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In this section, I present the equipment that I currently use. I also provide a few thoughts regarding photographic equipment in general. This may help some beginners that are looking to buy equipment but may be overwhelmed by the vast amount of choice and the very different prices. 
Here is the list of my trusted equipment:
For more details, see full reviews of both cameras and some of my other equipment here 
Photographic equipment is what allows the photographers to
take, edit,
store and show
their pictures. It is therefore normal to see photographers
enjoying talking about their equipment as it is at the centre
of their passion.
For those who are not so technically minded, getting the top-notch camera packed with all the latest technology is not important and what they concentrate on is mainly the quality of the pictures their equipment can produce. For others, however, getting the latest equipment currently on the market is a must. Personally I belong to both categories with an emphasis on the first one. I love technology so I see cameras as tools that can produce amazing things. When new cameras come on the market, packed with new functionalities, it is difficult not to be attracted by these amazing tools. But beside that, one of my main goal in photography is to produce high quality pictures which hopefully have a "wow" factor. Now I’d like to be clear about one thing from the start, there isn’t any piece of equipment that can produce amazing picture on its own. It is the photographer who “makes” the picture. The camera only “takes” it. Anyone can take pictures, with about any kind of equipment. But when it comes to producing great pictures, no camera equipment can do that without a photographer behind it with some understanding about light and composition. I would go as far as saying that a good photographer can produce great pictures with almost any kind of equipment while an unskilled photographer will probably never do so even with the best photographic equipment in hand. The photographer is that crucial ingredient that will provide the artistic touch which in the end is the most important to produce great pictures. The equipment will decide several practical things like the sharpness, contrast, definition (in digital) or grain (in analogue) of the picture. And it will also affect the picture taking process such as working out the exposure, the stability of the equipment (if on a tripod) etc, which can render the picture taking process simpler. Now putting aside the artistic aspect and concentrating purely on those which are controlled by the equipment, then the quality of a picture is affected mainly by two things:
Every other technical aspects mainly affect the facility of taking pictures like for instance the speed at which multiple pictures can be taken (which can be crucial for sport or wildlife photography) or the metering system, focusing accuracy, etc. Now without going into more details on the technical aspects, my main advice when looking at camera equipment is to concentrate on those two things, the lens quality and the film (for analogue) or sensor (for digital). They really are the areas where spending money must be justified according to the desired picture quality. In the analogue world the difference of price between low and high quality film is barely noticeable, unless you are shooting thousands of films a year! However in the digital world the pixels come at a price. Ok once you’ve bought the digital camera you don’t have to spend on films anymore but few of us spend the equivalent price in films! So in other words, in the analogue world, it’s certainly easier to produce high quality pictures without spending too much money in camera equipment, as the main expense resides in the lens, while the camera itself mainly affects the picture taking process. However in the digital world, the sensor is part of the camera and the quality of the sensor drives the price of the camera. So the highest quality comes at a high price. In summary my advice is as follow. First of all invest in high quality lenses, whether you are using analogue or digital photography. Then, as for the camera itself, for analogue photography, spend in the best quality film that suits your tests. For digital, you should concentrate on the camera that offers a sensor that matches your needs. If you’re only going to be making prints of no more than 10x15cm in size or just displaying your pictures on the internet then its not worse spending your money on an expensive camera with a 12Mpix sensor. As for the rest of the technical specifications of the camera, it’s down to your own test and how much you’re happy to spend. If you don’t like complicated things and get easily lost pressing buttons to set things up, then it’s best looking for simple cameras. In the analogue world, it’s possible to find some very basic cameras that can do a very good job, be simple to use, robust and reasonably cheap. However nowadays with digital, cameras are no longer mechanical. So they do come packed with quite a lot of complexity regardless of whether the camera is destined for the consumer or professional market. And here the price is mainly driven by the sensor. Here I have concentrated on what I consider to be most important in the photographic equipment. However there are naturally many other aspects that should not be overlooked and the photographer looking to buy equipment should also consider. For that I prefer to refer to other websites which provide extensive and more generic information. Here can be found a good article on how to choose a digital camera. This is another very good website that provides very complete information in the form of a small course for choosing a digital camera. This website provides a set of articles on what camera to buy which cover both analogue and digital photography. |
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