Gear navel gazing: We take photos with it
26.3.2018
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Thomas Kunz
Seven photo freaks from Digitec Galaxus AG show their equipment and explain what they need it for.
There is no such thing as the best equipment. At most, there is the best equipment for a particular person. Here we introduce seven employees and their photographic gear, from enthusiastic amateurs to full professionals. What do they photograph, what importance do they attach to what and how did they get their current equipment? Perhaps you will recognise yourself in one or the other character.
Christian Walker - the part-time professional
Christian Walker (Instagram) works 60 per cent of his time in customer service at Digitec Galaxus AG as a "Community Representative". The rest of the time he takes professional photographs. His assignments mainly consist of portraits and advertising images of all kinds. He is also occasionally active in fashion photography.
This makes it clear that a professional-grade camera and lenses are worthwhile for him. And logically, his equipment therefore includes some studio equipment. Christian is currently travelling with the following:
Christian has been an ambitious photographer since 2011, but he has always been interested in the topic. When he goes travelling, he still takes photos from time to time just for fun, for himself - with no ulterior motive of earning money.
He has always remained loyal to the Canon brand, "also out of laziness", as he says, but of course not only. He is satisfied with what the brand offers him. However, he finds that other brands have sometimes made greater progress with the new model compared to its predecessor. Christian is interested in technical developments and keeps himself constantly up to date. But that doesn't mean he buys everything straight away. "I actually only buy what I'm sure I'll need." He believes that you can take good pictures even with inexpensive equipment.
Despite this, he has accumulated a lot over time. Of course, he needs different things when travelling than in the studio. The wide-angle lens, for example, is only used when travelling.
Wish list: Christian wants a drone soon. Otherwise, he's completely happy. He recently bought a gimbal because he also records videos. The steady cam is now being sold, as it was no good for travelling anyway.
Thomas Kunz - the full-time professional
Thomas Kunz, alias Tom (Instagram), has been a photographer for Digitec Galaxus AG since September 2017. He previously earned his money with photography, mainly in the areas of weddings, fashion and portraits. He also enjoys photographing people in his private life.
Tom keeps his private and professional equipment separate. However, he uses roughly the same equipment for both. He has two of these products.
He mainly needs the lenses for portraits and reportage. He also has a lot of accessories, of course. Including this one: [[product:6818574,434269,5815086]] [[product:5809387,282182,6363373]] [[product:253353,5827579,711122]]
Since Tom has been working for us as a full-time photographer, his involvement in his free time and private projects has decreased significantly - and he thoroughly enjoys not having to take photos from time to time. However, he has recently rediscovered analogue photography, which he is trying out with an old Canon AV-1.
When travelling, especially on short city trips, he doesn't always have to have the heavy professional equipment with him. "It always depends on the intended use," he says. For photos that are printed on large posters, he really appreciates the quality of professional equipment. For private memories, however, his smartphone (currently the Huawei P9) is often sufficient. For him, this has the advantage that he can sort out and edit while on the move, whereas he would otherwise have to sit at his computer at home to take care of the photos.
These days (unlike in the past), Tom doesn't always have to buy everything he needs. So, for a holiday in Tahiti, he borrowed a drone and a bridge camera that covers every focal length. He used this camera to take the photo above.
And for product photos, he usually uses a 105mm macro lens from Nikon, which he rents when needed.
Wishes: Tom wishes for the jack of all trades: a good compact camera with a standard lens that enables bokeh like with full-frame and 50mm f/1.4. The thing should be as small as a Sony RX100 and the bokeh effect must be real, not the artificial one from smartphones. Well - you can always dream. But his second wish is more realistic: a Leica one day. Tom likes the image style as it comes out of the camera unprocessed.
Denny Phan: the Fuji freak
Category Marketing Manager Denny Phan (Instagram) lives and breathes photography with every fibre of his being. Literally too: he has a camera tattooed on his arm. When travelling, he shoots several thousand pictures a week and hardly a day goes by without new photos. His favourite disciplines are portraits and landscape/architecture, but Denny also likes to experiment in other areas from time to time.
