Welcome to 2024
So here we are in January 2024 , start of a new year with hopes and dreams before us…
For me 2024 is going to be a challenge. mostly a physical challenge of getting fit enough to get out more with the camera but also a challenge in that I am planning to walk 192 miles across Northern England following the famous Coast to Coast walk of Alfred Wainwright.
As part of that I will take photos and some video along the way so I am also learning some elements of videography and boy my hat goes out to those out there that can create such wonderful stories to inspire us all. as the challenge of capturing , editing and expressing the emotion of the images is so tough. So bear with me on that front.
Already in 2024 my gear has taken a slight change, over the Christmas time I had two lenses on hire, the first was the Canon RF 100-500mm a lens which so many people on You Tube have spoken about and admired its quality, All of them were correct this is an amazing lens for the Canon RF mount system, on my R7 it easily outshone my trusty EF70-300mm L series lens and the Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary both of which I have enjoyed shooting with. The speed and accuracy of the autofocus and the incredible sharpness of the images produced has been truly eye opening.
Second I had the RF100mm f2.8 Macro lens on hire and that also is a truly incredible lens , I didn’t use this for quite as many shots as the 100-500 but those I did capture I am very happy with.
Sadly I had to return them to Lenses for Hire and face the prospect of not having them in my bag….
But having looked at how many images I capture with the 70-300 and 150-600 it became obvious that the focal lengths I mainly shoot at are in between these values - very few images are at the extremes. So I looked to trade them in for a single lens to cover the ranges I mainly shoot at and saw that by trading these two lenses in I could replace them with a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM . This made more sense as I already had the EF 1.4x III extender in my cupboard which fits more easily on the 100-400mm lens. So I made the decision and took the plunge via mpb.com.
So now I am looking to get out and use this lens, alongside another purchase - this time a wide angle EF-S lens the 10-18mm , this is one area where the APS-C sensor shooters lose out with Canon, in that without 3rd party lenses some focal lengths are just not affordable for the masses. I may rent the RF10-20mm later in the year and try it for some shots but for now will be happy to accept that most of my forays into wide angle images will be on older glass.
Right that’s enough for now - hope 2024 brings everything you hope for..
