My photo-equipment

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The body, Canon EOS 1D
I bought the body in the US (a friend helped ship it over) in May 2003. The reasons I wanted it were - I wanted a digital camera for ease of use (instant feedback and no need to scan pictures), I wanted a weather-proof body, the 1.6x magnification of images found in cheaper models was not good for me, and I could afford it.
The reason I bought it this way - it was the cheapest there by a wide margin.
From May 2003 until February 2004 I took over five thousand pictures with it.

Things I like:
It's weather-proof, once I walked around for almost an hour in heavy rain and the only thing I had to worry about was the rain getting on the glass at the front of the lens (with the 70-200 IS attached, which is waterproof too, other lenses would not do) (after the Rain Scare, though, I am not being silly any more).

Although it is big and heavy (a mantra repeated by most users in their reviews) it fits my hand very well, and the camera feels well balanced with my big and heavy lenses.
I like the vertical grip as I use this format very often.
Fast Firewire connection for downloading pictures to my computer.
Dual (RAW and JPEG) format of saving pictures. I usually use both, RAW just in case I need a really big file/print, and JPEG for the use on the internet.
The menu system is easy enough to understand and use, after a while.

Things I don't like:
The colour balance. At night it is best to leave it on Auto, as the others (Daylight, Shade, Overcast, Tungsten, Fluorescent) have problems with the right colour when there are numerous different sources of light (like on a street for example).

The Firewire connector became loose after a few months of use - it moves when I attach the cable. This is the thing that annoys me the most, a camera that cost 3600 USD should not have faults like that.

The lack of zoom feature on the playback screen. Not a big deal, film cameras don't have any playback at all, but I lost at least three pretty important pictures because I found out later that the part of the frame that I wanted in focus was in fact not. top of page

The macro, Canon 180mm f/3.5 L
I don't use this lens much, it's a shame really, but I don't have too many opportunities for macro work (insects and butterflies are the preferred object).
It's a heavy lens, before I bought a tripod I was using it with high-speed continuous shooting - which, by the way, seems to me a better way to take macro pictures, moving around is much easier (the tripod doesn't get in the way) and fast shutter speed takes care of camera shake most of the time. There are a lot of 'duds' when I do miss focus, but with the instant playback and the 'delete' button that is not a problem.

Things I like:
Close focusing range. Sharpness and detail. Colour reproduction. Image reproduction scale 1:1. Built quality. A few days ago I was mounting the lens on the tripod and it fell on a concrete floor from about a foot above the ground. Scared the hell out of me, but so far I have not noticed any damage.
It focuses super fast and accurate, but only if the change in the distance from the object is not great.

Things I don't like:
It takes forever to focus if the distance is big, the lens hunts for a long time, but considering the way the mechanism has to move (48 cm to infinity) it's not a big surprise. top of page

The standard zoom, Canon 28-70mm f/2.8 L
My first L series lens, and the age starts to show. The barrel and especially the lens hood are scratched from many bumps that this lens has received. The zoom ring is a little loose and when I rotate it I can feel that the resistance is different at different focal lengths.
It is also the lens I use the most, although I find myself reaching for the tele-zoom often now, to get closer to the details - I would not mind at all a lens of this quality but with zoom range closer to 28-120.
The lens is well-made (it survived an accident in which I fell on the ground and my left wrist ended in bandages for a few weeks - this is when the zoom ring started to play up.

Things I like:
The usual L series compliments - colour reproduction, sharpness, detail.

Things I don't like:
Nothing really. Just more millimetres on the longer end would be nice.

The wide angle, Canon 20mm f/2.8
My first Canon lens - before I had a few third party lenses, after I compared the prints from my first roll of firm I promised myself not to use these lenses any more. The prints were much sharper, clearer, the colour - all the usual, everything was better.
Although this lens is not an L series product, it is equally sharp.

Things I like:
I like the distortions that this focal length produces.
The above-mentioned sharpness, detail, colour reproduction.

