sounds kind of dumb initially. After all, who uses an LCD plate on aDSLR? It turns out to be incredibly useful for no-shake, deliberately composed studio shots. The 5D also has this feature, but it is tangled up in the video features of the camera, so it is easier to make mistakes and clunkier to use than the same feature on the 1Ds. Clunky because if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Canon user, you will come to expect the SET button (you know, the one in the middle of that big wheel you turn with your thumb) to control important functions. The SET button turns Live View on and off on the 40D and 1Ds MarkIII, but there is a separate button on the 5D that is overloaded to both control Live View and control the HD video capability. I’m sure that, over time, I would get used to this, but my first encounter with this particular control was not a positive one.
• As one might expect, the resolution from the 5D is amazing. The RAW images come out to about 22MB, so buy more hard disks. A subjective opinion: The images from the 5D are way better than the 40D just because of the density. The images from the 1Ds Mark III seem “creamier,” if that’s a good way to characterize image quality.
• Flash. Prosumer cameras from Canon – and I categorize the 5D at the top of that basket – have always had built in flashes. They weren’t great, but in an absolute emergency, the could provide some fill. The 1-series never has had built-in flashes, on the assumption that carrying heavy gear makes you a good photographer (I made that part up). Anyhow, if you decide on a 5D, set aside a few dollars for one of the 580EX speedlights.
• Feel. I’ve been shooting with the 1D and 1Ds bodies for the last several years and every time I pick up a camera without a vertical-release grip, I feel like someone cut a hand off. It’s just plain weird. If you have gotten used to a vertical release grip, then you might want to consider the add-on accessory for the 5D.
• Weather hardening. This is a major point Canon makes in their sales. The 1-series bodies have more weather-resistant seals at all their coupling points – lens mount, electronics attachment points, etc. But if you use your camera with some care and don’t drop it in water, then saving a few thousand dollars can go a long way toward making you feel better.
• Sensor cleaning and mapping. The new Canon cameras have these features. They are better than nothing, but you will still need to clean your sensor. Period. I don’t care what the sales pitch is, sensors attract junk and not all that junk can be shaken off. Caveat photographer when you use your sensor cleaning gizmo-du-jour. Sensor filters can be scratched and damaged easily. Now, to mapping, this seems like a non-feature to me. You have to use the Canon software to take advantage of it. Basically, the idea is that the software identifies and remembers repeated “bad spots” caused by hot pixels or persistent dust. It then edits these spots out using some kind of nearest-neighbor algorithm. This works pretty well on the large sensors because there is just so much data, but I have to come back to the fact that you have to use the Canon software. Using Adobe Camera RAW is so infinitely superior that it renders any advantage from this sensor mapping irrelevant when compared to all the ACR utility you would have to give up if you used the Canon software.
• Lens performance. Here is the bad news: The old lenses that were performing quite nicely, thank you very much, won’t anymore. Two reasons: 1) The sensor has far greater resolution; and 2) Full-frame sensors bring out chromatic aberration near the edges of images, especially an minimum or maximum apertures. This is not a new problem, nor is it a problem unique to the 5D. It just is. The CA adjustment in Adobe Camera RAW will clean up all but the worst offenders. I am able to get acceptable performance out of my 15mm fisheye and 17-35mm wide zoom. The chromatic aberration is there at f/2.8 and sometimes at f/22, but f/5.6 through f/11 are just fine.

So, bottom line: If you are wanting a full-frame (35mm aspect ratio) sensor 21 megapixel camera with (drum roll) HD video capabilities, then the 5D is a great choice at a good price (street price about $2,700). If you are very demanding of your camera and of your images, then you will want to get the 1-series body – either the 1D Mark IIIfor crop sensor or 1Ds Mark III for full-frame.

Feel free to comment, agree, disagree, or point out the “killer” feature you love about this camera.