Having recently made a list of computers I've owned over the last 20
years, I decided to make a list of photography equipment I've owned. This list
goes back to the first film camera I can recall buying for myself, around 1997.
In that time, I've bought 7 cameras and 11 major accessories. Of those, I
still own and use one of those cameras and six of those accessories.
Cameras
| Date | What | Resolution | Notes
|
|---|
| 1997? | P&S Camera (Olympus?) | 35mm film
| And in my semester abroad I shot an unprecedented number of rolls
of film—over a dozen! Imagine the expense of those nearly 300 prints.
It's no wonder that I couldn't afford duplicates. I envied the fellow
student with a digital camera and a laptop. Envied him so much.
|
| 1999 | Olympus fixed lens (possibly D-340R) | 1280x960
|
A digital camera for only a few hundred dollars? I couldn't say no!
|
| 2001 | Olympus C2100UZ | 1600x1200
|
After living without any zoom, the loss of the previous camera permitted me
to upgrade to one with a *lot* of zoom. Very early EVF camera, by the way.
"Many people can forgive the C-2100UZ for only having 2 megapixels in the
age of 3 megapixel'ers because of this big lens."
|
| 2002 | Nikon 5700 | 2560x1920
|
Purchased out of megapixel envy, I think. Another EVF camera.
|
| 2004 | Canon Digital Rebel 300D | 3072x2048
|
A digital SLR for under a thousand bucks? I couldn't say no! By being
first at this price point, Canon certainly captured me. Ultimately
traded in for a rebate against the purchase of the 7D.
|
| 2009 | Canon Digital Rebel XSi (EOS 450D) | 4242x2848
|
The original Digital Rebel didn't have any sort of dust removal system.
I badly botched my attempted manual cleaning of the sensor, which led
to the purchase of the 450D right before leaving on a trip.
|
| 2011 | Canon EOS 7D | 5184x3456
|
Feature envy, ISO envy. Also, I learned about the Canon Loyalty program
and got a heck of a deal. The feature I told myself I had to have was focus
microadjustment. Now I also couldn't live without the 19 AF points and
other advanced focus features.
|
Lenses & Major Accessories
| 2004 | Sigma 18-50 and 55-200mm
|
| 2005? | Canon 75-300mm IS
|
| 2006 | Ring Flash
| 100mm f/3.5 Macro
|
| 2009 | Sigma 105mm f/2.8 Macro
| Canon 18-50mm IS (kit lens with 450D)
|
| 2011 | Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro
| Canon 300mm f/4L IS
|
| | Canon 430EX II Speedlight
| Canon 50mm f/1.8
|
| bold denotes an item I still own and have used in the last year
|
What I have to show for it
| Approximately 110,000 photos in 200 gigabytes
| Various prints around the house and office
|
| Dozens of blog entries
| Years of gifts in prints, calendars, cards, etc
|
What have I learned? 2011 was a year of excess in photography purchases,
that's for sure. Lenses are durable, and so are the cameras (unles you follow
instructions on the internet on how to clean the DSLR sensor with a wire
brush.) (no, I'm not quite serious about that last fact. Just uncomfortably
close.) On the other hand, there's always another lens to drool over.
Luckily for me, I spend a lot of time wishing for more magnification, and
there's not a lot of room to go "up" in EOS bodies without switching to a
full-frame sensor and losing 1.6x of maginification. On the other hand, I
could go spend a few thousand on lenses without any great difficulty, at least
if somebody's buying.
Entry first conceived on 22 January 2012, 20:54 UTC, last modified on 7 March 2012, 18:19 UTC
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