Thoreau Photography

Now with Updated Addendum and Conclusion There is probably no more frequently asked question on photography forums than what is the better lens when comparing Canon's two professional mid-range zooms. These discussions are invariably circular and pretty much get nowhere, like an old married couple arguing: "he said..." "she said..." "he said..." etc, ad infinitum. Typically they end up confirming what we already know at the start: Read more...

A portable telephoto is pretty much an oxymoron: an inevitable compromise between two contradictory concepts. For moving about, typically smaller and lighter are better. For image quality in a 300 mm lens, usually larger is better, with more glass correlating with better light gathering ability. Read more...

This is a remarkably squat, unexpectedly heavy lens. If it were a member of a rugby team, there is no doubt that it would be a front-row prop. But this is no thick-necked thug capable of doing only a single job. Defying its build, it shows more of the finesse of a ballet dancer. Read more...

I haven’t been without a Canon SLR camera for well over 30 years. Sure, there were times when I wondered whether I’d backed the right horse. And, in the days before digital, it had essentially become a two-horse race: Pentax had lost their way; Yashica/Contax were simply lost; and Minolta were going their own way, which proved to be up a dead end. Read more...

Step up to the plate: an Olympus E-3. Sporting a sensor only half the size of the 5D Mark II and a relatively paltry 10 megapixels, it has something that other four-thirds cameras do not: probably the best weather sealing on the market (of any camera), a brilliantly fast autofocus system, and a decidedly large viewfinder. Read more...

The first thing I noticed when taking the DP1 out of its box is that it’s rather big. It is literally a stretch to make it “pocketable”. It has often been likened to a Leica D-Lux 3 (or the equivalent Panasonic LX2): but the Leica looks and feels decidedly svelte by comparison – sort of like comparing Kate Moss to Pamela Anderson. It’s not like Pamela’s unattractive, just bigger, if you know what I mean. Read more...