Denny mainly works with fast fixed focal lengths, which he then uses with the widest possible aperture. As far as the brand is concerned, he is fully committed to Fujifilm.
He came to Fujifilm because the SLR cameras eventually became too big and heavy for him when travelling. He really liked the aperture selection directly on the lens and the operating concept in general.
However, although Denny can be described as a Fujifilm fanboy without a guilty conscience, he also has tonnes of stuff from other brands. This includes a "big enough" collection of old rangefinder cameras and studio equipment with flash, softboxes, etc.
And then there's the Leica Q. You don't treat yourself to anything else.
Fun fact: Before Denny got really good at photography, he worked as a sports photographer for newspapers. "At some point, I got to the point where I said to myself: either you stop buying new equipment all the time or you start earning money with photography." Basically, only the second option was an option anyway. He became a sports photographer because he had a good picture to show when he applied. The fact that it was the only one and that he had neither the equipment nor the expertise to become a professional sports photographer didn't matter at first. Fake it till you make it.
Wishes: A look at Denny's wish list reveals, unsurprisingly, a medium format camera from Fujifilm. Also, a little less painful for the wallet: the Capture Clip from Peak Design. Occasionally Denny will also get himself a really good tripod. Although he doesn't particularly like taking photos with a tripod, he knows that quality pays off in this area.
Ramon Schneider - "Is that a camera?"
There are many who flirt with film photography, but junior editor Ramon Schneider (Instagram) is in a committed relationship with it. What fascinates him about film is that it captures a moment for all time. Although he digitises the images, he doesn't edit them. The photo should not be perfect, but just the way it was taken. There is something documentary about the way he photographs. Ramon likes to be guided by chance, wandering around the area more or less haphazardly to discover new things.
His film consumption is sometimes quite high (3 films per week), sometimes very low (nothing at all for a month). He takes photos with a Canon EOS 5, which he bought for 80 francs. Plus a fast standard lens. He scans the photos with the Epson Perfection V600 and saves them on the MacBook Pro and as a backup on the Lacie Rugged.
As an accessory, Ramon also uses the hand strap from Peak Design, which makes the usual, not particularly practical, camera strap superfluous.
Ramon only takes a few digital photos, mainly when he's working with the editorial camera. There is only one reason for him to buy a digital camera in his private life: On a very long journey, he would want to see and save the results in between. On his shorter holidays, however, he always takes his film camera with him.
He was once asked by airport staff at security if this was a camera. Yes, it is a camera. Next question: "Can you switch it on briefly?" Er, yes, but you can't see much. "Can you take a test photo?" Er, yes, but you can't see anything because it's film. After that, Ramon could literally hear it rattling around in the projector's head. Until his brain spat out the result: "It's OK, pack up!"
Wishes: None really. Ramon doesn't need too much equipment. He doesn't like flashes, he has a tripod but practically never needs it. What's more, he already owns at least 10 cameras that he doesn't need (anymore). Most of them are film cameras, of course.
Ovidiu (Obi) Oprea - the studio fan
Category Assistant Ovidiu (Obi) Oprea (Instagram) prefers to take photos in the studio. The reason: "I'm all about controlling the light." He also enjoys taking photos outdoors or with available light, but he is fascinated by the possibilities of precise light control. And that's easier in the studio. "I also enjoy working with Photoshop."
When it comes to photography, Obi spends money with both hands, and not just since yesterday. Before he switched to the Fujifilm brand, he had already thrown around 20,000 francs down Canon's throat. He claims to have overcome his GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) in the meantime. After all, he has bought and tried out so many things over the years that he now knows what he really needs and, above all, what he doesn't need. However, his expectations have also grown over time. This explains what Obi has bought here.
