Picking up the pieces - part 37...

So I have a way of having too many irons in the fire at any given time. Sometimes it is fun and sometimes it can catch up with me.

Some time back I did a quick article about single image prints versus larger prints from a series of stitched images. That very nearly got underway. I started a fairly decent exploration of stitched panorama landscape images.

Then a few criminals decided that my toys would be much happier in their care.

Well, long story short, all is well that ends well and I very nearly have all my stuff replaced already. Our insurance was very good to us. The only real downside is that no amount of money can replace the sentiment attached to cameras and lenses I have been using for a very long time.

Please forgive me for blabbering on about my two beloved missing camera bodies for a few minutes.

And now my wife forced another deal on me. I go on more outings more frequently OR all my toys are sold and she gets to spend the money on kitchen stuff. Enter the relaunch of my site...that and peer pressure from a good friend and highly respected fellow photographer Mandi Pullen. You can see her work here.

So for now I DON'T have my beloved old 5D Mark 1 12Mp fossil. Many of them in the used market though. A good one is bound to come along soon.

Will I buy another 1Ds Mk II? Not sure...both those cameras are getting on in years as great as they are. Parts will eventually be impossible to find. It might be a good time to let go now.

Even if I find a good one it won't be THAT one... and there is a very nice one I am watching on eBay right now though...

Apart from the amazing Darth Vader-like respect this old girl demanded she was already running on her third shutter.

The Canon 5D family are amazing cameras. To this day there is that something about images from a 5D1 that no other Canon D-SLR I know of can match. I had three of the Mk1 bodies over the years but I never had the Mk II. I got the Mk III when it launched in 2012. That was not a good deal for my needs or expectations in the benefit of a decade of hindsight. Should have bought the Mk II. That is water long gone under the bridge though.

I sold the Mk III to fund a brief affair with Fuji mirrorless but returned to my first love, Canon D-SLR. Don't get me wrong, the Fuji X-series are great cameras. Their lenses are amazing. The system simply did not tick all my non-negotiable blocks.

So now I shall have to "settle" for the 5DsR with its 51Mp sensor and the slightly more modern 5D Mk 4 for non-landscape stuff.

My replacement filters have arrived and my tripod might be swinging from a crane lifting it off the ship in Cape Town harbour as I type here.

So...new gear to get to know and material to create to put on a site worthy of your time and attention.

Hope to see you soon and, as always, happy shooting!

Anton