Battleangel | Personal

Camera upgrades. I found a reasonable deal for a (second hand) Canon EOS 40D with battery grip, a good walk-around lens (Tamron 17-50) and the Canon 100mm macro lens. More gear is on the way, but what I really need now is a good, sensible camera bag and a tripod. I’m thinking of the Manfrotto 055XPROB and 488RC2 ball head like many other macro photographers on a budget. As for a bag, I’m not so sure. Perhaps a Lowepro Mini Trekker would do the trick. I’d really prefer a “slingshot” style over-the-shoulder bag, but I have my doubts about carrying them for a prolonged time.

Here is an interesting sensor size comparison. The Canon 40D obviously has an APS-C sensor while my current point and shoot, the Canon 860IS, has a sensor size of just 1/2.5”. That is pretty measly even compared to my old Canon A80 which had a sensor size of 1/1.8”.

The 40D obviously isn’t state of the art anymore, but it nevertheless offers terrific value, especially second hand. It has a semi-pro feel to it, is insanely fast, has two control dials and offers tons of added bonuses like the C1-C3 custom modes on the program dial. Turns out these modes work even better than expected as they save not only the predictable stuff like shutter speed, aperture etc, but also menu settings like mirror lock-up and auto exposure bracketing. Settings that in all honesty are buried fairly deep within the menu system (even if you can of course put them on the “my menu” tab).