Things I don't like:
The problem of the flare is pretty serious, but as long as I remember about it, it's not that bad. I had to buy the lens hood separately, after a few months of looking for it. top of page

The tele-zoom, Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS
The newest addition to my collection of lenses, which I bought because I started to feel that I needed something longer than 70mm.
I spent quite some time researching my options - the three 70-200 lenses (f/4, f/2.8, f/2.8 IS) and the 35-350. I finally settled on the 70-200 IS because of the Image Stabilisation. I have a tripod, but I prefer to travel light (an oxymoron really, what with the combined weight of my equipment). I would much prefer to have one lens attached to the camera all the time and not have to change them all the time - but the 35-350 lost as it did not have the IS. Considering my needs, and the weight of the lens I settled on the 70-200 and possibly buy an Extender later.

(I'm really bummed that I did not wait for the new 28-300 IS as it would probably be the best possible solution)

Things I like:
Built quality, image quality, the IS does work).

Things I don't like:
The lens is enormously long with the hood attached, it's really easy to bump into things with it. It is easy to change the focus switches (auto, manual).
Heavy to carry around in a shoulder bag, but not too heavy to use. top of page

Extender EF 2x II
I bought it in January 2006, especially for the trip to Malaysia and Singapore, where, I knew, I'd have an opportunity to take pictures of birds. Extenders (the one I have, the 2x, and the 1.4x) are, let's say, super-telephoto for the poor. Their job is to increase the focal length of a lens, respectively 2x and 1.4x. This way, for example, a lens EF 70-200mm becomes 140-400mm.

Good - the extender is relatively cheap, small, and light, it can be mounted or taken off the camera, as needed. It is water-proof to some degree.

Bad - the quality of pictures suffers a little (although I don't complain), of course there is no comparison to lenses with fixed length of e.g. 400mm (but such a lens weighs a few kilograms and costs a few thousand dollars). The maximum aperture drops by two stops too.

An explanation - a lens 70-200mm f/2.8 with an extender becomes a 140-400mm f/5.6, a macro lens 180mm f/3.5 - 360mm f/4.5 - this means that more time is needed to properly expose the picture. top of page

Multi-media controller Contour ShuttlePro 2
A fantastic device, an absolute must for someone who spends a lot of time processing pictures, making websites, composing music, etc. It works with a few dozen programs, it's possible to use the manufacturers settings, or program the 15 buttons and two knobs to one's own liking.

Work flow, the speed of work, once one learns what is where, increases a lot, e.g. to do the following (when website building): open, copy, close, open, paste, save, close - using just the mouse - 18 moves of the mouse/clicking (more or less, that's how many I counted), using the mouse/ShuttlePro combination - 11.

That may not be an impressive difference, but considering the fact that it is not necessary to 'fiddle' with drop-down menus any more, but just press buttons on the mouse and the controllers - the time saved is amazing.
The only thing that I don't like, sometimes the buttons don't react and I have to press again/harder to make it work.

I bought the controller in the United States, on-line, for 100 USD. top of page

The tripod, Manfrotto Carbon One 441 with the 141 RC head
I've had it for a very short time, so I can only offer a brief review. The tripod seems to be very stable, it's light (about 3 pounds), fully opened it's almost high enough for me not to stoop.
I have some reservations to the quick release, I carried the camera mounted on the tripod a few times with no accident, but once when mounting the macro lens on I accidentally dropped the lens on the ground because I thought it was attached securely when in fact it wasn't.

The memory card, Lexar 1GB 32x Pro
What can I say, it carries about 200 pictures in the high RAW plus JPEG(small) format and ISO 200. The file sizes depend on ISO and RAW/JPEG settings, with only JPEG(small) the card packs about a thousand pictures.

more technical details can be found on: www.canon.com, www.manfrotto.com, www.digitalfilm.com, www.contourdesign.com

pictures taken from the websites

Address of the Canon Service Centre in Shanghai:
381 HuaiHai Lu, ZhongHua Tower, 13th floor
tel.: 021 6391 6511

01.2008