I have been through a lot of gear in over a decade of professional photography. If I had to put a number on it, I would guess over $30,000 worth, and I think that is being conservative. I’m not going to list everything I’ve ever owned on here, that would be tedious and probably not super helpful to you. Rather, I am going to stick to a few key categories of gear and tell you how my philosophy has or hasn’t changed about what has dictated my decision making as I have purchased gear through the years. Those categories are Bodies, Lenses, and Accessories (including lighting gear)– let’s dive right in.
Bodies
Unlike lenses, this is one of my areas that I have not changed much about, philosophically speaking. My mother had a film Canon Rebel (G series, if memory serves) so I had access to a Canon 35-80mm lens and a Tamron 70-300mm at the outset. I didn’t feel obligated to stick with the brand, but it definitely benefitted me to have a leg up on lenses, so I bought my first DSLR, a Canon 30d. Previous to this, I had an A series point and shoot, and I had always been pleased with that model, specifically the fact that it had a manual mode and it didn’t tie me into a rechargeable battery system and let me use AAs, but I digress. The 30D was either just recently discontinued, or about to be. I bought it refurbished for $650 bucks and it was an absolute gut punch. I remember feeling like I had jumped off a high dive, stomach in knots, and that all the pressure of learning how to use something so expensive (hah!) was looming over me. I was a sophomore in college, by the way.
I had friends who shot both Nikon and Canon at that time, and we would go shooting together almost daily, so they were a large influence in the way I perceived the gear that I would need for the next couple years. When talking about lenses, they always warned me “Don’t invest in EF-S lenses (the crop-frame lenses) because they’ll be worthless if you go full frame some day!” At that time, it was almost laughable to me that I would go full frame. The full frame 5D appeared so expensive to me. Nonetheless, I stuck to the full-frame compatible EF lenses. More about that in the lens section, but in keeping to bodies, it was only about a year or two later that the 5D mark II came out and broke SERIOUS ground. One of those dear friends took out a small student loan to buy one immediately (!) I, on the other hand, waited another year until I could save up the money, and I bought one. The full frame was, honestly, everything they said it would be. I would (and will) never go back.
The kid who bought the 30D didn’t know what ride he was on at the time, because after the 5DII grew in popularity for a few years, the 5DmarkIII came out, and I bought that, too, and enjoyed is HUGE (compared to the 5d2) autofocus area. And a few (4?) years after I bought that, the 5DmarkIV came out, most recent at the time of the writing of this article, and I bought that, too. So I’ve been in the full frame game for quite a while now. I’ve never had a reason to go whole-hog and jump to the 1DX, I just don’t have the need for its advantages, though I have played with one, and they are pretty drool-worthy.
So why full frame? Image quality is everything. Sure, you get more out of your wide angle lenses, too, but real estate is everything in the sensor game, and the more light you can pick up with your sensor, and the better tolerance it has for controlling image noise, the better your images will look. I don’t regret it for one second, and have even been tempted by medium format cameras for the same reasons, if only they weren’t 5x the price of a 5D model, give or take a few thou.
If you are getting into full frame game now, I would say go for the 5dMark III. It puts the 5DII to shame, and the 5DIV doesn’t prevail over it as much as I (and many others, I suspect) would have liked. Because the 3 is a bit older, the deals on it are abundant. Get you one of those and you’ll see a real change in your photo-game.
Lenses
My story on lenses is far more complicated than it was on bodies. For bodies, I pretty much set my sights on the best I could afford and never compromised. For lenses, as I got better, I learned a lot about myself, and a lot about photography, and I learned what compromises I could get away with making. Let me also say, though, that lenses retain value FAR longer than bodies, so if you’re building a kit, start with high quality lenses, because they are worth their weight in gold in the long run and can change how you shoot, as well as what your finished products look like.
Gear-snobs that they were, my friends also revered wide apertures the way they revered full frames. Guess what: wide apertures can be expensive. Nonetheless, I started with one of the cheapest ones I could find, the 50mm f1.4. This lens was a game changer for me, because it offered far narrower depth of field than my 18-55 that came with my 30D, and made my images from it look good! My definition of good was a lot more loose and subjective back then, but that bokeh was something I hadn’t gotten much of before, and I knew it would make my images look more professional. Actually, this lens is still in my bag today. I love it for portraits or small groups, it gives the closeness of a 35mm but with a more flattering, slightly compressed look. I’ve thought about going to the 50mm f1.2 a few times, but in my aged wisdom (read: my wife won’t let me), I have decided it’s really not cost-effective for me because 1.4 is very respectable still. If someone were handing me one, I wouldn’t be nostalgic about the 1.4 for a minute, it would be on eBay faster than Usain Bolt in Rio, but I’m satisfied with what I have at 50mm at present. The next lens I bought was a 24-70mm f2.8L. I linked the II version there, but it didn’t exist when I bought the previous copy that I owned. This was a very practical walkaround lens, great for general purpose, and great image quality with near-macro focusing, it was my first L series lens and it got me started down the path to the dark side of lens-buying obsession. Following that, the 70-200mm f2.8IS was my next purchase. Also linked the newest copy of it there that I did not have because it wasn’t out yet. But AY CHIHUAHUA – this lens was a game changer. Great for portraits and sports, if I had to have one lens in my bag today and only one, it would be this. I still have the version I bought and I am keeping it for a long time. So I thought I had it made with my kit. a 24-70 and a 70-200 meant I had a huge, complete range of focal lengths with decent apertures, both 2.8, and if I needed extra bokeh, I could always pull the 50 1.4.
