Let's talk about gear...

Ok, so I'd love to hear from you guys what kind of gear do you use? Now just to clear up any confusion, I'm talking about photography gear and not drugs. Although heroin is surprisingly moreish...

I personally have a Canon 700D and I find it to be a great little camera.

Sure it's not the highest spec in terms of ISO or pixels, but it's very affordable and it has done the job for me in a multitude of situations. As you may know, I primarily shoot rock shows. These tend to be quite dark and as such I need a setup to suit. So my go to lens is the Canon 17-55mm F2.8. If you take anything more than a 2.8 to a show, other than a fisheye, good luck. As my camera is a crop sensor, meaning that you have to multiply the focal length by 1.6, it equates to almost a 24-70mm lens, which is the standard for music photographers.

This lens is about as professional as you can get without shelling out for a Canon L lens.

Aside from that I have a few more lenses that I use for specific situations. I have the standard kit lens that came with my camera but I never use it. I have nothing against it, a kit lens can produce amazing shots, it all depends on the photographer at the end of the day. However the lenses I have bought since, eclipse its focal lengths.

The others include a brilliant, and award winning, macro lens from Sigma. It's a 105mm F2.8 and can produce unbelievable 1:1 images as well as being a great portrait lens. A lot of people are wary of buying macro lenses as they think that macro is all they can do. This is simply not true. They are normal lenses for every day use that just happen to be able to focus really close up as well.

Next up I have my trusty Canon 50mm F1.4. This is a great little lens because it sits between the cheaper F1.8 and the ludicrously expensive F1.2. The build quality is great, much better than the F1.8 and only slightly lagging behind the F1.2. But I believe this is the best of both worlds. It's pretty affordable, well built and can capture amazing bokeh (quality of the out-of-focus- areas). Ok, so the F1.2 is the bokeh king but the depth of field at F1.2 is so narrow that the slightest movement can render even the greatest shot to the recycle bin. You basically have to be very rich and very good at photography to get the best out of the F1.2. For the general public, the F1.4 is the best compromise in my opinion.

My penultimate lens is the aforementioned fish-eye. It's probably the least used lens I have but I still love the unique way it shows me the world. It's an Opteka 6.5mm F3.5 manual aperture lens. On my crop sensor it gives you a full view of the world very close up and creates pleasingly distorted images like this...

The last lens in my artillery is one of the best. It's the Canon 70-300mm F4-5.6 L lens.

It's my only Canon L lens and I love it. Sure it's expensive and it doesn't have the 2.8 aperture of the 70-200mm but it makes up for it in image quality. If you're shooting in daylight, this lens is amazing. The auto-focus is fantastic and the quality of the shot and the bokeh is mind-blowing. The extra reach on the crop sensor is fantastic and it is great for wildlife shots.

So that's about it for my camera and lenses. I hope you've enjoyed seeing the main equipment that enables me to do what I do. I really look forward to seeing what you guys use and any tips or tricks you may have. Thank you and I'll see you in the next one...

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