The background of my gear

My first Camera was a Canon, an Canonet 17 Viewfinder. It was rather cheap - full format in those days 40mm lens and 1.7 aperture: a real good camera to start with. Dad was shooting with an old Zeiss Contaflex - and later a Canon Ft-b...: I had to have my first SLR as we'll: A Canon AE1..., followed by a 2nd Canon, a AE1. Program. This 2nd Camera was stolen well payed by an insurance company. The rare times to change the brand! And I changed. I choosed Contax with a few excellent prime lenses which are still in use...

When digital photography came up I stopped using the SLR´s and start shooting digital. Even with the first cell phone cameras... I had the clear idea: my first DSLR must be full format. 2008 was the year when fullformat cameras became affordable. Sony, Canon and Nikon. Sony - who took over the Contax Yashica stuff - decided to discontinue the Contax bajonett. The choice was open Canon vs Nikon. I never liked the Nikon´s, I had 2 of them, both were balky...:  I got the first Canon 5d MkII with the 24-105mm Lens.. An absolutely mind blowing experience. I got a lot of fun with it. And I started sports photography: My youngest daughter went to ski races. The 105mm from the lens wasn´t the choice - the 100-400mm Zoom came along. Great. The right choice. And 1000th of photos from the races... 

And than: 2009 we got the invitation do a marriage in India. I was concerned to carry the high end bulky stuff with me. And I knew  I did not want to go back to the 1/2,3" sensor cameras: I got a pretty early µ43, a Panasonic Lumix GH1 with 14-140mm lens. perfect allround camera with pretty good results. The µ43 is the choice for having a reasonable good camera with you even when I go hiking or mountain biking...

2010 The next big step came to my Equipment when my daughter starts playing field hockey. I realized: My stuff is not working. To change lenses is not great. After some research I found out: the 28-300mm L lens would be right - but the price....  Therefore the idea cam up to save some money buying the 7D and with the crop factor the 24-105mm should work. And it worked. But the 7D was not the choice in a sports hall with very limited light... A little bit later 2012 Canon announced the 5D Mk III - and i knew: this camera I need... and due to the costs I decided to add the 28-300mm as well. The astonishing point came with the first open air tournament: The combination 7D and 28-300 works really perfect open air - and the 5DMkIII and the 28-300 in the hall. And the 7D: Again: Skiracing with the 100-400mm lens: mind-blowing great...

2013 was the year to fill up the bag with some more glass. Mainly for µ43. Especially the prime lenses brought me lot of fun...  On the Canon side I added the 35mm 2,0 IS-Lens. It is a great tool, especially in low light conditions... But more you can read in the blog...

2014 another µ43-Camera found its way in my bag - and in my heart: the Lumix GM1 with the 12-32 mm Pencake lens. Looks like a point and shoot camera but in reality it´s a great camera.. Amazing. It is the "always with you" camera... And I added my first 2 Olympus Lenses to my µ43-Gear: a 12mm Lens as well as the 75mm lens. Both are great. The 75mm lens is a kind of Bokeh-Monster. It tells everybody µ43 is not a small format. it is great!!!

In 2014 I added an analog camera as well, just for testing and playing: A Hasselblad 500... I have to shoot it analog. Luckily I have somebody in Stuttgart who develops and digitizes films.....

In November 2014 Canon introduced the 7D MkII. I had my issues with the first 7D - until I understood what  the camera stands for. And I do have my application in sports under good light conditions where the 7D delivers outstanding results. Therefore it was logic to get the MkII as well. And this is a real killer device - for sports and wildlife. But I use it for studio as well -a nd sometimes for night shots... The sensor has really good noise at low ISO...

End of 2014 The GM5 found its way to the kit bag as well: The additional flash hot shoe allows me to take this camera with me and not the G6.... And it came with ea real killer lens: the Leica Summilux 1.7 15mm....

In the middle of 2015 Panasonic released the successor of the G6. The G7 - in Germany called G70 - has quite a bit of improvement in low light but it has 4k Video. Even if I do not shoot Video that often but in case to have the possibility to shoot 4k is an interesting option. 

