Greg’s Camera Bag
Like most folks who carry a “big” camera, I am frequently asked what I shoot with. Currently, I am all digital and have been since 2003. I suspect I will go back to all film, medium and large formats, pretty soon. But that’s another story!
I guess the first thing is my camera bag itself. I use a Lowepro backpack style. It offers good rain and moisture protection and can handle two bodies, my three main telephotos, filters, cleaning stuff, batteries, etc etc.
My primary “system” , (I prefer to think of camera and lens combos) is a Kodak Pro/c 14 mega pixel full frame with a Sigma 50-500mm f4-6.3. I’ve had the Kodak camera for a few years and it is still the greatest pixel camera available. It takes wonderful images with incredible color which is why I own it, but isn’t a “great” camera. It has a lot of faults, like it is slow, has a poor battery system and isn’t even made anymore. But, I bought it for the images.
The Sigma 50-500 is just incredible. I take almost all hand held shots so this big heavy and pretty fast lens is a must. I also frequently use a circular polarizer so the Sigma’s internal expansion is essential, plus, an expanding tube is a no-no for the hand held shooter. It also works with the full-frame sensor without significant (or even noticeable) vignette. This has been a problem for me with several other lenses and this camera.
The other guy is a Canon 40D coupled with a 28-300mm Tamron 3.5-6.3. There are already enough superlatives written about the 40D (I previously owned the 10D, 20D and 30D), though they don’t cover why I bought my 10D in the first place. At the time I lived in Kotzebue, Alaska just a tad north of the Arctic circle and 700 miles by air from the nearest lab. I needed a digital camera that would function at 50 below, well at least for a couple of shots. Only Canon’s battery system and CMOS sensor would cut the tundra.
I was sold on the 28-300mm doing some wedding photography. As far as I know no other lens puts so much into such a compact container. And it produces super sharp images, even wide open and is an easy carry on a mountain bike or kayak.
I have a couple other lenses I use with the 40D, the venerable 70-200mm 2.8 L IS and the kit 28-135mm 3.5-5.6 IS. I have to be honest and say I haven’t had the best luck with IS. Even though I hand hold I haven’t gotten the IS bug. The 70-200mm is especially for low light theater and dance photography. I was using a Tamron 200-400mmm 5.6. This worked great from the back row but took some timing shooting at 1/8th second. I still really love that old monster but it is poorly sealed and gets dusty. I do have a 50mm 1.8 standard lens and a 22-55mm 4-5.6 but I almost never use them. And a final contraption is a Tamron 1.4X multiplier which I carry but never seem to have a use for.
I do own a tripod, a QSX 9500, but it also doesn’t see much use. I also only use Sandisk Ultra II and III two gig cards. They are the only ones that have proven successful in my harsh environment. I carry quite a few because I always feared using larger cards. I know they can fail.