New "Toys"

We temporarily leave the Master Bathroom Series once again for a bit of background and a product review. I've always enjoyed photography. Both my grandfathers were avid amateur photographers and one of them won quite a few local and regional contests. Through the years, a camera body and lenses were handed down. My Granpa's venerable Canon AE-1 was my first SLR camera and I cut my teeth in the world of apertures, focal lengths, shutter speeds, and filters. That rugged AE-1 survived my trip through the tropical environments of the Marshall Island and Hawaii as well as through my first 4 1/2 years of stormchasing trips. However, it finally started to falter as the shutter started to stick and it became cost prohibitive to fix.

In 1999, I purchased my first SLR; a Canon Rebel 2000 to supplement the AE-1 and also to start building my own cache of photographic equipment. Graduate school intervened however and I never had the money to purchase additional lenses for this body. Additionally, the Rebel 2000 had only a plastic lens mount ring and it would not withstand the heavier and more robust lenses in the EOS series. Once again, Canon proved that their products last. The body continues to function well after 7 years but the lens has been acting up for the last 2. Again, this camera has survived the rigors of stormchasing, the dust encountered off-roading in the Jeep, and crawling among the Hill Country wildflowers in the spring. My best lightning and wildflower pictures have been taken with the f2.8-4 28-80mm lens and Rebel 2000.

Then in 2006, my good friends in Colorado purchased a Digital Rebel XT. Actually, they accidentally purchased two thus having a spare one. I tested their camera in Colorado in during our '06 Jeep Trip and fell in love with the fact that you could instantly see what you had just tried to take a picture of. No more expense of purchasing Velvia slide film or Superia print film. So, I purchased their spare body and used the lens from my Rebel 2000. This has worked for the last 2 years up until this Christmas when the auto-focus ultrasonic motor finally gave out. You guessed it, it is cheaper to use it as a manual lens than to ship it off and get it fixed. This meant that I needed a new lens. Something that I can use in environments ranging from pristine to dust filled; dusk under a thunderstorm to shooting on-stage for church events.

Enter the Canon EOS 24-70 f2.8L.

All I can say is: "Dang!" Sealed and gasketed joints provide protection from dust and grit. The fixed low-end f2.8 aperture will handle low-light situations well and the 24-70 range will provide just a tad-bit wider field-of-view than the older lens (although this lens equates to a 38-112mm focal length due to the 1.6x magnification factor of the Digital Rebel XT CCD setup). Unfortunately the lens is heavy, weighing in at a hefty 2 lbs. This is due to the high-quality glass lens elements and an all-metal construction. No plastic in this puppy!

But how does it shoot? Here are some images I took this past Sunday night (click on the image to get the big version):

I'll reserve final judgment until I get some wider variety of shots (weather, flowers, outdoors, etc.) but so far I am VERY pleased. The quality is far superior to my old lens and this one is rugged enough to last quite a while with proper care. My only concern is that it is too heavy for my Digital XT mount and I'll have to "upgrade" the SLR body sometime soon :-).

The title also says "Toys". Plural. I also had to replace my 15 year old Velbon tripod. Enter in the Slik Pro 700DX.

Downside - H E A V Y. Advantage - won't trip over in those strong supercellular inflow winds. Advantage 2 - I can file down the legs some to create a powder that could start a fire in an emergency. The tripod legs are made up of a Magnesium Aluminum Titanium alloy and in powder form those will go POOF! Advantage 3 - it is tall enough to place the camera nearly at my eye-level; much easier to use than having to hunch over with the old Velbon tripod. Again, I'm really pleased with this tripod even though it provides a great workout when lifting it.

So stay tuned...more images to come as I play around with this new lens. I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog reading.