There was a time when I had over $6,000 worth of camera gear sitting in my computer room. I love photography, and having a whole kit full of professional lens is great to have, but it’s not really very practical to lug that much gear around, especially if you’re trying to travel light. I’ve spent a lot of time over these last few months thinking about what type of camera gear to bring. My first plan was to simply take along a high-end point and shoot camera and make due with that. Given that my old Canon Digital Elph was dying, I went out and bought one of the nicest compact cameras I could ...

Yesterday, after dropping Boris off at his place so that he could get ready to go to Spain, I went down to Broadway Camera to see if I could play around with a Canon EOS 40D camera. I had called the day before to see if I could actually purchase one, but unfortunately they said they were already completely sold out. So imagine my surprise when, after asking if they had any in stock (which was basically a rhetorical question for me), they said “yeah, we have one here.” Unfortunately for me it was the box that contained the kit-lens, when I really wanted to just purchase the body only. The lens ...

I got a call from Canon today about my lens with water vapour in it. They verdict: completely unfixable. To be honest, I’m a bit pissed off. When I shipped it out to them, I followed it up with a call telling them it was rather urgent, and they needed to get to it first since it concerned water damage. The lady on the phone told me they were 5 days behind, and there was nothing she could do. Anyways, when they finally get to it, it was corroded inside and not worth fixing. The replacement cost of the new lens is around $1600, so I’m going to be submitting my first ever insurance claim. The ...

I’ve been meaning to write a post like this for a long time, so here goes. I’ve been into digital photography for around seven years now, but I would only really say I have taken it seriously since acquiring my digital SLR approximately three years ago. Years ago I would say digital photography is a hobby of mine, today I would say that it’s my passion. Truth is, I love taking photos. I love the challenge associated with finding a subject, figuring out how to best represent that subject, framing the subject, and then ultimately spending time on my computer later re-factoring the shot ...

I got my first roll back of Ilford XP2 back from development. My overall impression of it is pretty good – the grain is pretty light for ISO 400 (at least my memory of what ISO 400 was). It’s not as contrasty as I normally like, and I bumped the contrast up slightly before posting them, but it’s not that bad. The dynamic range is pretty decent, and the only shots that it struggled with were taken outside in the sun. All in all, I’m impressed enough that I’ll give it another go. Kris Krug snapped a few of these, so check out the actual flickr site for more info. ...

Today after work I dropped off my first roll of film to be developed. It was a 36 shot roll of Ilford XP2, and it’s probably the only black and white roll I’ve ever shot in my entire life, now that I think about it. The neat thing about this roll is that you can develop it in C41 chemistry (used for colour print film), which means you can basically get it developed anywhere in the city for next to nothing. I also have a few rolls of pure black and white to shoot, so I think it will be a useful comparison. I asked the ladies down at Custom Colour if the XP2 was noticeably different than the ...

Tonight I did something that I’ve been thinking of doing for a few weeks now — I picked up a film SLR body so that I could once again shoot film. And to even write that statement down now seems a bit weird, since I left the world of film years ago, thinking I would never ever shoot a roll of film again in my life. However, a lot of friends of mine who are into photography have started dabbling once again in the forbidden art, and it has caused me to take it seriously once again. I have no idea if it will last long with me, but it’s definitely cool enough to keep me entertained for a ...

Back in December of 2000, while home in Chilliwack visiting my family for Christmas, I made the digital plunge. I was in London Drugs, looking around the electronics section for something bright and shiny to make me happy, and my eyes settled on the first real section of digital cameras ever to hit the market. For the most part, most of those cameras were nothing more than glorified webcams — they took grainy photos, and really didn’t have any options. However, one in particular stood out above the rest. It was the Nikon Coolpix 880, and it became my first digital camera. I shot all my photos ...

So, I gotta hand it to my pal Kris — he’s managed to get me interested in something I never thought I’d be interested in again — film photography. Kris is a really awesome fashion photographer here in Vancouver, and his stuff never ceases to amaze me. What’s interesting about Kris, and a variety of the local photographers I’ve met recently, is that they have started shooting film again. Which is sort of surprising, given the focus local photography shops seem to place on digital nowadays (I called several local stores recently to talk about film, and most of them didn’t even have ...

Canon has noticeably lagged in releasing new DSLRS, especially on the higher end versions. To their credit, they did a big upgrade to the Digital Rebel line earlier this year with the Rebel XTi. This is a great camera that improves on a few areas that the 20D/30D had, even though it’s considered part of their consumer lineup. Some of the nicest changes in my mind for the XTi are: The ability to view the ISO in the viewfinder. On the 20D, you have to hunt for it Larger LCD screen over the 20D Canon sensor cleaning system I consider the last one very important. I’m very careful when I change ...

I’m now the proud owner of my first L-series lens: the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L. I’m just charging my 20D now, and then I’m heading out for a couple hours of shooting to see what this puppy can do (or can’t do maybe). Look for a few pictures later tonight or tomorrow. Update — I’m back, and I took some photos.. I found out that flickr doesn’t support the Adobe colour profile, which is why alot of my photos end up looking washed out on there.. I’m going to have to start shooting in sRGB again I think. ...