{"id":91268,"date":"2020-11-11T06:22:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T13:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=91268"},"modified":"2020-11-11T07:24:54","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T14:24:54","slug":"confessions-of-a-camera-gear-junkie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/11\/11\/confessions-of-a-camera-gear-junkie\/","title":{"rendered":"Confessions Of A Camera Gear Junkie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>And a request for advice in buying some more.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Fair warning: Many of my loyal readers will likely have little interest in today&#8217;s post. No bird photos are included and it&#8217;s heavy on the photogeek. B<\/em><em>ut I need some advice and I can&#8217;t see not taking advantage of a resource that I hope is available to me &#8211; readers out there who normally seldom comment here but have some knowledge and\/or experience with some of the new camera technology and are willing to share it.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For about a year now I&#8217;ve been waffling back and forth about buying a new camera. I&#8217;ve been shooting mostly with the Canon 7D Mark II for six years now (I have two of them) and camera technology changes and improves fast so I feel like I&#8217;m being left behind.\u00a0But making the decision about which way to go is extremely complex and the parameters seem to change almost daily.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll admit to feeling some guilt about even considering buying more gear. The financial war chest of a retired teacher is far from bottomless and when I consider all the gear I own now it seems like I may have already gone more than a little overboard.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"91273\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/11\/11\/confessions-of-a-camera-gear-junkie\/camera-gear-collection-ron-dudley\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/camera-gear-collection-ron-dudley.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"675,900\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;1.7&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;SM-G950U&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1605021638&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;4.25&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;250&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.05&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"camera gear collection ron dudley\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/camera-gear-collection-ron-dudley.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-91273 size-full\" title=\"camera-gear-collection-ron-dudley\" src=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/camera-gear-collection-ron-dudley.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/camera-gear-collection-ron-dudley.jpg 675w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/camera-gear-collection-ron-dudley-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/camera-gear-collection-ron-dudley-113x150.jpg 113w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Sorry about the poor image quality &#8211; cell phone photo in low light<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This bookcase full of camera gear is the source of my guilt and this is far from all of it. Not seen here are things like two tripods, a photo blind, a lens cart, a lens caddy, several computers used almost exclusively for photography and various and sundry other items. I&#8217;ve thought about adding up all the money I&#8217;ve spent on photo equipment over the years but my psyche just couldn&#8217;t handle it. And now I&#8217;m seriously considering buying more? Sheesh!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Based on my needs and wants as a bird photographer these are some of the decisions I&#8217;ve already made.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>I won&#8217;t be leaving Canon. For me switching all my gear including cameras and lenses to another brand such as Sony is out of the question.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>I love my two birding lenses, the Canon Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM and the Canon Canon EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L IS II USM so I won&#8217;t be abandoning them either.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>A few months ago I very nearly pulled\u00a0 the trigger on the Canon IDX Mark III but its file size is only 20MP and at $6500 it&#8217;s too expensive, especially since it doesn&#8217;t have animal eye detection autofocus.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>\u00a0For a long time I was reluctant to buy a mirrorless camera because that meant using an adapter with the lenses I&#8217;ll be keeping. But apparently they work reliably and well so using an adapter may no longer be a deal killer.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>\u00a0I was also reluctant to go full frame. I prefer cropped frame cameras for the extra reach they provide for bird photography but Canon has abandoned the 7D line and the much larger file size of at least one of the cameras I&#8217;ve been considering would allow me to crop more and not pay much of a price in lost image quality, if any.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For the last year or so I&#8217;ve been watching camera developments fairly closely but I was sitting on the sidelines until a few days ago when blog reader Ron Thill sent me this link to a <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff; text-decoration: underline;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5vyq304j4wE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">video review of the new Canon EOS R5 camera<\/a><\/span><\/span> and that got my juices flowing again. Further research suggests that the R5 may be a superb option for me and I&#8217;ve been drooling over that camera ever since.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the features of the R5 that appeal strongest to me include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>45MP file size so I can crop more without significant loss of image quality<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>an advanced autofocus system including animal\/bird head and eye detection that according to reviews works incredibly well<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>12 frames\/second mechanical and 20 frames\/second electronic (my 7DII shoots 10 frames\/second)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But no camera is perfect and that includes the R5. The most significant problem with the R5 has been an overheating issue in video mode but at this point at least video holds little interest for me.<\/p>\n<p>So I&#8217;d appreciate some advice from any readers out there who have knowledge, experience or just plain thoughts along the following lines;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>potential issues with using adapters to mount Canon&#8217;s EF lenses on mirrorless cameras<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>cropping larger files more and still getting good to excellent image quality. With my 20MP 7D Mark II I hesitate to crop any more than 50%<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>what are your thoughts about the R5? Any experience with it including with the animal eye\/head detection?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>any other considerations that I haven&#8217;t mentioned<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Thanks in advance for any assistance. Back to regular programming tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>Ron<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Note: Believe it or not, compared to some other bird and nature photographers I&#8217;m a rank amateur when it comes to collecting camera gear.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And a request for advice in buying some more.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/11\/11\/confessions-of-a-camera-gear-junkie\/\"><span>Continue reading<\/span><i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,334],"tags":[5450,2348,5449,5448,5451,5452],"class_list":["post-91268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-photography-methods","category-birds","tag-canon-1dx-mark-iii","tag-canon-7d-mark-ii","tag-canon-eos-r5","tag-considerations-when-buying-a-new-camera-for-bird-photography","tag-pros-and-cons-of-mirrorless-cameras","tag-using-an-adapter-with-mirrorless-cameras"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/camera-gear-collection-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-nK4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}