In September I added 2 lenses - just for testing: The Nifty Fifty Canon EF f1.8 50mm and the "Nifty Thirty" SIGMA f2.8 30mm. The main purpose was to evaluate a suitable lens for young or new photo enthusiasts in the µ43 range - and compare it with a lens which offers a great value for money position in the Canon world...

In November 2015 I added the rest of the µ43 Sigma Art Lenses and reviewed them in my blog. They all deliver remarkable results. They all got my "recommendation" for µ43 users.

In May 2016 I added 2 lenses to my Canon gear: the Zeiss Milvus 85mm f1.4 as well as the Canon EF 200mm f2.8L USM - in combination with the Extender 2x.. The Milvus came into the picture because I was not satisfied with the Sigma. And the 200mm because it is the consequent edition for the prime lens line up...

August 2016 a couple of gear was added to my µ43 line up: The GX80 together with the fabulous Leica branded Nocticron 42.5mm f1.2 (yes: another 85mm lens) as well as the Summilux 12mm f1.4... Unfortunately the 42.5mm got lost..... I hope to find it but I guess it got lost during a security check at an airport....

I ordered a Hasselblad D1X straight at the first presentation. But Hasselblad did not deliver in 2016. So i decided to change my mind and use the budget to buy more excellent glass (EF 35mm f1.4 MkII and the Milvus 50mm f1.4) and add the little mirrorless EOS: The EOS M5. The M5 got immediately some EOS-M glass: the 22mm f2.0 as always going around lens. The very special 28mm f3.5 with build in illumination and the Samyang 12mm f2.0 as wide angle lens.

With the EOS M5 I am really happy: it is a small and versatile camera - perfect for traveling. It is great to have the option to travel minimal.

In 2017 I mainly bought some glass: the 35mm f1.4 as well as the 85mm f1.4. Both lenses are optically great but heavy....

Canon brought out its first mirrorless full frame camera end of 2018: the EOS R. I got it pretty early (as usual) and took it with me on a couple of trips to USA, inside Europe as well as to Asia. The body works fine - and it fits into my standard business travel bag... Especially after Canon brought out the RF 35mm f1.8 lens. And I added the tiny 32mm f1.4 to the EOS M kit....

2019 is a year where I added substantially again... It starts a bit special when Samyang asked me to review their R-Mount manual focus lenses. I made the reviews and they did not want to get the lenses sent back...  The 14mm f 2.8 I knew, I like the weather sealing but the first copy was a bit better centered... The 85mm f1.4 is a pretty remarkable peace of glass what I really like and recommend. Later the year 2 lenses were added on the R-mount side: the 15-35 IS lens as well as the 50mm f1.2 - my first f1.2 and a really amazing one!!!. It was followed by the M6 MkII - great camera again. The light weight little monster.... I still hope Canon is going to release more glass, especially prime lenses for this format. And finally the RF 70-200 f2.8 was added to my nice gear list....

My Milvus 15mm f2.8 was in repair after I dropped it in the beginning of 2019 twice... This drop was weird because I lost the connection between lens hood and lens putting the lens back into the bag.... The repair was organized strangely. But I decided to bundle it with buying the Milvus 25mm f1.4... Which is another amazing lens.....

2020 I had to set up my life completely new... and in my new flat I decided to do the lights of my living/dining room differently than usually: with the modeling light my flashes. My Bowens light wasn't really suitable for that purpose while getting in standby automatically after 30 min.... not very romantic for a dinner to fire 500J flashes every 30 minutes... That was the time to add something more modern and LED based - why the 2 Profoto B1 were added to my portfolio. Amazing battery powered flashes with a very nice modeling light....

 

What´s in the bag today

or better bags.... The cameras in bold are those ones I use mostly. The other ones are spare and are used from my family.

