Money no object!

Glen

Glen

Uncle Glen
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Glen
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I had a quick look to see if this had been covered, but couldn't find anything...so I do apologise if its been done before.

If you were given £5000 to spend on a camera and lenses(to cover a good range) what would you get and why.

Finally if money were no object what would you then change? :ponders: or what would be your ultimate to die for kit.
 
That's easy, 1D MkII N, 28-105, 70-200 F2.8 and 100-400. 24-70 would be nice in there but the budget would be tight.

Money no object? Pretty much the same.
 
Sticking to £5000:
Canon 1D MKIIn £2379
Canon 580EX Speedlite £289
24-105 f4 L £681
70-200 f2.8 L IS £1299
Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6 £319


If money truly was no object, add Canon 17-40 f4 L, and a Canon 100-400 IS, maybe swap the 24-105 f4 IS for a 24-70 f2.8, and a spare body (probably 1Ds MKII). Also a small bag of 4Gb Sandisk Extreme IIIs, and an Epson P-4000 photoviewer). Also a 1.4x and a 2.0x extender.
 
Nikon D200 (skills don't justify above this ;) )
Nikon 17-55 f2.8
Nikon 70-200 VR
Nikon 12-24
Nikon macro lens of some kind

plus money left in bank ;)
 
Canon 300mm F/2.8 L - £2,639.99
Canon 17-40mm F/4 L - £475.99
Canon 70-200mm F/2.8L IS - £1,028.99
Canon 85mm f/1.8 - £243.99
Canon 50mm f/1.4 - £234.99

Canon 580EX Speedlite - £243.99

£4,867.94

I'd keep my lovely 350d body :D
 
I'm very happy with the gear I have at the moment, but time and technology has a way of leaving all gear in it's wake. The original Canon 1DS was about £6.5K, body only, but those 11 million pixels don't seem quite so impressive now, do they?

I have a bit of a gap in my lens range which I need to fill, but other than that, I would go for a really long fast lens for wildlife, if money was no object, but unfortunately - it is, so it's debatable if I could ever justify it.
 
Thats way too conservative, lets say I've just won the euro millions and I'm giving to TPF Mods...What would you get!!!
 
Canon 50mm 1.8 - £70
Canon 17-40mm F/4 L - £480
Canon 70-200mm F/2.8L IS - £1000
Canon 580EX - £240
Canon 20D Body - £700

=£2490

I'd then spend £2510 on tuition :)
 
Ok I'll play. I'd get a 1DS Mark2 for back-up, and probably the whole of the Canon L lens range. There isn't much more than that that I'd really need, so then I'd probably fulfill a lifetime ambition and start buying Leicas, which I'd rarely use but just look at 'em and polish 'em. :D
 
used 1DMkIIn £2000
used DCS560 £300
new 70-200 2.8IS £1100
new 17-40 £480
new Sigma 10-10 £320
new 580ex, 420ex, st-e2 £600
bag, tripod, CF, AAs, filters.

Money no object
1DsMkII
1DMkIIn
30D
300 L 2.8
70-200 L 2.8IS
24-70 L
16-35 L
10-20
580EX x 2, st-e2
 
Money no object?

I'd hire Andy Rouse to take all my shots and Scott Kelby to post process them.
I'd build a bar in the house, stock it up, get sozzled every night and post the shots in all the forums under the pretence I'd taken them.
 
Bachs said:
Money no object?

I'd hire Andy Rouse to take all my shots and Scott Kelby to post process them.
I'd build a bar in the house, stock it up, get sozzled every night and post the shots in all the forums under the pretence I'd taken them.
Click to expand...

Judging by some of the cracking shots I've seen you post I thought thats what you did anyway;)
 
DJW said:
Nikon D200 (skills don't justify above this ;) )
Nikon 17-55 f2.8
Nikon 70-200 VR
Nikon 12-24
Nikon macro lens of some kind

plus money left in bank ;)
Click to expand...

What Dave said, but I'd blow the remainder on hookers and drugs :dizzy:
 
Linhof Technikardan S 45 £1775
Wide Angle Bellows £224
Tele/Macro Bracket £121
Schneider - Apo Symmar 120/f5.6 L £400
Schneider - Apo Symmar 210/f5.6 L £615
Schneider - 400/f5.6 Apo Tele Xenar £930
Schneider - Super Angulon XL 47/f5.6 X £775
Polaroid 545 Pro instant film holder £145

.... which leaves £15 for down the pub. :D

edit...forgot the why bit.

The Technikardan is still the nicest 5x4 camera I've seen. It has almost unlimited movements, locks solidly, it's pretty light for a fully metal camera and it's very quick to set up and use. I use Schneider lenses on my Cambo 5x4 and I've yet to see anything that can hold a candle to them so I'd stick with them for my field set up to.

If it was a completely unlimited budget, I'd chuck in a couple of tripods and heads, something to cover every possible occasion. Probably another 5x4 body like a mahogany Ebony, several more lenses, loads more Lee filters and the very best scanner out there.

