Updated 2025
There’s an old saying with photographers that goes something like this:
Amateur Photographers worry about equipment.
Semi-Pro’s worry about light.
Professional Photographers worry about invoices.
UPDATE 2025
Hardware. I’m still shooting Nikon, although a change to Sony did briefly cross my mind as I was impressed with their little Alpha range, mostly for mucking around with 4K videos. Changing muscle memory for where everything is, and Sony’s weird menu hierarchy, plus having to change lenses as well, stopped that idea. Change came not from inquisitiveness but necessity. My beloved D6 failed during a shoot. I don’t chimp often, so it took a little while to notice a big black bar across 1/3rd of the frame. The mirror assembly had come loose and eventually poked itself into the shutter. That took quite a while to get fixed in little old Adelaide, so I bought myself a relatively cheap Nikon Z6ii to dip my toes into the Nikon full frame mirrorless world. There were a few things I didn’t like, but a lot of things that I did like. I used that little camera professionally for a few months before lashing out on my new workhorse, a Nikon Z9. It is a beast! Boy oh boy, I’m certainly creating bigger backups as I fire bursts during press-conferences and the like. As a bonus, the 2x teleconverter I use with the 200-500mm lens (yep, that’s equivalent to a 1metre lens) works so much better on the Z9 than it ever did on the D6.
Lenses. I used the lens adaptor to mount my “old” lenses (most only a year or two old) but the first Z lens purchase was to replace my old screw drive 105mm macro. It was very slow, but a favourite. The Z version was relatively cheap and works well. I’ve also bought the Z70-200mm since it’s a workhorse lens. The Z24-70mm mark 2 will be next.
Computer. A Mac Studio M2 was a purchase I should have made as soon as they came out. Especially with Photoshop being more intensive, especially the AI de-noise feature. I should have amped up the on board SSD but I have 2 very fast SSD’s connected. One as a fast “working” drive and the other working silently as a Time Machine.
OLD 2022 Update
Hardware. I suppose as a professional photographer, I make sure I use the best equipment I can so I don’t have to worry about gear. I could never understand full-time pro’s not using the best equipment they can afford. They’d buy a middle of the range camera and a dirt-bike. What are you? A dirt-bike rider or a photographer?
I get the occasional “train spotter” come up to me while I work and try to strike up a conversation about the camera they use at home. I’m actually the last person to talk to about consumer and pro-sumer cameras because I haven’t had any experience with them before. The top level Nikons I’m familiar with are the D2X (my first freelance digital camera – before that we had D1’s at a previous workplace), the D3, and my current D4S and D6. I had a look at the D5 but the minor improvements don’t seem to match the extra expense. Update 2022: My main cameras are now the Nikon D6 with the D4S as a backup. The D6 a beast and not for everyone, but I’m thrashing my Nikon D6 every single day. It’s my business partner. It’s my best friend. The updates to autofocus and low light sensitivity have been excellent. Also, GPS tagging and WiFi/Bluetooth have been handy, although connectivity hasn’t been as great as expected. That could be an issue with the outdated SnapBridge app though.
I did buy a D5300 as a second video DSLR, and to be quite honest, I hate it. I hate the feel of it, the sound of the shutter, the autofocus, the convoluted controls… It’s a real pain to use. Sure the early pro cameras don’t have WiFi or GPS (unless you pay through the nose for add-on hardware) but my fingers know where all the buttons are on a D4S and it’s super strong and reliable.
I take literally millions of photos and I’ve only had to replace one shutter mechanism on the D3 a few years ago. It turned out, after the cost of a D4 camera hire and the cost of replacing the shutter, it would have been cheaper to fly to Sydney and have it replaced straight away. That’s one of the few downsides to living in South Australia.
After years of digital work, I stick with some reliable brands. SanDisk for CF memory (that’s right, pro-cameras still use CF cards, much to the disbelief of electronics store employees. Apple, the SD card reader on a MacBook Pro is almost useless.) I also use Sony QXD cards and Western Digital hard drives. It’s not unusual to shoot a large project that requires around 70gb of card storage, plus hard drive backups. Update 2022: CF Express is where it’s at! Super fast, but super expensive.
Lenses. The great thing about a pro-camera vs the D5300 is I can use any Nikon lens. I love old manual 50mm “pancake” lenses, obscure macro lenses, you name it. I haven’t used many other brands because years ago the auto-focus was really slow and vignetting was sometimes extreme. I’d be happy to try some new other lens brands in the near future.
Computers. Apple all the way. They work in a simple and easy way. Using a PC is a nightmare for me. Everything works in the most convoluted way possible. I can’t stand them! I currently run a MacBook and a MacBook Pro, both with 1 external monitor each to maximise palette space and make workflow easier. Update 2022: I was seriously looking at a new MacPro before the D6 came along. Let’s face it, new cameras are more fun than new computers. I’m glad I held off though as the new Mac Studios look pretty promising. I’m generally after big RAM rather than a huge range of cores. Lack of GPU VRAM is the latest issue when running the current version of Photoshop.
As for software, I’ve been a Photoshop fan since version 5 in the late 90’s. Before that I was using Aldus Photostyler which was acquired by Adobe in 1994. Most of my training that wasn’t in the workplace was done at Regency Park TAFE. It was a great place to learn.
I suppose I’m quite set in my ways in regard to workflow, so other than some new plug-ins occasionally, I’m very happy to stay with Adobe Creative Cloud and the regular updates to Photoshop and Bridge.
I’ve still got a fantastic Nikon negative scanner which I used before moving over from SLR to DSLR and I’m really disappointed that OSX upgrades have meant I can’t use it any more. I’ve still got piles of transparencies that I’d love to digitise and put up online.