2021 Gear Update!
It’s that time again!
2021 is has come and gone and, as such, I thought that we ought to revisit what gear I’m using these days as this has changed significantly in the past year!
THE LIST UPDATED LIST
Drone
NONE! - I’m always going to keep it real with you. The drone that I had last year (DJI Mavic Air 2 Fly More Combo) just didn’t do it for me. After extensive use, I realized that the low-light performance of this machine just wasn’t up to par with what I needed. Images were grainy and had wayyyyyy too much noise. The reason why is the sensor was entirely too small. NOW… with that being said, I love DJI and I have every intention on picking up the new DJI Mavic 3 Cine Premium Combo. The specs are phenomenal and I have had great results from the Mavic 2 .
*NEW* Lighting
*NEW* Westcott FJ400 2-Light Location Kit - I finally did it! I bit the bullet and bought the Westcott FJ 400 lighting setup that I wanted! I decided to go all out and get the 2 light setup with the Octa-M and Strip Bank! The kit is massive. It’s in a rolling case that’s bigger than my golf bag. However, you literally have everything in there, so it’s totally worth it! This kit works out of the box with most camera platforms, however, if you are a Sony user like myself, make sure you pick up the $20 adapter required to use it! I’ll be posting an in-depth review shortly once I give it a few rides around the ole proverbial block!
***NOTE: I ended up picking up a third strobe, another stand, and another 1x3 Strip Bank as I decided that it would be necessary to meet my needs!***
Cameras
*NEW* Sony a7R IV- After a full year of being an ex-Canon fanboy and being fully on board the Sony train, I know that there is no turning back. As such, I decided to upgrade my main body from the a7R II to the a7R IV. 61 megapixels of Sony goodness made it totally worth it and I don’t regret this for a second! *The link to this product shows the a7R IVa because Sony updated the body but it’s essentially the same camera!
*NEW* GoPro Hero 9 Black - Short and sweet: this was a Christmas gift from my amazing girlfriend. I use it to document various events from otherwise hard to capture angles. I have a very interesting project revolving around the Montreal Metro that I plan on shooting and I’ll be documenting it with this bad boy!
Lenses
Sony 85mm f/1.8 - This is such a buttery smooth lens! Perfect for portraits as well as detail shots in nature/ street photography! That super low 1.8 makes all of the difference when shooting in lower light situations. I will say, I have future plans to change my lens set up due to overlapping focus lengths between lenses, but for this year, this remains in my bag as it is my number one “go to” lens more often than not!
Sony 16-35mm f/4 (Vario-Tessar T*) - OK, let me admit that this lens came with the a7R II kit that I bought and I would most likely use the f/2.8 GM lens if I was buying one outright, but this lens is fantastic in most lighting situations! As a matter of fact, this banner image was taken with th16-35mm f/4 lens with the aperture all the way open! I’d say it works pretty dang great!
*NEW* Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 (GM) - Slowly but surely I’m collecting all of my grail lenses… call me the Thanos of the Photography World. Don’t let me collect them all or it will be game over for all of you! On a serious note, this lens is everything. Almost immediately after I got this lens, I landed gigs shooting MLS, MLB, College Football, and major concerts. I can’t believe the things that this lens has seen in less than a year. Great focus, sharp images, incredible reach when paired with the 61MP of my a7R IV, and the depth of field is to die for! Bokeh. Bokeh everywhere.
*NEW* Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Art Lens - So this is my first Sigma lens EVER and I’m pretty dang stoked! I got this around Black Friday so it’s a fairly new addition for me, but so far I’m impressed! I took it with me to Montreal and shot in a blizzard with it! This lens has all the features of its Sony counterpart, and then some (and is a decent bit cheaper too!) The plan (as of now) is to slowly pull away from the 16-35 as I don’t use it nearly enough to justify having it in my bag! The 24-70 should cover a great range for my needs.
Bag
*NEW* The Jumper by Brevite - So I ditched the bulk “vintage” backpack of last year for this slick little number. I like blending in and I like efficient storage. This does just that. No joke, I can fit my camera body, all 3 lenses including that beast of a 70-200, my MacBook pro, all my accessories and cleaning kit in this thing and it looks just like a regular school bag. I don’t see this one changing next year, mainly because I love the bag, but also because my girlfriend would kill me if I purchase ANOTHER bag…
*NEW* Cases
DISCLAIMER - I’m a Nanuk Ambassador and they provided me with my Nanuk 935 Case for Sony a7R. I did, however, purchase the 920 Case for Sony a7R prior to joining the team, so that should tell you how highly I think of their products!
*NEW* Nanuk 935 Case for Sony a7R - This is my main case! It fits my camera body, all of my lenses, and a ton of extra slots for accessories. It has a handle and wheels as well so this is my everyday case that I use for storage, as well as gigs such as sports and concerts!
*NEW* Nanuk 920 Case for Sony a7R - With as much traveling as I have been doing and plan to do in the near future, a very protective travel case was an absolute MUST! This bad boy has pre-cut foam that is adjustable to accommodate different lens combos. As such, my main travel will see me bringing the a7RIV body along with my 24-70, 70-200, and 85mm lenses! This is just an awesome product by an awesome Canadian company. Oh, and it meets the “carry-on item dimensions?! Say less!!!
Phone
Apple iPhone 12 Pro 512GB in Pacific Blue - New year, same story. Apple is expensive, but they own me! I’m doing my best to not buy the HomePod mini, but I feel like my efforts are futile!