When he's not in the studio, he relies on the small and lightweight APS-C system from Fujifilm:
Obi doesn't have a permanent, stationary studio, "but a big enough flat". The whole thing is primarily a hobby, but if you can earn some money with it, why not? He has already carried out the odd commission. Obi has just recently replaced his studio equipment.
Although Obi buys a lot of expensive equipment, he is not a collector of photo equipment. On the contrary: he usually sells equipment he no longer needs soon enough - before he would have got nothing more for it.
Wishes: Having replaced all his studio equipment, Obi is happy with the status quo for once. Maybe another flash. And the laptop is slowly reaching its memory limit with the huge image files from the medium-format camera. And ...
Dominik Bärlocher - he just wants to play
Senior Editor Dominik Bärlocher (Instagram) certainly needs no introduction to digitec's regular visitors. His core areas are smartphones and IT security, not photography. "Photography and video is my playground at the moment." A logical addition to writing and an opportunity to learn something new.
Dominik naturally also takes photos with his smartphone - sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the test device - but when his ambition gets the better of him, he always pulls out the big gun. He always has it with him. "I always have my rucksack with me anyway, so I can just about take the camera with me."
He has already explained his position on photography equipment in his usual provocative manner. To summarise briefly: He wants any weak point to always lie with himself and not with the camera or the lens.
I then naturally wanted to find out whether he would have bought the expensive equipment if it hadn't been made available to him anyway. Dominik says: "From my time at the St. Galler Tagblatt, I know that a good camera is worth something. And since the last IFA, I know what the Sony A7S II can do." It's no coincidence that this camera is the same one used by the Digitec Galaxus video team. This has the advantage that Dominik can stand in as a second cameraman if necessary.
The fact that he has bought various accessories is a clear indication that he definitely wants to stick with the camera. He also says so himself.
The UV filter mainly serves as protection for the expensive lens. And the spare battery was necessary because the battery life is the only thing Dominik has to criticise about the camera.
Wishes: Dominik would like the camera to have better battery life and, drum roll, better photography capabilities. Nothing else. He likes it expensive, but probably doesn't suffer from gear acquisition syndrome. Although I'm suddenly not so sure anymore. He's just waffling on about ring lights and microphone stands for videos ...
David Lee - a text selfie
Finally, me (Instagram) about me - a text selfie, so to speak. I wrote my first article about digital cameras in 2007 and then immersed myself (!) in the topic. More than ten years later, I still sometimes feel like I don't know enough about the subject. I see this in a positive light, because I always want to learn something. The day I know everything about photography, I'll stop and write about squirrels, soldering, fashion trends or something else I haven't the faintest idea about. But that's not going to happen any time soon, because photography is an incredibly versatile and complex topic.
For me, photography is - among other things - a means of going through life attentively: To look closely, to recognise situations or perspectives worth seeing. This way, even seemingly boring things suddenly become interesting. This rarely results in anything spectacular, but that doesn't bother me. My pictures show the world as I see it. The best thing for me is when others discover something that they would otherwise have missed and find it somehow remarkable.
Unlike most tech editors, I don't feel like I have to own everything I test and try out. For example, I can easily love a Fujifilm camera and then happily return to my Nikon system, which I've been loyal to since 2004.
I never changed systems because, on the whole, it suited me very well and because I was sure that my photos would not improve by changing brands. It was different with compact cameras: I found their performance limiting and I changed brands several times. It's also easier there, of course, without the associated lens collection. At the moment I'm using the Sony RX100. However, I took the photo above with a Panasonic Lumix LX3.
I'm the opposite of a collector. I hate owning lots of stuff, I feel it's a burden. However, due to my job and interests, I have accumulated quite a bit of photographic equipment. Among other things, there's an old GoPro gathering dust that I've practically never used.
Wishes: A practical carrying and transport system would help me the most at the moment. I have now ordered the Slide from Peak Design. But that alone is not enough. I'm also still missing a macro lens.
David Lee
Senior Editor
David.Lee@digitecgalaxus.chMy interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.
