Goodbye to 2014

2014 was a year of gear transition, as I've written before. When I decided to sell my EOS 5D Mark II back in February, it began a migration from full frame Canon L lenses to Sigma EX DC lenses designed for APS-C sensors.

My lenses for event coverage (sports, plays, concerts, conventions, etc.) now are the 10mm f/2.8 fisheye, 17-50mm f/2.8 and 50-150mm f/2.8 lenses from Sigma paired with EOS 7D bodies. I did miss, however, the ability to correct lens aberrations in Canon's DPP software, my image processing tool of choice, for more exacting purposes. So, with some Canon EF-S prime lenses I had not sold, I have assembled a group of sharp, compact lenses for shooting other than event coverage (landscapes, street, closeups, etc.).

Completing this group of lenses is Canon's cheap inexpensive EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM lens. Combined with Canon's two pancake lenses and the EF-S 60mm f/2.8 macro lens, this collection fits nicely in a small shoulder bag with an EOS body without grip and a small flash.

I utilized this kit yesterday morning at Cohoes Falls during one of the rare appearances of the sun over the past week. Below are images made from roughly the same location at both ends of the 10-18mm zoom range and with he 24mm and 40mm pancake lenses.

All four images are five file HDR composites bracketed +/- one EV for each image. Exposure information is for the normally exposed image.

EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM at 10mm, f/8, 1/750 sec., ISO 100

EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM at 18mm, f/8, 1/750 sec., ISO 100

EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM, f/8, 1/750 sec., ISO 100

EF 40mm f/2.8 STM, f/8, 1/250 sec., ISO 100

One resolution for 2015? Shoot more images and post more blog entries. Only 30 in 2014 versus 73, 65 and 50 in the prior three years, respectively.