My New Girlfriend: Canon 5D with 24-105 f/4L

[articulate]

As if married life and fatherhood were boring enough, I picked up a little gumar (definition) on the side: a gorgeous Canon 5D and 24-105 f/4L lens.

If you've been paying attention around ExPo for a few months, I know what you're thinking: What’s the world come to? First KC bought a fridge, then Scotty B got a Mac, and now Mark - of all people! - has gone digital.

Dave in Denver is the last of the piss-n-vinegar film shooters on ExPo. (my glass is raised)


Geez, look what this stuff does to a man. Familiar with Gollum from the Lord of the Rings?

I took the advice of many shooters, saved my dollars, and held out for the 5D. The intensive thread is here. I came very close to purchasing a 30D a while back, and then almost went with the 40D two weeks ago. The 5D won for the full frame sensor, and more robust construction.

Here’s what I know so far: white balance, what a pain. But what a meaty camera! I should weigh this thing. The weight alone gives the impression that what you hold in your hand is an extraordinary piece of equipment.

Since I don’t have a camera than can shoot a digital picture of my new digital camera, you’re going to have to trust me that these came from a fancy new Canon 5D with a beautiful 24-105 f/4L lens.

I remember Pasquale with kindness when he said (ain't no lie):

If you get a 5D before the 30D, its just gonna piss off all of us. :shakin:

 

[Streakerfreak]

Dave in Denver is the last of the piss-n-vinegar film shooters on ExPo. (my glass is raised)

Still got another "piss-n-vinegar" film shooter here:wavey: I actually still use 4x5 sheet film all the time. Nice shots with the camera though:26_7_2: .

 

[WhereTheHellIsJames?]

oooooooohhhh! 5D... you're stoked! It's always great to pick up a new camera, especially when you get new glass too!

 

[Robthebrit]

Its a great camera, I love mine. It's more camera than I need but I wanted the full frame.

Rob

 

[tdesanto]

Congrats, Mark.

I know you're gonna have a lot of fun.

Can't wait to see more images.

 

[Desertdude]

ya went and drank the coolaid

Congratulations... That camera in your hands will lead to many superb photographs and a cover shot on Overland Journal :bigbossHL:

:Astrologist: Way to Invest in your future.



:::

 

[Overland Hadley]

Dave in Denver is the last of the piss-n-vinegar film shooters on ExPo. (my glass is raised)

I use 4x5 sheet film. Good stuff.

 

[bigreen505]

Congratulations Mark! Now get yourself and AF adapter and hang some real glass in front of that sensor -- you know the kind that says Leica. Zeiss is okay too. eepwall:

 

[Streakerfreak]

I use 4x5 sheet film. Good stuff.

Sweet:exclaim: But it does get expensive, hence why most photographers are switching to Digital.

 

[cshontz]

Very cool, Mark. Congrats! But this means you'll miss out on all of those wonderful EF-S lenses, and you'll have to suffer L glass... forever!

Also, I'm appalled by the orientation of your "Nitrocharger Shock" label. Grab it with both hands, and give 'er a twist for down under, mate.

 

[alvarorb]

Mark,

Beautiful camera. White Balance it's not so bad when you shoot RAW and edit it in Aperture or Adobe Light Room.
It's one of those things that if you have to get as part your digital photography arsenal.

Correcting WB on with Aperture is a breeze. I've given up taking shots with the flash indoors at night. I much rather use Aperture to get the right temperature on my shots.

Regards

Alvaro

 

[kcowyo]

Ok, I'm PO'd.....

That's a big jump to go from shooting film to the 5D. But if you're gonna make the leap to digital, make it big.

While I eagerly anticipate seeing those photos you take that make me think, "How'd he do that?", I'm really interested in reading your first hand accounts of making the swap to shooting digital. And I've read the clinical reviews of the Canon 5D, so just tell me what you really think.

Congrats on the new paramour. She's hot - :jumping:

 

[Streakerfreak]

Just before Christmas, the shop I use had a D1x and a couple of D200s. I came sort of close to trying the D1x at home, since it was about $600 (sorta close to what I might be able to spend) and had no issues with my lack of auto focus lenses. It was obviously a well used camera, probably a working pro. But it did seem to have that aura of quiet confidence that old Nikons have. That look of being there, doing that. It seemed tough even.

But, Mark, it felt so wrong. How did your real cameras take the news?

I put the D1x back on the counter and went home. I took a moment to look at my trusty FM3a (wow, has it been 5 joyous years already?), that battlewagon that is the FTn, my very unassuming XA and our oh so seductively sexy family heirloom Deutsch Entfernungsmesser. It made me a little sad to consider if I got a digital SLR that these testaments to engineering and manufacturing perfection, pure industrial art even, might go unused. To deny these machines their purpose seems to me to be like asking Coppola not to make the Godfather or Leonardo da Vinci not to paint The Last Supper. I shudder to think of all the OM-1s and AE-1s, the F2s and FMs and Nikkormats and the countless other models that will be forgotten to time that are sitting on shelves, waiting for their moments to shine but only finding use as toys for sticky little hands as play things for children.

Or a worse fate that I cannot imagine.

No sir, I will not, nay can not, allow the connection that joins Mathew Brady to Karl Blossfeldt to Edward Weston to Ansel Adams to Henri Cartier-Bresson to Bill Brandt to be thrown out like old rubbish. People worked hard for decades to perfect the silver halide crystal process and dammit, I'm going to go down with the ship until the last one is dead.

So enjoy your 5D, it will make beautiful digital images in your hands. But as you're huddled around a slide show by the warm glow of a CRT or LCD screen, remember fondly your days of making photographs and don't forget to once in a while exercise the shutters of the cameras that will be waiting expectantly to show you the joy of simplicity, the suspense of sometimes not knowing, the exhilaration of getting back those chromes with the beautiful deep tones that took chemists 60 years to dial in. Remember how you could radically change the whole character of your sensor with a new roll of film. Sorry, I'm just too much of a luddite to truly enjoy the act of 'imaging' a scene, seems rather detached and cold if you ask me. Give me the barely audible wisp of a M3 shutter and almost sensual feel of a Nikon F advance lever any day over the beeping and clatter of a modern digital camera.

Wow, nice! Pretty funny too. I guess I have the same feelings toward the whole digital world. When I try to use a DSLR it feels so detached from me, but when I hold my Minolta Autocord

in my hands it becomes a part of me. I become so detached from a DSLR that my work with them is purely amateur, not so with my 35mm and medium and large format camera. I can't give my babies up.

Anyways, enjoy your new camera and post up some more images when you take them.

 

[kcowyo]

"Hi I'm DaveinDenver, and I'll be your server today. Our special today is 'Buyers Remorse'. It comes smothered in guilt with a nice regret medley and a side of sorrow. The dessert of the day is repentance pie."

Would you like to see a menu?"


:chowtime:

 

[DaveInDenver]

So do you think it worked, K.C.? He's probably out taking pictures like crazy and won't even notice the thread anymore. I've always liked Mark's style, he'll make the most of his new gadget.

I don't have a singular issue with digital cameras, they are tools like any other. I just don't like using them and feel I do better by slowing down and not firing off 10,000 images at a time, but stopping and thinking about the photograph before tripping the shutter. I think it's a style thing, I also don't care for autofocus and program exposure modes either.

Hi, I'm Dave, I don't like change and modern things scare me.









I also secretly really want a D3...