Gear Review 2016
What bits of kit impressed me in 2016?
One or two for sure, but not as many as you might think, but here are the things that have made it into my office for keeps, or made my ‘wants list’!
Nikon D500.
Buy Here: Calumet Photographic
Every time I grab hold of one of these 1.5x crop DSLR bodies I find myself wanting one more and more – cracking little camera.
I find the new Nikon auto focus system works better on this body than it does on the lamentable D5.
The 10 frames per second frame rate will drop noticeably to around 7fps with continuous dynamic tracking, but that’s not a bad thing really.
Get an XQD card (a big one!), and the battery pack with a D5 battery in it will give the auto focus that little extra ‘umph’.
Nikon 300mm f4 PF lens.
Buy Here: Calumet Photographic
Les Peel (Hi Les!) turned up here the other day with one of these 300mm PF lenses on his D500 – and honestly, it blew me away!
I’ve seen very mixed reviews about this lens, and to be honest I’d not given it a second thought ever since it was launched. But the D500/300mm PF combo that Les brought here staggered me in terms of sharpness and auto focus speed; I even slung the lens on my D800E, and got the same results.
Yes, I agree with with some of the negatives put forward by some; too many elements give give a certain ‘flatness’ to its images, and don’t even think about pointing it at the sun, because the fresnel will make a mess! But in terms of sports/action photography the idea of using it is a more appealing thought than that of swinging a 300 f2.8 all day.
Please bare in mind though that my opinion is based solely on the use of ONE example.
Canon 1DX Mk2.
By Here: Calumet Photographic
This camera isn’t just an ‘upgrade’ to the 1DXMk1 – far from it. For me the Mk1 was a reliable, steady and highly predictable dance partner.
The Mk2 is a bit of an animal by comparison – like switching from a slow waltz at the local town hall to a full-on Argentine Tango with some sultry hooker in a down-town bar in Beunos Aries!
I took one to Norway back in September for a week (1DX that is, not the sultry hooker), and it mystified my for at least 3 days because I was treating it like a Mk1.
For me it needs a small firmware ‘fettle’ on the AF, but the level of performance with this Mk2 is exceptional. And now the ADC is integral with the sensor (a la Nikons Sony sensors) the image quality has shot through the roof.
If you own a Mk1 and you are still debating the trade-in then STOP IT and get a move on – times a’wastin..!
Canon 200-400mm f4
Buy Here: Calumet Photographic
Still ranks as my favored lens for wildlife photography, not quite the blistering speed and resolution of the behemoth below, but it’s a very close second. The versatility of 200-560mm comes in mighty handy, and it totally wipes the floor with the Nikon alternative.
Canon 500mm f4 USM Mk2.
Buy Here: Calumet Photographic
Oh my, what a lump of glass. Far lighter than its predecessor, and better balanced if you ask me; I can shoot this lens hand-held all day long – simply stunning image quality and so sharp and fast in the auto focus department that it makes me want to cry!
Both it and it’s zoom cousin above represent huge chunks of investment so you have got to NEED either one. But both of them are worth every single penny if you ask me.
G-Tech G-Raid 8TB Removable Drive
Buy Here: Calumet Photographic
I have to admit to being a bit of a G-Drive fan-boy – yep, they’re slightly pricey!
But if you spend thousands on your camera bodies and lenses, and your images are your lifes work, then wincing at the cost of somewhere bullet-proof to store said images is the action of an idiot.
My images are stored on two 4TB internal drives and both of these are cloned to an 8TB internal RAID 0 pair. This RAID 0 pair is backed up to the 8TB G-Drive unit. Being on a ‘cheese grater’ MacPro I have no Thunderbolt connections. But this G-Drive unit is plenty fast enough for my needs across USB 3.0
It’s fast, reliable, very quiet and gives me dual backup for off-site storage for not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things.
G-Tech G-Drive EV ATC 1TB USB 3 Hard Drive
Buy Here: Calumet Photographic
I’ve had a couple of these 1Tb USB 3.0 portable G-Drives for over a year now – I use them for storage and backup when I’m away, and they have performed flawlessly in that time.
