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Since my Canon 5D Mark II went on the blink late last winter and I broke my newly repaired 16-35 mm lens in India, I have been really hurting for camera equipment. I had sent the Mark II to the Canon service center to see if I could get it repaired, but they wanted $500 plus to repair it and I just did not have it. I did not send the lens in because it was the fourth time I had broken it and I knew from experience it would cost right about $350 to fix it and I could not spare that, either.

But an unexpected, double-windfall came my way over the past two weeks. True, I could have put the entire windfall towards all my new medical expense and it would not have made a dent, but I am a photographer and I need a good camera. In recent months, virtually everything you have seen on this blog has been shot with my iPhone and lately, the compact Ricoh camera Zun Lee sent me before I went into surgery. I did shoot Margie's birthday and few other recent things from the car with my Canon 7D, which is a decent enough camera from some perspectives, but compared to my old 5D Mark II, the image quality is lacking and the sensor is cropped.

I like full-framed sensors.

Canon announced its new 5D Mark III camera at about the same time my 5D Mark II went down. Based on everything I read, it had been significantly improved over the Mark II, especially in low-light conditions - very important to me.

So yesterday, I bought one. After receiving this windfall, this, at least for the moment, puts us right back in the jam of having more bills then we can pay, but I justify this because I make my living with a camera. If I don't have a good camera, how can I make the money to pay anybody anything? Plus, on Monday I go back into the field for the first time since... almost forever, it feels like...

Barrow to begin with and then Kaktovik - maybe another village or two after that. So I just got to have a good camera with me.

After I brought the M III home, I put on the very slow 24 - 105 F. 4, left it to the camera to decide what ISO to use, pointed it at Margie and shot this frame. The only light was behind her. I could lighten the dark shadows on her a bit if I wanted to, but they were truly dark and this comes as close to representing the scene as it looked to my eye as I reckon is possible to get. I am tempted to say it is a "perfect representation," but perfect does not exist.

The camera set the ISO at 25600 (highest possible 102,800). Canon has another new camera, the 1DX, that surpasses the M III in ISO and other features, but my windfall was not big enough to cover it. Plus, it is a tank to carry around.

So, for now, I settle for the 5D MIII - a far finer camera than any other digital I have ever had before.

I've still got to send that damned broken lens in and get it fixed. I wonder when the next windfall will come?

Logbook - Wasilla - Beyond |

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Tuesday

Sep112012