Canon 7D Mark II

The 7D II is a new camera to me. I've been using DSLRs since 2011, I've borrowed Canon, Pentax and Nikon and this is the first camera that I've felt "Bloody hell, I need to read the manual" (Seriously guys, read your camera manual anyway, you'll be amazing what little things you'll find) 

The primary reason for this is the cameras incredibly complicated autofocus system, I've never used a camera with this level of intelligent automation. I've always preferred to take as much control as possible from the camera so I can be sure that when it's time to take a shot I know exactly what's going to happen, with the 7D II I'm finding I'm giving the camera more control in those fast pace situations like wildlife. As an example in certain AF modes it can offload tracking to the cameras RGB metering sensor which will then tell the AF system what point to start focusing on, that's unbelievable!  This camera was an upgrade from my 60D and it really is in every way. If you're interested in anything that moves fast I would seriously suggest this camera.

We all know the adage of spending money on glass rather than bodies but this camera is an absolute exception to that rule.

Canon 6D Mark I

The 6D was my first full frame digital camera so until I have the chance to shoot with another I wont know if the points I bring up here really are advantages of all full frame cameras in general. According to various review sites they are but this page is about my personal opinions on real life use.

I absolutely love this camera, from it's high iso abilities and beautiful full frame grain/noise to wide angles really being wide. The 6D is primarily my studio camera, since I've owned it from early 2017 100% of my portrait images have been taken with this camera and it's excelled in that role. It's second use is landscapes, not having to add 1.6x to every lens I own really allows for beautiful wide images that don't look distorted. Strangely I also enjoy editing full frame images over crop, this might be because I significantly upgraded my lenses at the same time as I purchased this camera so the quality of images at 1:1 improved overnight and that's had a lasting effect on me but I strongly suggest everyone at least borrows a FF camera at some point, just to see if I'm crazy or not.

The one significant downside to this camera is it's poor AF, it's not bad, it focuses fairly well but there aren't many AF points and it handles exactly the same as my 60D I believe Canon deliberately gimped the AF so not to compete with the 5D III at the time. In my personal use I've found that I only ever select the central AF point which fixes all of the various downsides to this cameras AF.

Canon 60D

The 60D was my first DSLR and has a special place in my heart. Before this I would borrow my fathers Pentax, I believe it was a 100D or a 10D I'm not sure. I've owned it since 2012 and it's still going strong, it's got a cracked rear screen from a car accident which I've never got round to replacing but it still works. From 2012 til the start of 2017 this was my general purpose camera, it did everything I needed to and it did it well. From the start of 2017 it was relegated to wildlife and any occasion where the 1.6x crop was useful rather than a hindrance and finally at the start of 2018 It's been replaced by the 7D II. However it's staying on my shelf as a backup. As the camera got older I started to notice the issues with the limited AF, same as the 6D but as with everything I learned to work around it, if you're strapped for cash this is still a viable camera today.

Praktica Super TL 1000

The Super 1000 is a bit of a hit or miss camera for me, it requires old mercury 1.35v batteries that just aren't made anymore, however you can buy an alkaline that is the same shape but is 1.5v but this throws the metering system for a loop. You can manage voltages with a little electronics knowledge but for now I'm enjoying life without a metering system using the sunny 16 rule (frankly in the UK it's the cloudy 8).

Other than that little setback it's a great camera, it'll take standard m42 lenses but I'd suggest sticking with mechanical automatic aperture glass if you can, else you're stuck focusing at the lens widest aperture before stopping down and taking the shot, the split prism really doesn't like anything much above f4/5.6. 

FED 4

The FED 4 replaced a short lived Kiev 4. It's an old soviet rangefinder and frankly it's great, the distance between the two viewing windows isn't that large so focus is harder than the Kiev 4 but once you spend a little time with a rangefinder it becomes second nature, I actually prefer this method of focusing over a split prism for film cameras. In theory it'll take Leica style M38 lenses but soviet machine tolerances are infamously bad, fingers crossed you get a good copy! 

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

The 17-40 f4 was my first "L" lens and frankly I'm impressed. The build quality is evident in this lens, from the smooth functioning of the zoom and focus rings to the general ruggedness you feel by holding it. 

This was also my first full frame wide angle lens and god damn wide really is wide. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say until you've seen 17mm through the viewfinder of a full frame camera you just cant comprehend the differences between crop and FF. All the numbers and reviews will tell you how useful it is but you need to see it for yourself.

Generally I use this lens for landscapes, it's incredibly light and on occasion I'll leave the 24-70 at home and bring this just to save weight.

Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD

This lens replaced a sigma 17-70 f4 when I upgraded to full frame. Surprisingly it really doesn't take long to get used to the unadjusted focal length. 

I love this general purpose lens, I went with this over the Canon L equivalent because of the added IS and frankly it's a ton cheaper, there's not a lot to say about this lens as it's a fairly normal focal length range and the image quality is amazing, the only downside is it's weight, it's pretty damn heavy for the size! Unfortunately it's the price you pay for 2.8 and IS on a full frame lens. 

Tamron have recently updated this lens with the G2, I'd strongly suggest people keep an eye on the second hand market, I expect you can get one of these nice and cheap.

Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 SP Di VC USD

I'll start with a pretty bold statement, this lens is my most used, favourite lens that I have ever had the chance to use. 

70-200 becomes a whole different beast with full frame, 200 really isn't that long and originally it was a bit of a disappointment after using 250 on a crop(400.) However throughout the entire focal length this lens excels wide open, the bokeh is great and the majority of my portraits are taken with this lens. To be frank you can zoom a photo to 1:1 and it'll look better than a cheaper lens across the entire image.

As with the 24-70 Tamron have updated this lens to G2, according to 1:1 comparisons it looks like they've improved upon perfection. You could either have a look for a second hand bargain or splurge and go for the G2.

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

This lens is as new to me as the 7D II (I purchased both with some very well timed redundancy money prior to moving to Shetland)

I'm still getting to grips with this lens but damn, this achieves at 400mm what the Tamron 70-200 can do at 200 and that's very impressive. Initially I was stuck between the 400 5.6 L prime and this lens, after purchasing this lens I really do not miss the money I'd have saved with the 400 prime, the first time I stuck this on a camera and went out I found myself shooting at 400 and then immediately had another shot that would have only worked at 200 and below. Now sure the 400 5.6L is also a great lens and makes a lot of people happy, all I'm saying is this lens is better in every way and if you can afford the difference then go for it.

The only downside is the 5.6 aperture, if you're shooting birds in flight it's not an issue but small land animals out of direct sunlight might be a problem if you want to stop action. Canon have mitigated this slightly with an amazing IS system but remember IS only stops your movement, not the subjects. The only advice I can offer is noise reduction is much better now than it was 5 years ago, you can deal with noise but you can't deal with a blurry subject.

Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro

This could be my least used lens through no fault of it's own. Before I purchased the 24-70 and 70-200 I owned a couple of primes to boost my image quality at a couple of focal lengths, after the upgrade this is my only prime at the time of writing. 

I strongly suggest everyone owns a macro lens if they get the chance, it's a very specific kind of photography that really throws all the rules on their head, this little review isn't the place to debate the pros and cons of macro photography in general so all I can say is for the price this is absolutely a great lens. The AF is a little slow but it's macro, half the time you focus with a rail or at least manual, the OS is a nice little addition too. If you don't have a 2.8 zoom this is a very very good portrait lens on FF or crop.