Oh and why not throw in a 10x8 camera kit too. You just cannot beat B&W contact prints at 10x8. :cool: :D
 
Get a 2nd-hand Jobo film processor and a Nikon Coolscan so I could go back to film.
 
AF-S Nikkor 500mm f/4D IF-ED II £4995

and if i was allowed the extra a d2x would do nicely :)

as a sensible sugesstion i think daves d200 and lenses are a perfect way to spend it.
 
Get the D2x and hire the lens when you need it...
 
i was playing with one today, they use them in the medical photography department in our hospital. i was loitering around waiting for a patient and thought id pop in. the girl running it was very nice and let me play with it and take a couple of shots, i see what you mean about it handling well.... mmmnnnn. i had a go with the d1x too which she preferred, that was nice too and they're only £800 s/h which would allow me to spend my £5000 on a 300mm f2.8 and a 1.7x tc :)
 
I have a D1x for sale if you want - £800 sound about right... :D
 
sorry but i refuse to answer the question. :D

This reminds me of days dragged round the high street window shopping, " oh if we had enought that suite would look good in our house" and oh i wish i coudl afford that STOP DONT DO IT

IF YOU GOT NO CASH YOU CANT SPEND SO DONT WASTE TIME, IF YOU HAVE CASH THEN BRAG ABOUT YOUR LENSES, MAKE US SICK FAIR ENOUGH. :D

/me looks at ashtray and cries
 
My intention was not for window shopping purposes, but, because most of you are pros in the photography field, I just wanted your opinions on what you would buy. Hopefully if I can become better and increase my abilities in taking pics, I will eventually want to upgrade my kit and getting this info always helps. Thats why I put 'what would you have and WHY?'
 
Although we joke about this stuff a lot - it really does come down to what you are happy using.

I would dearly love to go out with nothing but my old Leica and a 35mm lens. But in today's marketplace that's hopelessly unrealistic.

Unless you intend to make a living at this and need the very best and robust kit, don't buy it - buy what you need and what makes you happiest using.

I know many Pros who buy well below the top-end models because thay simply do not need all that extra redundancy - why would a Wedding Photographer need a D2X when a D200 will do the job at a fraction of the price?
 
In everyones opinion, has digital matched film yet, if not how far has it still got to go?
 
Yes it has - I think Canon did a thing where they proved that 14Mpi was the equivalent of Kodachrome 25 (the old benchmark for quality and no longer with us, I'm afraid).

But it's all a bit more complicated - because film grain is random and pixels are arranged in linear fashion, the Lines-per-Inch resolved by even grainy film is better than even very hi-res digi as the matrix pattern interferes somehow with the lines on the test target. If you look at the circular patterns on test sheets, even 8Mpi digi seems to resolve higher than film.

If I can find the links, I'll post them later.
 
Glen said:
In everyones opinion, has digital matched film yet, if not how far has it still got to go?
Click to expand...

I thnk in terms of 35mm style SLR's, digital is now way beyond film. Although you wont have to search far on the net to find studies suporting either side.

In the medium format digi back world, I think they saw off 120 film around the 17/22 megapixel mark (the big advance here was true 16bit capture). I Think that 5x4 film is still out ahead but not for long now.
 
oooh now thats a very big can, i'm happy with it compared to my experience with film. but like said above i used 35mm, not the larger formats so i dont know how they compare
 
I've got a Pentax 6x7 and used a Hasselblad for quite a long time in the past - I reckon the D1x was as good as medium format for most of the time - and the D2x is definitely way better.
We can print up to A0 with full photo-quality with the right printer.
 
I've got a Pentax 6x7 and used a Hasselblad for quite a long time in the past - I reckon the D1x was as good as medium format for most of the time - and the D2x is definitely way better.
Click to expand...

I find that quite surprising.

I don't really know anything about Nikon stuff but I do know that shots from my little Bronica SQ are still better than the EOS 1D II.
 
A lot of it depends on the film you use and the way the film's processed - I used Ilford FP4 developed in D76/ID11 at 1:3 dilution. This gave me very fine-grained negs. I printed on Ilford Galerie using a cold-cathode enlarger (which some would say is ALL WRONG, but sod 'em).
Most of my work was very Low-Key - subdued lighting and printed quite dark.

I just find that with the D2x I really have the flexibility to do all that I could with the 6x7 and more. Maybe if you enlarged up to ma-hoosive size, the 6x7 would have the edge, but at 16x12" there's no discernable difference.
 
but at 16x12" there's no discernable difference.
Click to expand...

I'd agree totally with that. I've been more than happy with the 1D up to and a bit beyond that range.

As for the FP4 stuff, I always hated it with a passion. Although like you, lots of people seemed to be able to get great results with it, I never could.

Was more of a T-pan man myself. Of course that's gone the way of many great films now. :sadcry:
 
I still have a freezer full of T-Max and XP-2... God knows if that'll ever get used up...
 
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