Tools
I thought I’d make the first post here about gear in case anyone is interested or finds it useful.
For context, quite recently I had to start from scratch on a (relative) budget to make a professional kit which could cover news and corporate work including events (remaining competitive with colleagues on the most up-to-date kit), and would also help me produce landscape photography prints at fairly large sizes. It was nice not being already tied into Canon, Sony or Nikon. I went with Sony.
Such a kit has to cover focal lengths from 16mm to 200mm (that’s what everyone alongside you in news will probably have, traditionally 16-35 and 70-200 2.8 zooms, and also covers all events), has to have focusing capability up to sports photography standards, resolution for big prints, the ability to shoot silently, and not break in difficult conditions. It also has to have a reasonably fast and small 35, 40, or 50 mm (outside of work I dont want to carry much). This is what I ended up going with:
Sony A9 ii (first choice for everything except landscapes, very reliable, tough, fast all rounder, very good for news and events, still good for everything else)
Sony A7R iiia (companion to A9 ii, much slower, worse controls with horrible AF-ON button, very good for landscapes, still ok for news and events, high resolution adds extra capabilities beyond the A9 ii including a high resolution file in APS-C crop mode effectively giving all lenses a 1.5x digital teleconverter, sensor might be as nice as a 5D mark 1’s)
Tamron 16-30 f2.8 (have to cover the 16mm end somehow just in case, lightweight, small, internal zoom, more useful than a 16mm prime because you really want something around 24mm too. Very good value even new)
ZEISS Batis 40mm f2 (it’s just brilliant, light, small and extremely versatile with its close focus ability. 35mm is a little wide, and 50mm a little tight. I prefer the Zeiss lenses over more clinical and similarly priced Sigmas, while objectively this might not be a optically good as the latest 50 or 35 from Sigma (which I tried for a while), the pictures look alot better straight out of the camera.)
Zeiss Batis 135mm f2.8 (the smallest 135mm for Sony, outstanding image quality, optical stabilisation is very useful, makes a 202.5mm f2.8 on the A7R iiia with the APS-C crop button at about 26mp so that’s the 200mm end covered. It may seem odd to choose a 135 2.8 over a 2.8 70-200, but it is really outstanding optically and smaller/lighter so a bit more discreet. Also there’s less to think about with a prime over a zoom and its not the silly white colour)
Formatt Hitech Firecrest 85mm filter holder - polariser, grad, ND 2.4, ND 3.0, 1/4 black mist.
Three Legged Thing Travis 2.0 tripod
Little Godox speed light
Really Right Stuff arca baseplate/grip extender for the A7R iiia
I went with Sony because they are generally small, light and well built (the A9 ii is a modern equivalent of my old 1DXs but tiny), good value used, you can tilt the screens without folding them out to the side, there’s loads of excellent money saving third party lenses available, and the Zeiss lenses are very nice in my opinion. Yes, Sony’s grips are too small, but you can always screw on a grip extender and it’s nice to have the option of a smaller, lighter camera if not. Sony’s controls are fine except for the appalling AF-ON button on the A7R iiia. The control customisation on both bodies is excellent so I don’t really need to use the slightly complicated menus, I just put the few things I might need in the “my menu” page.
All I need now is another 5D mark 1 (my favourite camera of all time, mine broke). Also a 70-200 or the Tamron 70-180 to fill the gap between 40 and 135. Maybe the ZEISS Batis 85mm f1.8.
So there it is. Questions welcome to tim@timirelandoutdoor.com, or here.
There lots of other bits, like laptop, bags, waterproofing, straps, tape etc. that I've not talked about here. Maybe in another post.
Thanks for reading,
Tim.