Category: Reviews

I came across that pithy piece of advice the other day – the idea being that as a photographer, if you want to sell large prints as part of your portrait or wedding business, then you should only have large prints on display in your studio.

It’s not directly relevant to me (no studio, no portrait or wedding business), but I got the idea when I opened a flat box today from Mpix.

I’d had a bunch of shots printed at 12″ x 8″, and while that’s far from huge, it was the largest I’d seen most of these images.

Laid on the dining room table (helps that it’s white), they looked great.

And I could see some patterns and connections I’d not seen before between the different photos, even though I’d pored through them in deciding which ones to print up.

Like every camera-toting tourist who just got home from their holiday, I’m keen to show you my pics.

We travelled to Ireland (Co. Clare, and Dublin), and Italy – back to Le Marche. I packed light(ish) – the Rebel XT, Canon 24-105mm L, Sigma 10-20mm, and the Canon 50mm f.1.8 for the low light stuff.

We were bringing the laptop already, at least partly as a DVD player to keep our daughter amused on the long flights, so I got to do some editing and reviewing while I was there, which was great.

I also packed a LaCie 160GB Little Disc portable drive for backup. It seems pretty flimsy, but it’s small and light, and did the job. It’s also pretty cheap.

Anyway, here’s the Flickr set of pics.

Call it the poor man’s Leica, call it indestructible, call it whatever you want, but I love my Canon Canonet QL17.

Made between 1962 and 1971 the Canonet offers everything you could look for in a small flexible film camera:

• 40mm f/1.7 lens is sharp, flexible and great for low light conditions
• either go fully manual or (with the addition of a battery) use the metered mode that gives you a pretty good shutter-priority mode
• quick-loading film mechanism makes it easy for digital-heads like me to make sure the film winds on properly
• cheap and relatively easy to find (I got mine on eBay for around $35)

While I was in LA visiting family recently I got my first real chance to explore the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM I’d got for Christmas.

Our 2-year-old travels with more stuff than her parents put together, so there was only room for the camera, the nifty fifty and the 24-105.

I’d not shot with it that much, but here was a chance to give it a real try. And I’m learning to love it, but I’ve still got a little way to go.