Accessories
Peak Design Capture Camera Clip - I stole this AWESOME little invention from Pierre T. Lambert and absolutely could not do without it now that I’ve had one. I love this and use this little guy as much, if not more than I did last year. SUCH a life saver! I even used it with my Brevite bag while hiking the Rocky Mountains!
Peak Design Cuff Camera Wrist Strap - I’ll be frank… I don’t use this as often as I used to. I’m not a camera strap kind of guy!
*NEW* Peak Design POV Kit - These guys are taking all of my money! Ok, it’s not really taking it when I am giving it away so willingly! This thing is so cool. It uses the Peak Design Capture Clip to secure my GoPro to my backpack strap when I don’t feel like strapping on the GoPro Chest Mount! CONVENIENT!
JOBY GorillaPod 3k - Another moment of frankness…. I have used this exactly once. BUT!… I know it will come in handy from time to time as I can’t always bring my main tripod with me. Additionally, this is great for stabilizing a GoPro!
*NEW* SIRUI Carbon Fiber Travel 5C Tripod - Let me start by saying that I love my Peak Design Capture Clip. Let me continue by saying that I can be a bit absent minded and not realize that the Manfrotto tripod I had did not support the PDCC and if I wanted to keep it, I had to continually swap out the base plates. This doesn’t work for me. Enter the SIRUI tripod! I made triple sure that this would work with my PCDD and it DOES! So, now I can simply use the one baseplate and call it a day! It’s light, folds down very small, and even has a little clip to it if I wanted to use it! Pretty awesome! Also, the price is great! This little guy was roughly $100. Hard to beat!
Hoya 72mm Cross Screen Star Effect Glass Filter - So I actually use both the 4x and the 6x star filters depending on the desired effect. I just think these are really cool and allow for an extra bit of in-camera artistic flair! See if you can spot which photos I used this filter on by downloading my portfolio!
*NEW* PolarPro 82mm Peter McKinnon Signature Edition II Variable ND Filter - Let me preface by saying that I absolutely do not believe in celebrity endorsed products on the whole. There have been 2 exceptions to this rule and both are products associated with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. His shoes and his tequila. Both are great and I will fight you if you argue with me. All jokes aside, I decided to bite the bullet and give the PM Signature Edition VND a try. As of this blog, it is in the mail and I will be using it early on in 2022 during my first international trip to… Montreal! *Fake shocked face*
*NEW* Vallerret Markhof V3 Gloves - Per the previous item, I’m going to Montreal in January. It’s cold. Need I say more? After much research, this is the pair of gloves that I opted to go with for my cold weather shooting! I’ll definitely be doing a review on these and the PM VND Filter once I get them out into the wild!
*NEW* Polar Pro FiftyFifty Dome - Hard to explain, easy to use. This is basically a dome that goes around the front of your GoPro that enables you to take photos halfway underwater, halfway above water. See photo for example: PHOTO.
*NEW* GoPro accessories - I snagged a head strap, chest rig, and floating handle for my GoPro adventures! Click the link to see what’s available from GoPro!
*NEW* PolarPro Shutter Collection ND Filter Set - ND filters are KEY to getting the best footage in bright conditions. As such, I made sure to grab these from PolarPro as they continually put out great products in the space!
Editing
Late 2016 MacBook Pro 15” w/ Touch Bar - Ugh. What a difference a year makes. My MBP has just reached the “back 9” so to speak. It’s slow and simple tasks can take a while. What I have done to help mitigate some of these issues is I now use Photo Mechanic to cull my photos so I only have a fraction of the raw photos to import into Lightroom!
*NEW* Apple iPad Pro 12.9” - With the issues that I was having with my MacBook Pro, I decided to look into the viability of using an iPad Pro to import and edit photos especially since the overall footprint is much smaller (mainly thinner) and MAN I’m glad I did. This has been great. I actually prefer editing in Lightroom Mobile on my iPad. HOWEVER… there is one main drawback that I am working on trying to find a fix for. Importing files from my SD cards to the external hard drive isn’t very dependable. Sometimes it takes a while and even freezes. I’m not fully able to save these files efficiently. Once this issue is rectified.. I might never go back to a laptop. Do yourself a favor and splurge on the Magic Keyboard and definitely get the Apple Pencil. Both are HUGE for me when editing on the iPad!
Adobe Creative Cloud - I utilize the entire Adobe Creative Suite for my various projects. Obviously Lightroom gets the most use, however, I do edit audio and video as well which are all part of the package!
*NEW* Photo Mechanic - See above! No other explanation needed!
Storage
Samsung T7 Touch 2TB External SSD - This thing is my JAM! It is literally the size of a credit card and MAYBE 3/4 of an inch thick. What I did was utilized some super strong adhesive Velcro and mounted it to my MacBook Pro (on the case, not the actual machine! There is one small drawback… 2TB is a drop in the bucket for a photographer. As such, I made a slight change….
*NEW* WD - Easystore 5TB External USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive - This was an unfortunate necessity. Fact is that photographers use a lot of storage space and the 2TB on the T7 Touch just weren’t cutting it. Sooooo…. the T7 Touch is now my mobile storage solution and everything gets backed up to the WD 5TB. Easy enough!
*NEW* Sony SF-G Tough Series UHS-II SDXC Memory Card - I have two of these bad boys (1 x 128GB and 1 x 64GB) and I’ll keep it simple in saying: BEST. MEMORY CARDS. EVER. At least, for Sony Cameras… I’ll never purchase another kind.
