Photo Gear

●Shortly after investing in the Sony Alpha DSLR system by purchasing the Sony A55 camera, I decided I wanted more, something was certainly missing. Based on the heavy bias of Kai in DigitalrevTV about expensive equipment and the great images I have been seeing in various online sources,  I felt the Sony camera was just not enough for me. After experiencing the solid built and what the more beefy and expensive cameras had to offer in the local Best Buy I had to upgrade to a better system. A few eBay transactions later, countless visits to my PayPal account and a visit to B&H Photo Video online store, I had gotten rid of my old system and decided to invest in a Canon EOS  system with the purchase of a Canon 7D. 

This purchase was not as easy as I just made it sound. Selling all of the accessories I had for my Sony system and upgrading to a different system was quite hard and time consuming. Looking back on the amount of research I made, I have seen not less than ALL of Marc Wallace's seventy something "Digital Photography 1 on 1," episodes on YouTube's AdoramaTV channel which I'm absolutely addicted to. As an amateur photographer I also found myself in the front line of the Nikon VS Canon wars which ultimately led me to understand that a photographer is not defined by his or her gear, but by his or her work and no matter what brand of gear I choose the gear is only a tool to aid me reach my goals which in most cases, both systems are excellent at. What gear you choose also depends on your style of photography, and what feels best for you. After watching "Nikon d300s vs Canon 7d," one of Kai's more serous product reviews on DigitalRevTV I was able to understand this rather obvious concept a bit better. Since I had no experience with either system I had to try them out in person. What hit home for me, was able to see and feel the cameras in person. When I did, Canon just felt much better in my hands. After that, off I went to the B&H Photo Video website, those guys are awesome, I highly recommend doing business with them. 

All of the equipment I will be taking to Japan is depicted below. 

• Canon EOS 7D
• Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Lens
• Canon EF-S 50mm f/1.8 II Lens
• Joby Gorillapod Focus with Ball Head X
• Billingham Hadley Pro camera bag
• Sony Cyber-Shot point and shoot camera (not new)
• Fenix LD20 Flashlight (For night shooting etc, not new)