No, this was not my gift to Vidya! This is my beloved, gifting me my dream camera... I might be wrong, but I have a sneaking feeling she is being a little facetious in the way she is showing affection to my new toy? Hmmm. You think?
Today, as you know, is Valentine's Day. It also so happens to be the day we decided that it would make a lot of business sense to invest in a 5D MkII. I have been dreaming of this camera for a long time, and had always put it in the "buy after you make some money from photos" basket. However, it became apparent that for my first paid gig, I would need either a very wide lens, or a full-frame camera. Seeing as though a good quality wide lens for an APS-C camera is worth quite a bit, AND I needed a second camera body anyway, AND I have a 24-105mm f/4L lens already, it just made more sense to pick up a 5D MkII.
I was also going to wait until the announcement of this camera's successor, so that the price would drop a little. However I managed to get this on sale (due to the prediction of the announcement being sometime soon) and I have frankly given up waiting. I am also very VERY lucky that JB Hi-Fi do interest free payments :)
So, now I have in my possession a 5D MkII. I have high hopes for this toy. Everyone I speak to has no shortage of praise and superlatives for this camera. Some even go as far as to say it is better than... umm, ok, moving on.
I did happen upon a cynical thought pop into my head during the inward debating that took place over the last few days in order to come to the decision to make this purchase. The thought was... just how stupid is it that so many people still discuss camera lens angles of view in terms relative to 35mm film, or "full-frame"? Ok, we sort of need some point of comparison, and ten years ago when average Joe photo enthusiest was buying consumer digital SLRs, he knew film and needed a reference point, so comparing to film made perfect sense. But, now let's be honest, how many of you dSLR toting people out there have ever shot, or really remember how to shoot, film format? Or own a full-frame camera? Yes, maybe 10% of dSLR users?
I have shot film. Until 2006 that is all I shot. However, since then I have only shot on APS-C sensors, with the occasional film and the odd 120 medium format film. I think and see in "crop sensor" format. For me to predict how my photos on my 5D would look, I have to imagine them in APS-C format! Thus my 24-105mm lens is really a 15-65mm lens in APS-C terms.... on the 60D it is apparently a 38-170mm lens in full frame terms, but that means nothing to most of us these days. To most of us we know how a 24-105mm will look on APS-C. That is our new reference point. Not a big deal. Or is it?
Just a thought.
YN460II in softbox gridded, at 2:00, YN460II in beautydish 6:00. YN460II with green gel and sto-fen type diffuser behind model pointed at wall. There was also a YN460II in gridded softbox at 10:00, however it didn't fire in this pic - all the batteries seem to have given up at the same time, so tomoz will be a crazy "charge all batteries" day....
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