Morning frost: Shot with a Canon G9 "point and shoot" camera

Canon — my pro camera brand of choice — announced the Canon 1D X, its newest “flagship” camera last week — a $6,800 digital single-lens reflex camera body that will also shoot video.

Back in the old days, I would have placed an order for one as soon as it came out.

That was then.  This is now and now I’m happy to keep using my current Canon workhorses:  A 5D-MK II and a 7D with a number of lenses.

At this point in my life, I can’t afford to shell out nearly seven grand for a new camera body but even if I could I probably wouldn’t.  With the shooting I do nowadays, I don’t need 12 frames per second or an ethernet connection for my camera body.  The 5D shoots full frame still at 21 megapixels — more than the new Canon’s 18.1 and produces incredible video.  The 7D shoots at 8 frames per second — more than enough for sports action and also has an 18.1 megapixel sensor.  It also shoots video, although not as crisp as the 5D.

I wonder, in these days of layoffs and “furlough days,” just how many newspapers are going to shell out more than 10 grand to outfit staff photographers with the usual two camera bodies when the new Canon model starts shipping next March.

Not many, I suspect.  I see newspaper photographers still shooting with Canon “pro” models that are two or more generations old.

Which isn’t a problem because it’s not the equipment that makes the photographer, it’s the eye that looks through the viewfinder and composes the image.

I find myself shooting most assignments nowadays with two camera bodies — the 5D and 7D — and two lenses: zooms of 24-70 f:2.8 and a 70-200 F:28.  I can also use both for video but can also add one of my dedicated videocams for the shoot.  Most of this equipment is several years old.

I also shoot a lot of photos for this web site and others — along with publications — with a “point and shoot” Canon G9 and my Droid X smartphone.