About my digital photography equipment…
Besides information on shooting digital infrared photography, what I’m asked most often is what equipment I use.
While it’s true I love gear and gadgets, the most valuable piece of photographic equipment you can own is your your brain – because you can seriously take a fine photograph with a shoebox and a page of film! But without a thought, or a creative idea there will be no photograph.
But having said that, my digital photography equipment as of October 2020, in the camera bag consists of
- a full frame Nikon Z6 mirrorless digital camera,
- Sony a6000 mirrorless digital camera,
- 2 digital SLR bodies (Nikon D800, D300),
- my old trusty Nikon D70 converted to a dedicated digital infrared camera,
- a GoPro hero 8 Black,
- many filters and lenses,
- 3 tripods,
- MANY memory cards,
- a flashlight,
- a few handmade odds and ends.
In the studio – my digital darkroom – my photography equipment is a Dell desktop computer, Acer laptop, iPad Pro, 2 portable wireless drives for in-the-field storage, lots of software and a Nikon slide scanner.
Here’s the detailed list of my digital photography equipment.
Amazon.com Widgets
DIGITAL CAMERAS
I’ve gone mirrorless!
I’m loving my Nikon Z6 (with FTZ Adapter and 24-70 F4 S Lens) which I have been using since the spring. It’s the BEST camera I have ever used, for the type of photography I shoot. I also love that it’s small enough to take on all kinds of hikes without adding weight, although I still use my 14 – 24 f2.8 wide angle which has to be the heaviest wide angle lens on the planet!
1 Nikon D800 body – I have recently sold this baby in my quest to fully downsize to the mirrorless format. Sony Alpha a6000 and kit lens.Nikon D70 converted to a dedicated infrared camera
CAMERA LENSES
Full Frame Digital Camera Lenses
Nikon 14-24 mm f 2.8 FX wide angle lens. This is THE KILLER lens for landscapes, old abandoned buildings, and nature photography! I will be trading it in for the new Z version this winter. Any one want to buy it?
Nikon 28-300 FX multipurpose zoom lens
Sigma 105 mm macro
AF Nikkor 50mm f1.8
Crop Sensor Lenses
Nikkor DX 18-70 f 3.5-4.5 ED
Nikkor 12- 24 DX
Nikkor AF DX 10.5 mm f2.8 ED fisheye
CAMERA FILTERS
SinghRay vary ND neutral density filterSeveral Hoya Circular Polarizer Filters
Hoya 1B (skylight) filters for all lenses (except the fisheye, which has a rear slot for filters)
OTHER STUFF in MY CAMERA BAG
A home made sun reflector from some copper foil and duct tape
Home made macro backgrounds
Mini Mag lite
Lexar CF cards, Sony XQD cards, and an unthinkable number of SD cards!
Lens paper
Lens cleaner
Giottos Rocker Blower
Nikon infrared remote control for the D70.
TRIPODS and stuff
Sirui Carbon fibre tripod and ball head*An ancient Manfrotto tripod with a pan head
A cheap London Drugs generic tripod for Sony, GoPro and iPhone shots
2 Nodal Ninja Panorama tripod heads
2 large beanbags (homemade) for stabilizing my camera when a tripod won’t do, or isn’t available.
And finally…
MY ACTUAL CAMERA BAG
OLD: Crumpler “Company Embarrassment” waterproof camera bag (love the name!) which I loved to begin with eventually became my embarrassment. I seriously out grew this bag very quickly unfortunately. One of the things I did NOT like was the lack of outside pockets or straps. There’s no room for a water bottle or even a place to hold a map, never mind a rain jacket. They don’t even sell it any more but for some reason it is still in my cupboard. If you want this camera bag shoot me an email…
NEW! I found my dream camera bag!!!! It’s almost better than finding your soulmate. Really. I’m so excited by this camera bag, it has it’s own story and page. See it here–>
But gear is not so important – in fact when I made my submission to the Professional Photographers of Canada to become accredited, most of the photographs were made with wither an old Minolta XG7 (film) or the Olympus 5050 point & shoot. Only 3 of the 10 were taken with the Nikon D70 – and all were accepted and I received high marks for every one of them.
In 2012 when I won Manitoba Photographer of the Year, 3 of the 4 images I submitted were shot on my iPhone.
Now, I’m not intending to brag about my photography here, but I mention it only to underline the point that it is NOT the digital photography equipment that makes the photographer.
So if you don’t have the latest and greatest gear; or think that your camera is not able to make winning photographs, don’t buy into the marketing hype. And especially don’t let that false insecurity stop you from going out everywhere with your camera and taking shots. Just get out and do it – the more you shoot the better you’ll get. It’s really not your digital photography equipment that will make the big difference.