David Lindes' photo equipment list

Here's a list of the main items of photographic equipment I have and use (well, some of it I use more than others), just in case anyone's curious. I don't go into too much detail here (though I might provide links for some items), as I'm sure it can mostly be found on the web, but here's what I've got. Items are listed in the order I acquired them.


Eos Elan body

The first SLR I really owned of my own (well, unless you count the Nikon I got shortly before it, but then returned because I didn't like the human interface much, and exchanged for this camera). (If I remember correctly, the deal was that it was given as a combination birthday and high school graduation gift. I might have paid the difference for the trade-in to the Canon kit, though, which was slightly more expensive, as I recall -- but worth it, I think.) I haven't been using this camera since getting the EOS 10d, but I fully expect it to get more use in time -- there's still something about film that's just nice, sometimes.

Brand:
Canon
Model:
EOS Elan
Type:
35mm Film SLR body
Date of acquisition:
Early 1992, or thereabouts.

28-80mm f3.5-5.6 USM lens

Purchased with the Elan as part of a kit, this was my first lens (notwithstanding the same caveat as above). It's far from great, but it nominally works, and so far, it's still the closest thing I have to a wide-angle lens.

Brand:
Canon
Type:
28-80mm zoom, f3.5-5.6 USM lens
Date of acquisition:
Early 1992, or thereabouts.

100-300mm f4.5-5.6 USM lens

Not much later, I spent about $300 of my own money on this lens, wanting to have something telephoto, for, among other things, taking pictures at the school football games and such (I even sold one shot of a player crossing the touchdown line to the player in question).

Brand:
Canon
Type:
100-300mm zoom, f4.5-5.6 USM lens
Date of acquisition:
A little later in still-early 1992

100mm f2.8 macro USM lens

My first "good" lens. Not in the Canon L series, but still -- at very long last -- a big step up in quality from my previous lenses. This lens is a nice general 100mm lens (for portraiture, etc.), but also has the special ability to focus very close, allowing me to do my Macro photography, with up to a 1:1 ratio (meaning that, when used with a 35mm SLR (my EOS Elan) or a full-frame DSLR (something I don't, yet, have), the image on the film (or the sensor in the full-frame DSLR case) is exactly "life-size" -- a 1:1 ratio between the size of the object photographed, and the size of the resultant image on film). For macro work, often used with the Macro Twin Lite flash.

Brand:
Canon
Type:
100mm f2.8 1:1 macro USM lens
Date of acquisition:
2004-06-29
Links:
Amazon (note: their picture of it makes it look shorter than it is... I don't know what the deal is there.)
Price paid:
$469.95, plus S&H

Canon ET67 Lens Hood for Canon EF 100 f/2.8 SLR Lens

A lens hood for the 100mm macro lens (which I use when it's not in macro-mode).

Brand:
Canon
Type:
Hood for the above lens
Date of acquisition:
2004-06-29
Price paid:
$37.95, plus S&H shared with the lens

Macro Twin Lite MT-24 EX

This special flash mounts directly on the front of of my 100mm macro lens (with the control and power pack mounted to the flash shoe on the camera), and is a fundamental component to most of my Macro photography, because without it, the macro lens (when focused at macro distances) is either starved for light, or just has a tremendously narrow depth of field, or some of each.

Brand:
Canon
Model:
MT-24EX
Type:
Twin Lite macro flash
Date of acquisition:
latter half of 2004
Links:
Official product page, Amazon

Canon EOS 10d Digital SLR

I'd been wanting to get a DSLR for a while, but didn't really feel like I wanted to pay the money to buy one new -- I even rented a 10d for a weekend once, to see if I thought it would be worth the money, and I decided it was very nice, but just not _quite_ worth it. But I still wanted one -- shooting film can be expensive, too, it's just more spread out -- but I was taking a lot of pictures at the time, so... I finally decided to put an ad up on Seattle's version of Craigslist, saying I was looking for a DSLR for a reasonable price, and someone replied a little while later that they had a 10d they were willing to sell, and it was for a price I was willing to pay, so I got it. Alas that I haven't ended up giving it nearly as much use as my film camera was getting shortly before that time, but I'm sure I'll get back into it again at some point, and start using it more. It is a nice camera.

Brand:
Canon
Model:
EOS 10d
Type:
Digital SLR body
Date of acquisition:
2005-01-03
Price paid:
$600
Links:
A review

Canon TC-80N3 Timer Remote Controller

Pretty much as soon as I got my DSLR, I realized I needed a remote for it -- I like taking low-light pictures, and low-light pictures tend to require some sort of remote shutter release, so you don't jar the camera. Well, when I learned that this existed, I wanted it -- sure, it serves the basic purpose of having a remote shutter release, but why just have a remote shutter release when you can also have a timer for doing very long exposures (over the 30 seconds the camera can time on its own), plus an interval timer, thus allowing for time-lapse photography, as well? So, I ended up waiting a while to get anything, on the premise that I wanted to wait until I could justify the extra expenditure to get the remote that I'd never have to replace. Well, along came the annual meteor shower, and I wanted to try to take pictures of that, and so I finally got it. (Alas, my attempt at capturing meteors didn't actually work out so well, but I did get some star shots out of it... And there's always next year to try again.)

Brand:
Canon
Model:
TC-80N3
Type:
Timer/Remote Controller
Date of acquisition:
2005-08-12
Price paid:
just under $180, including tax
Links:
a review, Amazon

On the wish-list:

That's about it for the "haves", for now. I've got some other gear (tripod, carrying case, reflectors, etc), but the above are the main items that I think are worth describing. More to come, I'm sure... because, well, there's still more stuff I want.

Here are some items (described at a conceptual level, to keep me from being stuck to a particular model -- except where there's only one model to realistically chose from) I'd like to add to my collection some day: