Lessons

Lesson Info

Camera Gear

This is probably not the first class you've watched right. I'm sure you've watched other training online. So how many times have you heard people say the gear, doesn't matter right. Like we all hear people say the gear doesn't matter. And then the follow up question is why are we always, talking about the gear. And I don't know. For the life of me I do not know why. But guys when I look at the Google analytics, from my website. My light room. So marcadamus.com my light room section is number one. Gear is number two. I don't know. I don't get it. It's something about we love technology. I guess because you like photography. I guess it means we like technology. And you know we're gadget people. I don't know. But people love gear. And so I can tell you it's not about the gear. I really don't think it is about the gear. I think with whatever camera. And whatever lens combination you have. Especially for, it is about the gear in some places. But in landscape photography I can tell you that ...

whatever, camera and lens you have you can make a great photo. Because it's really about getting yourself, in the right place. At the right time. With the right composition. Sports photography. I can't say it's not the gear because you're not gonna get, that great sports photo. Without the ten thousand dollar lens. Portrait photography. Again you need certain lenses. Wedding photography you need low light lenses. And the right camera's that can handle a church. So sometimes it is about the gear. But landscape photography. The good part about this is I think this is the least, gear intensive part of photography. You know I've got my stuff laid out on the table over there. But that's pretty much all I carry. And I kind of pride myself on. It looks like a lot because it's all laid out. But it all fits into that bag. Other than the tripod. But I pride myself on a camera body. I have a backup camera body which is a little camera. But camera body and three lenses. Once in a while I'll bring the fourth lens. We'll talk a little about some of the specialty lenses. But camera body and three lenses. Like that's all I want to bring with me. And I try to keep it as simple as possible. Camera body. This is the best part of landscape photography. Is that I don't think you guys need the biggest, best, camera body that's out there. When you think about the improvements that's happening, in the camera body's what are they? I think megapixels is number one. And then I think ISO is a big improvement every time, we kind of see more ISO. We see better video quality. Which you know it's nice to shoot video. But I'm thinking landscape photographers. Still photographer. It's you know how much video are you really gonna do. So when you think about the improvements that are happening. And then frames per second that's another one. You're getting higher and higher frames per second. So what do we need as a landscape photographer? Well megapixels. The only thing that's really getting you is print size. And you're twelve and eighteen megapixel camera's. They're gonna print pretty darn big. As big as most of us will probably print. If you think you're gonna want to print 30 by 40. Then poster size. And then wall and then billboards. Then yeah maybe you need to get the camera that can shoot, more megapixels. But megapixel size is about it you know. How big do you want to print? Think you want to go really big? Then yeah maybe you need to invest. But ISO. We don't care about ISO. You're into landscape and outdoor. And that's really your primary interest we're on a tripod, most of the time. I'm at a hundred ISO. Very rarely am I going to crank up my ISO. Now granted I know there's gonna be those times where, I can't be alone in this because you're the photographer, amongst your family or friends. You automatically know everything. And can shoot everything. Me and Sue were talking about this earlier. You automatically like you're the photographer. So if they you know... If their kid is in a sport event. They assume you can shoot it. If they're having a wedding they assume you can shoot that. If they happen to have a pet. They assume that you're perfect at that. So you are the photographer. So I get it. Sometimes you might need that ISO. If you're gonna do portraits and stuff like that. But most of the time guys. My ISO is at a hundred. And then frames per second. Again we really don't care. Get into wildlife and you're starting to shoot, more wildlife it can start to effect more. But most of your camera's are gonna shoot plenty, frames per second. That you need to capture for the wildlife that you'll run, into while you're shooting outdoors. So camera body's pretty good. You don't have to spend too much there. Lenses even better. Lenses as an outdoor photographer. You know what most of the time, we are never at F two point eight. We have all those specialty lenses. You know the 50 one four. Or the 85 one two. You know. But we're not really shooting at those apertures. When we're shooting our landscapes. So we don't need to invest in those lenses. That shoot at those low apertures. Because we are very very rarely gonna use them. So the lenses you know if you look at my lens combination, there aside from