Digital Transition = Dough
Digital Phase II:
I splurged today on:
- WD MyBook 2 TB External Drive (that brings me up to something like 6 TBs of external storage).
- Firewire powered hub (8 sockets)
- 2nd 4 GB CF card (I’ve actually never gone through one card yet in a day)
- 20mm f2.8 Canon USM lens(I’ve owned this before. Not the greatest, but okay).
- 50mm f1.4 Canon USM lens (One of their best)
I looked at, and thought seriously about zooms, but they were either too slow, too big, or too expensive. Frankly, I’m pretty much of a one lens sort of guy. When I got back into shooting - I guess 20 years ago - I walked around with a used Canonet with one fixed lens (I think it was a little shorter than 50mm) - for an entire year. Yes, for an entire year I photographed with one lens and a $90 camera. Some of the shots are even in the for-sale gallery (such as Night Bus). So it’s not that strange that I’ve been shooting with the 30mm since I got the 40D - and now pick up two lenses that are sort of close in terms of focal length. The only time I get a hankering for other lenses is when I want to play with some effect - compression or expansion of space. But very few of these experiments have yielded any gold.
Anyway, I hooked up the 2 TB drive, setup the hub, and spent most of the day rearranging my backup scheme for the production files and the Lightroom catalogs. As many of readers know, this is my second infatuation with digital capture - first one was with the 20D roughly 2 1/2 years ago. This second go-around feels like it will last longer: maybe forever.
Improvements offered with the 40D, and Lightroom may have made this more than an infatuation. Oh, I don’t care anymore - no defense - I’m just doing what I want to.
Juicy »
Comments
Comment from dave beckerman
Time: February 25, 2008, 3:47 am
Craig / or anyone else - I was just curious, what’s the main difference(s) between the Nikon digital line such as the D30 & D3 compared to the Canon equivalents. Is it mostly a matter of ergonomics? I know what it is that I like about the Canon line, but honestly a lot of it is what I’m used to, and dials and switches being where I expect them to be.
Are there big differences between the two digital camera lines?
Comment from richo
Time: February 25, 2008, 2:23 pm
Was interesting question to compare D300 and 40D. I found this interesting and not too long reading:
http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/5062/nikon-d300-vs-canon-eos-40d-a-hands-on-workout.html
Comment from Stephen Bray
Time: February 25, 2008, 5:38 pm
You must have sold a lot of calenders to afford all that 
Stephen
Comment from dave
Time: February 25, 2008, 5:59 pm
Comment from peter in bangkok
Time: February 26, 2008, 3:23 pm
Re: one lens
I am on my 15th month with my 5D and a 35mm lens. I am perfectly happy with that. Makes my life more simple
peter
Comment from Craig Nisnewitz
Time: February 25, 2008, 3:24 am
Welcome back to the Digital Zone.
Sounds like you have the equipment under control.
You’re right, the zooms are slow but can be useful for daylight stuff, i.e. landscapes. For street work fast lenses are the norm. Have found myself using the 30 mm quite a bit because of the speed. Otherwise, a sigma 18 to 50 gets a lot of use.
Glad to hear that you did not sell the M6. I intend to use the Leicas and Bessas for B&W street stuff. I don’t have the patients to develop the film so I am using Ilford’s XP 2 Super. Any quick one hour lab can get it done OK as long as they don’t manually tuch the negatives.
Sounds like you have a lot of storage.