I haven't blogged in a while and I figured this was one worthy of a post.
Last week we took a nice vacation. Normally when I go on vacation, pack EVERYTHING photographic. Camera, all the lenses, film camera w/film, extra batteries, extra SD cards, etc, etc. That usually is about 35-40 lbs of gear with the bag alone. This year, I decided to much smaller:
That was it! No film cameras, no zoom lenses, just a more "bare bones" approach that would fit in my small shoulder bag I got off of Amazon a few years back along with an insert that fit it perfectly. My thought was just to go slim and I'm glad I did.
I found after a few days that I was using the 35mm lens and not the others. The Canon EOS R is a 30MP camera that hit the market several years ago and was one of the first Canon mirrorless cameras. I jumped on the mirrorless bandwagon, (even though I bought a 5D Mark IV the previous year), and I haven't looked back!
What I found this week as I really deep dived into shooting with it is that the lens and camera combo are fantastic! The sharpness and detail I got from my images I feel rivals anything I've ever captured with the 5D and my Tamaron and Sigma lenses.
The 35mm lens is a macro lens as well and you can get REALLY close to your subjects while being able to maintain a wide angle of view which gives you a lot of room to play with depth of field. To often in the past, I've forced myself to use either my 24-70 or 70-200 because I didn't want to miss a shot. But this time, I stopped worrying and stuck with primes.
In my experience, the STM line of glass didn't really hold up as well as the L series of glass that Canon has produced with regards to sharpness and clarity. But with this recent generation of lenses, that really seems to have changed. I LOVE my EOS R. Sure, it's a 5 year old camera and doesn't have all the fancy bells and whistles that the newer line of Canon R bodies that are on the market, but I am content with this camera. I don't shoot a lot of video so I know there's missing features that video creators look for, but if you're looking for a step into the mirrorless world, I highly recommend this camera. Sure, I want an R5, but will probably settle for an R6 Mark II or the R8 which has most all the same "guts" of the R6mII, but for around $1000 less!
For now, I'll keep shooting with this combo because after having a week to intentionally slow down and enjoy the process and not worry about missing things, I think I found something great that I've been missing out for a long time. I think next on my list will be a day with the RF50!
Here's some of what I captured from the Cleveland Museum of Art and The Age of Steam Roundhouse. Enjoy!
