Another great recommendation for a large sling bag

Just as I hadn't really thought about holster bags I had kinda given up on the idea of a sling bag that would fit a 70-200mm lens with the hood extended - in shooting position, and ready to be used the second it's out of the bag.

But then I had another recommendation from the dpreview.com forum. This time also for a Think Tank bag - a Sling-O-Matic 20.

The Sling-O-Matic 20 will fit my gear nicely, the 10 seems too small and the 30 is just too big for the equipment I plan on using.

The bag doesn't really look like much - it's basically just a square box, so it won't win any design awards for its looks.

But, just like the DH 50 V2.0 I got a recommendation for yesterday, this one will, according to Think Tank themself, fit my body, my lens and the hood.

Check out this promo video from Think Tank to get a feeling for the size of gear that will fit inside.





I've added this Think Tank bag to the page with the other recommended camera bags

A holster bag might be the solution for me

When I started looking for a camera bag for my still not delivered Canon 5D Mark III I didn't think of looking at holster bags - I simply thought they were too small to hold anything of the length I was looking for.

But it turns out that I was wrong, and there are indeed holster - or top loaders - that will fit a good sized DSLR with a 70-200mm zoom and the hood attached (extended)

I posted in the dpreview.com forum for suggestions to a bag and one user came back with a recommendation for a specific Think Tank bag - the DH 50 V2.0.

Unlike most other camera bag descriptions Think Tank didn't just provide the internal and external dimensions, but they mentioned specific lenses that would fit in the bag, on a Pro-size DSLR and with the hood extended.

Lowepro seems to make a similar bag - the Toploader Pro 75 AW - but I can't find any description or review that tells me exactly what I can expect to fit in the bag.

I've added the bag recommended in the forum to a page with some of the other suggested camera bags

Which camera bag should I buy?

I'm looking for advice on a camera bag.


I've looked at the reviews of quite a lot of them, but I still can't point my finger at any bag that will be the best fit for my needs.

I've looked at a lot of different types of bags (shoulder, back and sling) but I just can't figure out which one will be the most useful for me.

What do I need it for?


I have a daughter that rides horses, so 95% of all pictures are of an equestrian nature from showjumping and dressage 
competitions.

My old camera (or current until my Mark III arrives) is a Nikon D70s with a 70-300mm lens.

I usually have my kit lens with me in the car, but find that I rarely switch lenses.

My tripod is usually in the back of my car and I find that I don't use it very often.

My thoughts about the different types of camera bags


When I started getting more and more into photography and started "wearing" my camera everywhere I went I played with the idea of getting a sling bag. I liked the idea of having the camera safely tugged away, but with fast access.

But when I decided to get the 5D Mark III with the 70-200mm IS II USM I kinda left that idea behind thinking that I couldn't find a sling bag that would fit this combo.

Then I started looking at backpacks and shoulder bags - and I'm still torn between the two.

Backpacks are convenient to carry around and with plenty of room.

I don't see myself doing any trekking with my gear, but when we're out at competition I sometimes need to handle the horse and I'd rather not do that with my camera wedged between myself and a horse. So it would be nice with a bag nearby to safely tug my camera away for the next 10 minutes.

I will almost always be near my car, so that left me thinking about the type of bag that I never thought I would buy - one of those square shoulderbags.

90% of the time I'll be using the bag as a storage unit where all my gear can sit securely while it gets transported to and from competitions, but then I'll be missing out on the option to tug my camera away in a jiffy.

So I think the best bag for my needs will be a backpack.

And now the big question:

Which one should I get?


I don't have a lot of gear and don't really plan on carrying multiple bodies and multiple lenses with me.

In essence I just need something to safely transport my gear in the back of a car which I can also carry around for safekeeping my gear whenever I need to handle a horse.

The perfect bag would be large enough to hold a 5D Mark III and the 70-200mm with the hood attached

Any ideas?




Deciding on a lens for my Canon 5D Mark III

Deciding on a lens for my new Canon 5D Mark III was no easy task - and yet in the end it seemed there was only one obvious choice.

The lens I was looking for needed to have these 3 traits:

  1. Image stabilization 
  2. Fast
  3. Zoomable

Image stabilization

It's rare that there is room for a tripod where I shoot and I would be scared of somebody knocking it over when passing me, so it needed to be an IS lens.

I've never shot with a IS lens before, but the idea of being able to stop down multiple f-stops made this one a must-have.

Fast

Half the year I shoot indoors in poorly and unevenly lit riding arenas, so I knew a slow lens wouldn't cut it. Despite the camera itself having excellent low light performance I knew I wasn't going rely on high ISO capabilities saving pictures shot with a slow lens, so I opted for a f/2.8 lens

Zoom

I could have gone for a prime lens, but shooting horses at competitions means that they will sometimes pass a few meters in front of me only to ride to the far end of a 60m arena - so I couldn't live without a zoom lens.

The options

I had been using a Nikkor 70-300mm 4.0/5.6G zoom on my aging Nikon D70s. So, since I was going from a cropped sensor to a full-frame camera I initially looked at something that would go beyond 300mm to make up for the angle of view loss I would get from going full-frame.

So I went looking for a 400mm lens.

Looking for speed (f/2.8) and image stabilization (IS) I had the option of a neat looking Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM Image Stabilizer Super Telephoto Lens. There were two downsides though - a) it wasn't a zoom lens and b) the price didn't have a very high WAF (Wife Approval Factor) - even the grey market version didn't make the price sufficiently less painfull.