This is around when the tides turned. I liked the 50 prime so much, the thought crept into my mind that I would do well to have more primes with crazy apertures. So how I dealt with that was to sell my 24-70 and buy a 24mm 1.4. No serious loss in focal length because I had the 50 between the 24 and where my 70-200 picked up, and now I had 2 lenses with great apertures. I ran with this kit for a few years and it worked well for me, but there were a few occasions at weddings where giant groups of people wanted to be photographed and 24mm wasn’t quite wide enough, even in full frame. I always wanted to have something super wide, but the 14mm Canon offered seemed a little specialized and it was very expensive and I wasn’t about to go fisheye, so my next move was this: going back to a zoom.
What I realized was that, at wide angles, slower shutter speeds are possible to make work when you’re handholding (no tri/monopod). A 1.4 aperture on a 24mm didn’t get me much depth of field because of the nature of wide angle lenses not giving much depth of field, unless I had a very close subject, which of course added distortion to it, so the scales fell from my eyes a bit and I realized that a (GASP!) f4 lens would be totally sufficient at a wide enough angle. So I sold the 24mm 1.4 and bought the 16-35mm f4 about a year ago. Even though a f2.8 version of that lens exists for more money, I understood that neither depth of field nor shutter speed were going to be limitations in this lens. It has fit into my kit nicely and I don’t regret it a bit. Would the 2.8 version be better? Sure. $500 bucks better? I didn’t think so, and truthfully, I haven’t found myself desperately in need of a wider aperture because the 5D mark IV has great noise control, so I’m making up the difference that way, too. 16mm is very wide, and I find myself enjoying shooting at 35mm regularly.
So my kit today is a 16-35mm f4, a 50mm f1.4, and a 70-200 f2.8IS I, with a 5DmarkIV and I am very, happy with it. I can’t see myself changing my kit again for many years, but of course I’ve said that before… As we transition from lenses to accessories, I should bring up the humble lens hood. If you don’t use them, you really should, and this article discusses why.
Accessories
As far as accessories go, I’ve had a lot come and go. Some cheap, some not so cheap, but it would be far too time consuming to go through every bit, so I’ll just stick to 3 basics that everyone should poke around with, they are: bags, straps/harnesses, and lighting gear.
A good bag is valuable. Gear can be heavy, so a sturdy bag is essential, and a comfortable one is heaven sent. I started with this backpack, made by Canon. If I had a small kit, this would have remained a decent bag to use, but a) I overstuffed my bag regularly and it started to come apart from the wear and b) one thing I didn’t like about it at all was that I had to put it down on the ground or a table if one was available, to open it and get my gear out. It was mighty comfortable to carry, but there is simply no way to get gear out quickly or conveniently. My next bag was the Lowepro Stealth Reporter bag and this thing is king. I have written about it elsewhere, so I won’t repeat what I said about it, but go check out that other article and you’ll get some insight as to why I love it so much. One thing I didn’t mention in the other article was that it doesn’t convert to backpack, so you are always stuck carrying it over your shoulder, but the padding on the shoulder strap is very cushy, and lightens the load significantly.
Another accessory for toting my gear around that I’ve used and loved is the HoldFast Moneymaker two-camera harness. Of all the things I have worn on my body in my life: clothes, ties, hats, shoes, pants, etc. this is far and away the thing I have been most complimented on while wearing. They aren’t the cheapest strap system out there, but they are dang sure the classiest. If you want to catch some attention when you’re working a gig, wear these and I promise you, you’ll hear about it. This system is comfortable, even for long and heavy lenses on long, 12 hour days. It is a fantastic product and I have the easiest time associating my name with it. It will not disappoint. Its biggest competitor is the Black Rapids system, which I have not personally owned, but I know people who have, and I hear it works well for hiking, but it looks nowhere near as fancy as the HoldFast.
Lighting Gear is the last bit I’d like to touch on, and it’s something I’ve been around the block a few times with, like lenses. When I first got into lighting, I bought a 2 monolight kit with stands and soft boxes. I regret it. I still have it and it sits around doing nada. I have used it a handful of times, but honestly, it doesn’t do anything my Speedlites can’t do. It is big and bulky, hard to transport, needs to be plugged in, and doesn’t support High Speed Sync. Instead of dragging these everywhere, I keep a pair of the Canon 600EX-RT flashes in my bag that get the job done, and get it done well.. Honestly, if I was starting today, I would give a long hard look at the competition that Yongnuo has been putting out, I think they are targeting the name-brand flash market HEAVILY, and are probably succeeding. I have used Yongnuo flashes before, the cheaper ones, and they work just fine. They are a little wonky in the way the buttons work and are laid out, but actual flash functionality is, to my eye, indiscernible from the brand flashes. I’ve had loads of diffusers, soft boxes, umbrellas, and reflectors, too. For those, I can say that in my experience, they are all just about worth what you pay for them.
Have any specific questions, drop them in the comments!
