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Gear
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| Based on the rest of the site, by now it should be no suprise that as with every other hobby, I am becoming a real
"gearhead" with photographic equipment. Over in the Nikonians Forum it is referred to as "NAS" (Nikon Aquisition Syndrome) and is indeed a terrible affliction. |
| Below is a table of the gear aquired to date. Surprisingly, the majority of this equipment travels with me everywhere I go (provided I'm in the truck - on foot, the load is lightened and thus the multiple bags). |
| Although I most frequently pack it into the larger bags, I also use a huge Pelican 1780 transport case so I can get it all in a single load: |
And this is my normal summer load:
Since I get asked often enough, here is the 800mm mounted:
Obviously, this lens cannot be handheld.
New for 2008, the 200-400mm f/4 was to be a fast focusing replacement for the screwdriver-driven 80-400mm:
| However, it proved to be too bulky and heavy to pack as part of my normal hiking load and is only brought along when I know I'll need it. |
| As you will notice from the Gallery section, the majority of my photography is macro. Below is the equipment I use to capture these images. These pics used to be part of the gallery but added clutter so I moved them here. |
| The 90mm Tamron is used for images where I have reduced working space. |
| Often I will combine it with Kenko's Auto-Extension tube set to get magnification ratios of approximately 1.75:1 |
| Although I no longer own the Sigma 180mm f/3.5 Macro, the majority of the images captured in 2005 were taken with this lens. |
| The Nikkor 200mm f/4 replaced the 180mm Sigma in 2006 and is now is my workhorse and most used lens. |
| I aquired this PB-6 bellows from eBay along with the 28mm f/3.5 MF. With it I can get magnification up to 7x (see the image "salt" in the "Everything Else" section of the gallery for an example) |
| Because I often work handheld or off a monopod, most of my macro photography uses flash. However, unless the background is very close, it will go black and I try to avoid that look. To compensate, I use Nikon's CLS wireless flash system. The camera-mounted flash is the Commander and both illuminates my subject and sends information to the remote(s) to light the background (either a single SB600 or a pair of SB800s). Since quite often my subjects are perched on long-stemmed plants, I have to elevate the wireless flash. To do that, I epoxied a spike to an old aluminum monopod. This allows me to easily and quickly vary the height of the remote flash - very handy! |
This is Sony's NEX-5 "Interchangable Lens Camera" with a 16mm f2.8 lens:
| I bought it specifically to carry on my motorcycle since the SLRs are too large and too expensive to leave with the bike at all times. I researched a number of different point and shoot type cameras and in the end I chose this particular camera based on the sensor's physical size. Underneath that removable lens is a full-sized APS-C sensor! The same size as you would find in most DSLRs!
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| Although all of my Adventure Riding photography is done with a wide angle, I also decided to add Sony's 18-200mm "Optical Steady Shot" lens for a bit more versitility (moose on the road type of thing): |
I'm not normally a fan of the "super-zooms" but I think I can make an exception for this little fellow.