Bodies

• Canon EOS:
  • EOS R
  • 5DMkIV
  • 5DMkIII
  • 5DMkII (broadband camera, works now from 350-1100nm)
  • 7DMkII
  • 7D
  • M5 
  • M6MkII
• Lumix G
  • G5
  • G6
  • G7 aka G70
  • GH1
  • GM1
  • GM5
  • GX80

Lenses

• Canon
  • 17-40mmL 
  • RF 15-35mmL f2.8
  • 16-35mmL f.4.0 IS
  • 24-105mmL IS
  • 100-400mmL IS
  • 28-300mmL IS
  • RF 70-200mmL IS
  • M22 f2.0
  • M28 f3.5 macro
  • M 32 f1.8
  • 35mm f2,0 IS
  • 35mm f1.4 II
  • RF 35mm f1.8
  • 40mm f2,8
  • RF50mm f1.2
  • 50mm f1,4
  • 50mm f1.8 STM
  • 85mm f1.4 IS
  • 100mm Macro f2,8L IS
  • 200mm f2.8L
  • Extender 1,4x III
  • Extender 2x III
• Zeiss
  • 16mm f2,8 Fisheye
  • 28mm f2,8
  • 50mm f1,4
  • 85mm f1,4 (still love it!!!)
  • Milvus 15mm f2.8
  • Milvus 25mm f1.4
  • Milvus 50mm f1.4
  • Milvus 85mm f1.4
  • 180mm f2,8
• Sigma
  • 85mm f1,4 (Canon EF-mount, going to replace the Zeiss... astonishing good!) for Canon, 2016 replaced by the Zeiss Milvus
  • 30mm f2.8 (µ43;  crop factor 2)
  • 60mm f2.8 (µ43;  crop factor 2)
  • 19mm f2.8 (µ43;  crop factor 2)
• Samyang
  • 14mm f2.8 (Very great) (for Canon  EF-Mount
  • 14mm f2.8 (good and weather sealed) (for Canon  RF-Mount
  • 85mm f21.4 (Awesome lens) (for Canon  RF-Mount
  • 12mm f2.0 (for Canon M-Mount)
• Lumix (µ43: Crop Factor 2)
  • 7-14mm
  • 12-32mm (Pencake style)
  • 14-42mm (pencake style)
  • 14-140mm (2x: f4-6,3 & f 3,5-5,6)
  • 100-300mm
  • ELMARIT 45mm Macro f2,8
  • Noctricron 42,5mm f1.2 
  • Summilux 25 mm f1,4
  • Summilux 15mm f1,7
  • Summilux 12mm f1.4
• Olympus (µ43: Cropfactor 2)
  • 12mm f2.0
  • 75mm f1.8

Analog

• Hasselblad 500
  • 80mm f 2,8 Sonnar T*
  • 150mm f 4,0 Sonnar

Flash Equipment

• 11 Speedlights (2 Canon, 1 Genesis, 6 cheap Yangnuo manual + 2 cheap Yongnuo TTL)
• Profoto C1+ incl Transmitter
• 2 Profoto B1
• 4 Bowens Gemini 500R (Studio Kit) 
• Calumet transmitters
• Yongnuo Transmitters
• Canon RT Transmitter
• Calumet Lighting Stands and Light Modifiers

Tripods

• Manfrotto 055cxpro tripod with Novoflex Classic Ball 5
• Gitzo Traveler 6X Tripod with Novoflex Ball NQ
• Novoflex Triopod Tripod
• Peak Design Travel Tripod
• Novoflex Panorama Pro Panorama Head
• Novoflex Nano Panorama Head (self configured)
• some Gorilla-pods

Accessories and other stuff

• Lexar Pro CF-& SD cards
• Lexar Professional USB 3.O Card Readers
• Lowe Pro Camera Bags

Software

• Lightroom CC ( not happy)
• Aperture for all photos before EOS 5D Mk IV - Apple stopped 
• PhotoMechanic5 (Basic Organizing)
• Adobe Creative Cloud
  • Lightroom - especially when Apple is not delivering RAW Converters..
  • Photoshop
  • Adobe Bridge
• DxO-Optics Pro11 (Really great Raw Developing Tool)
• NikCollection
• Intensify Pro & Snap Heal from MacPhun
• Helicon Focus for Focus Stacking
• PTGui Pro (best stitching tool on the market: stitches RAW and HDR-RAW!!!)
• Canon DPP & EOS Utility still in some cases..
• PT-Lens for lens correction out of Aperture
• iPhoto (Mainly for Calendars)