one. Mine are F four and above. They're the least expensive. Best Sony lenses that I can get. They have that two point eight version of all of them. I'm not gonna get them because I don't need them. So lenses I don't think we need to go that far. Tripods, ball heads. I'm gonna jump over. Make the move over to here. And Marc you can. Feel free to pick up the equipment. Show it around, show it off. We want to see all your cameras. And all your lenses. And all that good stuff. So tripod. I have two. This is my travel tripod. This is a Gitzo. It'll be on that list. And then I used the really right stuff ball heads. So this is my travel tripod. Here's what's cool about this. Is when I fold this up, it actually folds up inside of itself. And if I take the ball head off... I'll just kind of close that down really quick here. There we go. So, That's how bit it is. When I take the ball head off, it fits into my laptop, my fifteen inch laptop. I mean just to give you a reference. Again pretend the ball heads not on here. So to give you a reference. It's basically the size of my fifteen inch laptop. So it folds up on itself. And it's great for travel. It's great when I'm going someplace. And I don't want to check a bag. But I want to bring a tripod. So this is a great tripod for that. What's the downside of a tiny tripod like this? Is stability. So we didn't have a problem the other day on the beach. It was windy but it wasn't crazy windy. I can tell you that when I came to... I was in San Francisco a couple years ago. And a buddy of mine went up to the, Marin Headlands. And climbed up the top of the mountain. And you get the shot of the Golden Gate Bridge. Which it was foggy. Like it is every single time I go up there. We were talking this morning. I've been up there twelve times. Only one time have I ever seen the actual bridge. The other times I hear it's there. But I can't see it. So and then everybody says you got to go out, the right time of year. God I have been out here every time of year. It's always like this. But we we're up on top of this hill and I had that tripod. I couldn't get a sharp photo. I couldn't get a sharp photo. The wind was moving fast enough that I'm actually looking, through the view finder and I can actually see it shaking. So it is a factor and it's not necessarily you know back, country hiking on top of huge mountains. I mean I was here in San Francisco. I mean it could be on top of a hill. It could be on top of a mountain. If the winds are high enough. Tripods that are this small are gonna have a tough time, holding up to that. So it's tough like what do you do you know. It's like do you chance it. If you don't think you're in those situations a lot. Go with a light tripod. If you think you're gonna be out there and it has been, a problem for you before. Than you'll probably want something heavier. The other one which will be on the gear list I use. Is the really right stuff. It's a three sectioned tripod. But it goes you know. It stand up to here. Like this one will only stand up to here on me. So that's tripods. I'm a fan of the really right stuff. The other term for really right stuff, is really expensive stuff. I can tell you that I've never had to replace anything, that I've bought from there. You know my ball heads cost they're probably three, hundred dollars. I think one of them is even four hundred dollars. I waited years to buy the expensive ball heads. Because I couldn't stomach parting with that kind of money, for a ball head. As soon as I go it. And I used it. The first thing I said to myself. Is I can't believe I didn't buy this sooner. And everything they stand behind everything they make. If something goes wrong with it. You call them up. They send you the part to fix it. Or they figure it out. But you know they're located in just a couple hours South, of San Francisco here. And they're just good people. And they stand behind their stuff. I'll go back to, I'll go back to camera body here. So I shoot with the Sony A seven R two. That's my main camera body. And then my second camera body which is awesome. Is the A sixty three hundred. And what you have to imagine is I have L brackets, on both of these. So imagine taking those off. How small the camera is. But look at this little guy. Super super small. What's awesome about this is. Is it takes the same exact lenses that this takes. It's not full framed. So they'll be cropped a little bit differently. But it takes the same exact lenses. So when I throw this as my backup camera body. And you know what. I've never been one to, I never carried a back up before, I never carried a back up before this past February. And this past February I went to Iceland. And I'm thinking I'm going to Iceland. I'm gonna bring my camera body. If something goes wrong I got nothing. You know. Like I'm in Iceland. I'm there to shoot. I'm not there to do anything else. I went with a group of friends. We solely went with the purpose of shooting. And if something goes wrong with my camera body. I'm screwed. I got nothing. So that's when I figured I need something as a backup. I didn't want to buy a whole another one of these. So that is perfect. So whatever you're shooting the smaller version, of what you're shooting work really really well.