Based around the modular G-Drive system the internal Evolution series drive can be easily removed from the ruggedised water-proof case with little or no effort.
To free up the usb ports on my MacBook Pro I’ve just upgraded the external cases to Thunderbolt (yes, my MBP is the sensible one !). So now the drives can be used on either my MBP or Richs’ Vaio.
Eizo ColorEdge CS2420 24.1″ Wide Gamut Monitor
Buy Here: Calumet Photographic
As yet this baby hasn’t made it into my office because I don’t need a new monitor. But in about another 3 to 4 months that’ll be a different story, because my back light hours are long-since past already, and the extreme right edge of my LP2475W is getting slightly dark.
But am I going to replace it with a ColourEdge or SpectraView Reference – am I heck as like!
No, it’ll be this CS2420. Calumet Birmingham have one of these in permanent use – God only knows how old it is or how many hours it has on the back light. But I calibrated it the other week using my ColorMunki Photo via the MBP running a 10 bit connection over Display port to mini Display port and was mightily impressed:
The CS2420 (wire frame) compared to AdobeRGB1998 – impressive for under £600.
I must stress that I treat any monitor as ‘dumb’ – I don’t use any of the software-based calibration utilities that come with the monitor, nor do I use the silly little sensor that drops down from the top bezel on some Eizo CE’s.
When you have a print coming off the printer that looks exactly like the original image (not the damn soft-proof like some folk forget) then you know your colour management is set up perfectly.
And this CS2420 Eizo enables me to do just that – for under £600 – a bargain!
Speaking of printing, my last recommendation is a printing paper.
Brilliant Museum Inkjet Paper – SilverGloss Natural 300gsm
Buy Here: Calumet Photographic
Brilliant by name, and rather brilliant by nature!
I love this paper. It’s quite heavy and substantial at 300gsm, and has quite a large gamut. I use it all the time in my venerable Epson 4800 – and that’s with the ‘canned profile’ and Lyson ink for Gods sake.
It gives exceptional prints using Calumet/Brilliant own ‘canned’ profiles on the Canon 9500Mk2 and Pixma Pro 1, and the Epson SC-P600/800. I’ve no reason to think it won’t work in other printers that have a profile listed on the Brilliant website, but I haven’t tried them! And Canon actually produce their own Pixma Pro 1 profile for this paper too, links below:
You will find the profile in one of the sub folders in the download.
And speaking of the Pixma Pro 1
Buy Here: Calumet Photographic
A 12 ink A3+ printer that I really do rate – for a ‘plastic fantastic’ desktop printer.
I know it’s been around for a while now, so it’s not new like the Epson SC-P600/800 printers – but then again, I’m not overly partial to either of those. Not that there’s anything wrong with the printers – it’s just the stupid driver installations I can’t get on with – pathetically over-complicated.
Basically the Pixma Pro 1 is ‘plug ‘n go’ once the driver is installed and it produces the best quality prints I’ve seen out of a Canon DTP since the venerable old 3500Mk2 ended production.
The light weight head is supposed to help prevent clogs – though the real cause of head clogs is low humidity inside the printer.
No ‘plastic fantastic’ printer is designed for regular long print runs; that’s the purview of the big medium format jobs. But for someone who wants to print a handful of A3 prints per week this printer should suit them down to the ground.
Canon 5DMk4.
A lot of you will be wondering why I’ve not mentioned or listed the Canon 5DMk4. Short answer is I’ve not finished testing it yet – I do the job thoroughly! No good saying it works brilliantly, then have the thing erupt in a ball of flame after 2 months a la S7 Edge is it?
I just need to do some final dynamic range testing on it, and to that end I’ll be using the new and older versions of the ubiquitous 16-35 f2.8
So there we go, 10 goodies of varying cost that I’ve considered as ‘wish list worthy’ in 2016; some new and some not so new.
Remember, these are just the opinions of some fat geezer in Cheshire!
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