camera, flash, action! [and other bits]
Day to Day Camera & Flash Equipment
For the majority of work I rely on a Canon 1D Mark II, a workhorse of a camera capable of taking the necessary high quality photography in almost any environment. It is built to survive the rough handling and heavy usage inevitable in professional photography and allows you to just get on with the work without worries about lock-ups or breakdowns. As you can see, I believe in a belt and braces approach so it's both a neckstrap and wrist strap for me...
In lens choice the three that get most use are the Canon EF 17-40mm f4 L, EF 24-105mm f4 L and the EF 70-200mm f2.8 L IS USM, like the camera all are utterly dependable and capable of producing great images in even the most trying of circumstances.
Other lenses which are used on specific jobs include a Canon 15mm fish eye, Canon EF 100mm f2.8 USM Macro [starting to use this more often for portraits recently], Carl Zeiss 28mm f2.8 and 35-70mm f4 [both leftovers from my Contax days], Nikkor 50mm f1.2 AI - used more for personal or non-critical work, used wide open [which is the only point in having it] it has almost no depth of field and so can be a bit hit and miss focus wise!
On camera flash is provided by a Metz 54 MZ-3 flashgun powered by a Quantum Turbo battery pack. Location ilghting is provided by a Lumedyne flash outfit, essentially a portable studio, powering a couple of 800ws flash heads off the rechargeable Lumedyne battery pack. These are allied with a Quantum Qflash X2 which runs off the same pack and is ideal as the secondary or fill light when using a multi light set up. With a varied set of light modifiers including softboxes, brollies and diffusers this can provide convenient lighting for most types of work.
Exposure metering is handled by a Sekonic L-608 flash / ambient / zoom spot meter. Also in the camera bag at any one time you will find the usual array of spare batteries and memory cards, radio triggers, right angle finders, rain covers, polarisers, lighting gels to fit the flash heads and sundry leads and cables!