Body History

CabanSail

I was just looking at my main camera and the history of my DSLR Bodies. I still have all the used ones.

In 2005 I bought the Nikon D70S.
In 2008 that was upgraded to the D300.
My move to FX (Full Frame) was in 2011 when I bought a D600.
Less than a year later I got the D800.

The D600 was a mistake. I was looking at the specs and price but ignored the ergonomics. While technically it was a good body the layout was more akin to an entry level model and I found it hard to move beck to that.
The D800 has definitely been the workhorse. The D300 still gets used by my wife as then she has a suite of DX Lenses of her own to use.

I will occasionally look at a newer model but don't see much which would tempt me to buy one. Most of the features are gimmicks. I realise there are still functions of the D800 I have not learned about as I have no use of them. A good sensor, PASM, a focus point and independent aperture and shutter dials is what I seem to need.

Glass ..... that's where the money goes. It does tend to last though.

magicbastarder

i still use a D300, very happy with it; only reason i'd choose to upgrade is better low light performance.

CabanSail

There were a few reasons to change. Big one was the low light performance. Since moving to Fx my use of Flash had dramatically reduced. The other was the ability to get a slightly shallower DoF.

The D300 is still a very fine body. As I said the big mistake I made was the D600.

Irishphotodesk

Crikey ...where do I start, (I might have forgotten one or two)

In the late 90’s or early 00’s canon eos-3 (film)
Canon D30
Canon 40d
Canon 1d
Canon 1d mkII
Canon 7d
Canon 5d
Canon 7d mkII
Canon 5d mkII
Canon 1d mkIV
Canon 5d mkIV
Canon eos-R
Canon 5d mkIV

Somewhere in there is also a canon g10, g11, g1x and hasselblad h1

CabanSail

If I was into the tribal brand thing I could suggest that Canon doesn't seem to have the longevity but I know many user of various brands that have the same sort of history.

I have a few others thrown in there too with mine. Two Canon G9's and a G12 with Housing. Also quite a nice little Olympus.

Irishphotodesk

For me it’s a profession, high shutter usage results in the requirement to change, most of the cameras are in boxes, some were thrown out, others repaired.

One of my 5d mkIVs passed away in November - it’s been sitting on the desk since then, I purchased another 5D mkIV in October with the expectation that the first one would fail soon.

I should send it off to have it looked at (it’s probably just a new shutter assembly and it’s good to go, but working 6 days a week doesn’t give much time to do these sort of tasks)

CabanSail

I do often shake my head at the huge number of frames the press shoot at what is basically a static object. Someone standing at a podium does not change appearance just because they say something else. A single frame, with maybe a spare or two in case of a blink should suffice. Instead it seems they cycle at 10fps over and over. I saw this last year at the local show. He was running burst mode even when shooting static items. I am sure he had only had the camera put in his hand a matter of hours prior to this and told it was all set in auto just push here.

Irishphotodesk

CabanSail wrote: »

I do often shake my head at the huge number of frames the press shoot at what is basically a static object. Someone standing at a podium does not change appearance just because they say something else. A single frame, with maybe a spare or two in case of a blink should suffice. Instead it seems they cycle at 10fps over and over. I saw this last year at the local show. He was running burst mode even when shooting static items. I am sure he had only had the camera put in his hand a matter of hours prior to this and told it was all set in auto just push here.

True....to a degree, the facial expression and gesticulating may change to give a different image. It does surprise me sometimes the amount of frames that are taken of people standing and talking, I have done it myself and will do it tonight at another government coronavirus update.

There’s plenty of scope to provide images of different style (web, tabloid and broadsheet) of the same person standing - sometimes the shots are rattled off because the person is reading from a page and has their eyes turned to the page and every now and again they look up, for a fraction of a second ....this is the opportunity for the photojournalist to get the shot that will be released. (It’s really a take enough pics and hopefully get one that’s good.

CabanSail

I can understand how that sort of punishment will wear out a shutter.

When I used to shoot for Marathonphoto they gave us Nikon D2H Bodies to use. They would just replace the shutters on them. The most I shot in a day was at the Berlin Marathon. I had two locations. The first one the Reflex Mirror came loose so I switched to the spare body but that one had a failing shutter, so I went back to the first and just lined up by keeping my other eye open and using that. Took over 1k5 shots like that. Then later I was opposite the Brandenburg Gate and shot a further 6k5 plus shots there. Total for the day was over 8000 photo's

Heebie

CabanSail wrote:

I do often shake my head at the huge number of frames the press shoot at what is basically a static object. Someone standing at a podium does not change appearance just because they say something else. A single frame, with maybe a spare or two in case of a blink should suffice.

It's called "the shotgun approach" and if you take tons of photos, you might pick up a few moments that are very different looking, that you would miss if you just take a few. It could very well make the difference between getting "a usable shot" and getting "THE shot"

Heebie

I've had a few cameras and still have a few as well.

The very first was since kind of Kodak camera that shot 126 film. I still have some of the negatives that I shot back then. I think I used that here and there on school field trips until I was about 11-12. Fixed focal length, focus, and aperture... The only adjustment was if you put in a flash bulb or not.
The second was a fully automatic Kodak disc camera.
The third was a fixed focus, 35mm camera, probably 50mm-ish plastic lens. This had the ability to change the aperture only. I had that for a few years.

Then I went probably 15 years with no camera.
A friend of mine needed some help with his computer, and gave me a nice 35mm Mamiya Sekor with a 50mm lens.
I brought it with me on a trip to Disney World... and shot exactly ONE photo with it (which came out awesome) before it stopped working.
He felt bad that it had died and gave me a Canon Pellix QL with a Canon 50mm f1.4 lens, and a Sears Roebuck 128mm f2.8 tele. That I still have and can still shoot with. The timing isn't quite right at fast shutter speeds anymore, but it's 55 years old.
The Canon was my primary camera for a while. I got an Ansco auto-focus and auto-exposure camera for point and shoot and wide angle. (28mm)
I still have that, too.
I got a Pentax ME Super somewhere in there that also died after not much use. The auto-exposure on it made it easier to use than the Canon.
At around that point, I got some darkroom equipment and started doing my own developing and printing. (I was working for a photo lab at the time, and already knew how to print commercially, including full color control etc... the darkroom printing was new... I still develop my own b&w film)
Then.. I got the digital itch.
My first digital was the Fuji FinePix S7000. It was one of the first digitals available to consumers that could do full manual control. (although things like auto-focus were "fly-by-wire")
That and the Canon were my mains for color and black & white.
I ended up with a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye, and a Super Ricohflex TLR for medium format. (120/620 6x6)
My first digital SLR was a Pentax K10d, then a k20d, then a K-3, then a nice (back to) full-frame with a Pentax K-1, then a K-1 Mark II, then I had the original K-1 converted to a mark II.
I've had each previous digital Pentax as a "backup body" since all the lenses are compatible. I got a compatible pro 35mm from Pentax in case I want to shoot film, it's a Z-1p... my Pentax flash (and Pentax-compatible Yongnuo flashes) all work with them.
Somewhere around the line I got a Pentax Optio point & shoot, which was good... it got stolen and I replaced it with a Panasonic Lumix with a Leica lens.
Now I have and use the K-1's, the Z-1p, the Ricohflex, the Panasonic, the Ansco, and the Canon... with the Brownie if I want something to look really retro.