Zoom lenses that could reach 400mm would be either the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM AutoFocus Image Stabilized Telephoto Zoom Lens or the Sigma 120-400mm f/4.5-5.6 DG APO OS (Optical Stabilizer) HSM AutoFocus Telephoto Zoom Lens.

Both these zoom lenses were affordable, but fully zoomed they were both f/5.6 aperture lenses so they were not an option either.

Looking at the 300mm range was the same - either I could get speed and image stabilization (from the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM Image Stabilizer AutoFocus Telephoto Lens) - or I could get zoom and IS (from the Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6L IS USM AutoFocus Wide Angle Telephoto Zoom Lens)

The 28-300mm does btw look like a very versatile lens - IS, great range and semi-fast when zoomed out.

Initially I didn't really want to look in the 200mm range because I felt I wasn't going to be able to capture the horses properly (as in roughly filling the picture) at the far end of the arena since I would go from 300mm to 200mm and from cropped sensor to full-frame.

I went through plenty of pages explaining the different differences between cropped and full-frame, the difference in image quality, the difference in effective focal lenght and the difference in angle of view - and everytime I read another page I was more confused than before.

I ended up using ther Focal Lenght Comparison Tools from Tamron and Nikon (the one from Canon was utterly useless for my purposes)

Playing with these tools I was able to visually compare the difference between 300mm on a cropped sensor and 200mm on a full-frame sensor - and there really is a big difference.

I would have needed somewhere around 475mm zoom on my Mark III to get the equivalent framing or angle of view as I get from 300mm on my D70s.

Or another way to look at it - zooming fully in (300mm) on my D70s I get an angle of view of 5.2 while I would get 12.2 with 200mm on my Canon.

Sadly I couldn't find any tool that would allow me to compare the image quality and pixel count from a picture taken on a 22.3 MP full-frame sensor at 200mm when it's cropped to match the same subject taken with a 6.0 MP cropped sensor at 300mm.

In the end I figured (or hoped) that the improved quality from the lens together with the higher pixel count and the better image quality from the sensor itself would make up for the lack of zoom.

The decision

And so I decided on the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM AutoFocus Telephoto Zoom Lens.

While researching the lens it also dawned on me that the downside of not being able to get the same narrow angle of view when fully zoomed in is at the same time an upside when fully zoomed out since both lenses start at 70mm - which on my new full-frame sensor means that I can capture horses closer to the barrier than before (with the angle of view going from 21.8 degree to 34.1 degree).

Could I have gone for the IS instead of the IS II? - sure, but the reviews of the IS II (especially when compared to the 'old' IS) were so great that I convinced myself so much that I was also able to convince my wife that the pictures would get significantly sharper - even at low light  - and who is she to resist better pictures of her horses :-)

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM

New delivery date for my Canon 5D Mark III: June 8

New delivery date for my Canon 5D Mark III: June 8
Guess it shouldn't come as a surprise, but sad to see the estimated delivery date of my new Canon 5D Mark III jumping from the 23th this month to the 8th next month.

Still a long time until indoor season starts again, so plenty of time for the body to arrive and for the price of the lens I've got my eyes on to drop back to the plateau price it was at just a few weeks back.

I've ordered my Canon EOS 5D Mark III

Canon EOS 5D Mark III (body only)
There's no turning back now - I've clicked the order button for my new Canon EOS 5D Mark III :-)

The availability of the 5D Mark III is more scarse than confirmed Yeti sightings, but there's a chance it willl ship on May 23th.

In reality I'm not that concerned with the shipping date since the outdoor showjumping and dressage season have started. The limitations of my old D70s were all related to poor lighting - and I won't need to shoot in those conditions until October when the indoor season starts.

This is by far the most expensive item I've ever purchased online, and I'm not even done shopping yet.

So far I've only ordered the body and a new Compact Flash (CF) card - The CF card I had in my Nikon  D70s was only 1GB. It held 178 NEFs which was sufficient for a "normal" day shooting horses, but the size of the RAW images in the 5D Mark III is just so much bigger that I would run out of space very fast.

Next stop on my shopping spree will be a lens, a protective lens filter and a SDHC card for the other slot in the camera.

The final item, for now, will be a backpack large enough to hold the camera with the lens attached, and possibly with room for D70s with it's kit lens.

I've finally decided on my next new camera - the Canon EOS 5D Mark III


I've finally decided on my next new camera - the Canon EOS 5D Mark III.

My first DSLR was a Nikon D70s which I have now outgrown. I'm not a professional photographer, I'm not even an expert photographer, I'm more of a happy amateur that have bumped his head against the limitations and constraints of his current camera.

Initially I looked at the reviews of the Nikon D800 and D800e, but somehow I ended up looking at the 5D Mark III as well.

I knew I couldn't justify getting a D4 or a 1D X, but both the D800 and the 5D Mark III was within budget.


  • Deciding on the new camera: Check
  • Getting the wife to think it's necessary and not just nice to have: Check
  • Getting it delivered: .....


The availability of the 5D Mark III at the moment is nothing to brag about, and very few shops will commit to a shipping date - I guess they are all just waiting for their ordered units to ship from Canon.

I'm placing my order today with the company I think has the new camera in store relatively shortly... and then I'm keeping my fingers crossed.