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Two Interesting Gear Reads Tweet This   Forward This

23 April 2013

In our "wide reading" today, we came across a couple of gear-centric articles worth chewing on. One addresses the which-camera question and the other adroitly handles the what-to-pack question. It isn't so much that they buck conventional wisdom as it is how clearly they hit the nail on the head. It's like each author used a nail gun instead of the head of a wrench to drive home their point.

THAT WHICH-CAMERA QUESTION

The first of these is Thom Hogan's answer to the question, "Why buy a full-frame D600 instead of the less expensive sub-frame D7100?" (That link moves in a little while to his 2013 Archive.)

He suspects, "Most people asking the D7100 or D600 question are thinking mostly along the lines of image quality without really paying attention to what their needs are." But, unlike most photo pundits, he details those needs. "For email, social site use, Web display, and even slide shows (we don't use slide projectors any more, we use HD video outputs), you're not going to see a difference between DX [D7100] and FX [D600], so buy what you can afford."

So what's the argument for a full-frame D600?

First, he boils down the key differences between the D7100 and D600 as "$800, one stop difference in high ISO shooting, 1.5x difference in pixel density on a distant subject with the same lens." (We don't but he does explain each of those factors at length.) Then he advises, "One of those, or some combination of those, is what should determine which camera you buy."

Refreshing.

THE WHAT-TO-PACK QUESTION

The other eternal question is particularly pressing as we hit travel season. What to pack? Strobist David Hobby lays it all out for you (on top of his 13-inch MacBook Pro) in Traveling Light.

Here's what's not in his bag: a dSLR, a zoom lens, a strobe (go figure) and a second body. Yet he says, "I'm still protected with backups for critical items."

How? Well, mainly by including an iPhone, which doubles as his backup camera and backup Internet connection.

What restrictions this imposes on him he hopes merely spawns "some visual creativity." Like using a 35mm prime lens exclusively, which, he says, "has saved my back and improved my travel photos."

He's logged 100,000 miles with this setup, most recently to Havana, Cuba for a week. And the images from that trip just prove his point.

Almost awakes the wanderlust in us.


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