As the gear-lust was itching again, so I changed some of my stuff.
First of all I sold my 17-35 f/2.8 L. I was mainly using it a 17mm and small apertures, most of the time the 24mm of my 24-70 is enough wide-angle on the 5D. So I decided to sell it, and get a cheaper and even wider lens. So I found someone who was willing to trade it for his Sigma 15-30 and some money. I heared a lot of negative things about this lens, but most people hadn't tried it for themselves. The price was good, so I could always sell it with some profit. So far the lens has served me good! Sure, the AF is slow an noisy, but that's ok for my uses. Also, because of the bulguous front element, you can't fit a polarizer to it. Not the much of a problem on a special use wide-angle, and I can put ND-filters on the back of the lens. The colors it produces are great, as is the sharpness, so I'm quite happy with it. And I've got 2mm more wide-angle now, 15mm is really wide on the 5D. 8)
Here it is:
And some shots made with it:
The trade of the 17-35 left me with some spare change. Ever since I sold the 35/2 (due to the noisy AF) I was lusting after a fast wide-angle-prime. I decided to save up for a 35 f/1.4 L, when a friend made me a great offer for his 28 f/1.8. Sure, the quality isn't as good as an 35/1.4 or 24/1.4, but it's much cheaper and he made me an offer I couldn't refuse. It has USM, so fast and silent AF, 28mm is a great focal length for low-light-snapshots (my main purpose for this lens) and it's really small. The bokeh can be quite ugly at times, but that's fine for now. I also really love the look of wide-angle with small DOF.
Here it is:
And some pics taken with it. No automotive pics yet, but at least I ordered a polarizer for it:
I was using my 70-200 f/2.8 L mainly at 200/2.8 to get a small DOF, so I thought "why not trade it for a prime?" The 200 f/2.8 L would be a logical choice, but I thought that it would be a little too long, so I went with the shorter 135 f/2 L for an even smaller DOF. So far I'm not missing the ability to zoom and the DOF and sharpness are surreal. Yesterday I used it at f/5 for the first time, and the pics almost looked oversharpened without postprocessing! :shock: It's supposed to be Canon's sharpest lense, and I totally agree. Also it's a lot smaller and more leightweight than the 70-200, excellent for the summerholiday.
Here it is:
And some pics made with it:
After all the lens-galore, it was also time for some more flash-action. I bought a second 580EX and ordered a second CP-E3 (still waiting for it). But better yet, I also got some Pocket Wizards from the US! They are much cheaper over there, even after customs. I also got a compact lightstand + umbrella, again to take with me on summer holiday. I used 2 old Nikon SB's with some radiotrigger from Ebay, and even though it worked quite good, the unreliability from the triggers and the lack of power from the flashes annoyed me. So I got rid of it, and tried using Canon's infrared-trigger-system. It does have some advantages like full wireless E-TTL control, but is quite useless outside when taking automotive pics. So I ordered this:
Two Pocket Wizard's (a 3rd one will follow later), a Westcott dual-fold-umbrella in white and a Bogen 3373 (Manfrotto 007B).
The Pocket Wizards use 3,5mm-plugs, and come with some pc-sync-cables. The 580EX has no external input at all, and since I don't want to use any adapters or so, I had my g/f's dad add 3,5mm-sockets to both my €400-flashes, thus using all warranty on it. One is from January this year, the other from April, but I don't think they'll fail on me.
They work absolutely flawless, much much better than the Ebay-triggers or Canon IR-system. They trigger every time, and should do so up to 1600 feet. I've also bought a cable so I can fire my camera remote from the same distance, but havn't found a use for that yet.
I only got them last week, so havn't shot a lot with them, but here are some pics from yesterday (using the Sigma 15-30 and Canon 135/2):
That's all for now, apart from getting another Pocket Wizzard and umbrella+lightstand (to replace the larger ones I have now) I havn't got any future plans yet.