This & That: Still making mistakes....

This & That

Still making mistakes....

I used to work with a lawyer who liked to say 'Too soon we grow old, too late we grow smart'. All too true.

Since moving away from film, I have always used Canon digital SLRs, starting with an EOS D30, followed by a 10D and a 20D and a small selection of Canon L series lenses. If you use L series lenses you will know the problem: buy one and you are hooked, the image quality is unbelievable.

I started off with a 17-40mm, followed by a 200mm f/2.8 (not sure why I bought a fixed length prime, but the results were worth the non-zoom restriction), a 70-200mm f/4 and, finally, a 24-105mm. The downside was that this kit is heavy and I got tired of carrying it around; at the end of 2010, I decided that it was time to go for something lighter, and I sold the Canon gear.

Canon 5D and 24-104mm f/4 L

In the time since I bought the lenses, prices had risen to the extent that I was selling used lenses for more than I had originally paid for them! Buyers were nearly biting my hand off, so I could clearly have asked for more. In the event, the cash from the Canon kit bought me another shotgun to add to the collection, with enough left over for a replacement camera.

After reading around, I chose the Panasonic Lumix GF1 with the 14-42mm and 14-140mm lenses. In terms of image quality the results were great, but - and it's a big but - the issue is the rear-mounted viewfinder screen.

External rear screens are fine except when the sun is directly ahead, directly behind or 90 degrees off to one side. Under those circumstances, the sun shines either directly into your eye or reflects off the screen making viewfinding impossible. 'Transitions'-type lenses which darken automatically in sunlight also render the rear screen unusable. Add to that the fact that I wear bifocals and, to see the screen in focus, I have to tip my head uncomfortably far back

On the basis that the slip-on electronic viewfinder would be an improvement, I bought one (£140). The lack of resolution - not bad in itself, but poor in comparison with a genuine optical viewfinder - and the delay in reverting to the through-the-lens view after a photo was taken, convinced me that rear screen/external electronic viewfinder cameras are simply not for me.

The GF1 was sold on for a good price (I'm good at selling cameras!) and replaced by a Lumix G1, with SLR-type eye level viewfinder, so that I could continue to make use of the Panasonic lenses. Better, but not the answer.

Well it's taken me 12 months, but it's been a learning - or do I mean, confirmatory? - experience.
The answer is remarkably simple: if you want to take decent pictures you need a decent camera, and for me that's a genuine SLR with an optical viewfinder.

I've just been offered a Canon 5D at a great price and I'm back on the trail of some L series lenses, starting with a 24-105. I think I just heard a little voice say: 'Welcome home!'