Camera Labs

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Gear: Canon SX20 IS, Canon Rebel T3i, Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Wishlist: Canon 50mm f/1.8 II, Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II
Visit me and leave me a comment in My Flickr

Picked up an NZXT Phantom 410, an LG Blu-Ray burner, a 650w Corsair modular PSU and a Cooler Master CPU heatsink all on sale this boxing day. I missed out on some RAM, SSD and GPU deals, but there's always Newegg.

On a semi-related note, has anybody upgraded to Windows 8 yet? I can grab a great deal on both W8 and W7 through a friend, but now I'm just trying to decide which to go with. I love metro on my Windows Phone an it's been pretty cool on the MS Surfface that I tried, but I'm not too sure how well it'll work on a traditional desktop.

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams

I finished picking up components for my build, a 3770K, Asus P8Z77-V Pro mobo, Intel 180GB SSD, 16GB of Corsair Vengence low profile RAM, and Windows 8 Pro.

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams

*thumbs down*

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http://www.AnderssonPhoto.com
Cameras: Leica M8, Nikon FE-2, Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, 5D Mark II, 40D
Lenses: Voigtländer Nokton Classic 35mm 1.4, Ultra Wide Heliar 12mm 5.6 ASPH II, Nikkor AI-S 28mm 2.8, Canon 24-70 2.8L, 85mm 1.2L II, 300mm 2.8L IS, TS-E 45mm 2.8, Sigma 105mm 2.8 Macro
Canon 1.4x/2X TC II, Canon 580EX II X2, Gitzo + Manfrotto.
Wishlist: Leica Monochrom, Summilux 50 ASPH, Voigtlander 35mm 1.2 ASPH II

Since my XP crashed last month, Ive been using Ubuntu Studio on my desktop and Linux Mint 14 on a laptop, and I have to say... well, what can I say? Awesome! Waiting doesnt exist anymore, and it's free! Yes, I am planning to get XP/7 working on my desktop, but only for some things which wont work on Linux easily.
Must say though that I havent tried Photoshop though, not yet. I understood only up to CS4 will work on Ubuntu, which is a shame (but oh, you can get CS5,6 working also, but it takes some more time and Im lazy ).

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies

On evil-bay, I just used "Buy It Now" to purchase a Nikon-fit Voigtlander 90mm APO II manual-focus lens. I had been watching for one of these since learning this lens has been discontinued. While Canon-fit versions are still available new from dealers, the Nikon-fit lenses have been unavailable as new items for some time, except for an occasional few in Europe and Asia, and only rarely available as pre-owned items. Hopefully, this sale will have a good outcome!

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Canon 7D/5D/40D/1D2N; Nikon F6, FM3A, & Coolpix A; Canon 40mm Pancake, 135L, 50L, 35L, pre-II 50mm 1.8, 100mm 2.8L Macro, 10-22mm EF-S, 28-135 EF, 400mm 5.6L; Nikkor 50mm 1.2 AI-S, 50mm 1.4G, 50mm 1.8D, 16mm 2.8D Fisheye, 180mm 2.8D, 100-300mm 5.6 AI-S; Tokina 17mm & 100mm 2.8 Macro

Aw, come on, Windows 8 isn't so bad! Have you even given it a try in regular use yet? While I haven't had the opportunity to try it on my new desktop quite yet, I tried the consumer preview a few months ago on a virtual machine on my laptop. And considering my laptop's specs, I was exremely impressed with the speed.

Metro isn't a huge problem, it doesn't really add too much to a regular desktop or laptop, but it doesn't ruin the experience either. I love metro on my Windows Phone and I tried the MS Surface and came away impressed too. On a desktop, while it's not as good, it's still functional and when you get used to it it's no worse. I just went for Windows 8 over Windows 7 because it's more future proof and is much faster (at least in my experience). What does irk me about it though is that I had to spend an extra $50 just to get an OS version that supports over 16GB of RAM Microsoft, you evil company.

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams

I would kill for 16GB of RAM, let alone worry about if my OS could support more.

(Still using 2GB on 32-bit XP on a motherboard that would only support 4GB if I went 64-bit.)

At least it isn't Windows Vista, now that's bad.

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Gear: Canon SX20 IS, Canon Rebel T3i, Canon EF-S 18-55mm
Wishlist: Canon 50mm f/1.8 II, Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II
Visit me and leave me a comment in My Flickr

Let's get back to purchases. Windows 8 and other types of OS can be discussed here.


I received 8GB of RAM for my soon-to-arrive iMac and a Superdrive. Kind of feel stuck in the past by ordering that last one but I have a humble collection of DVDs and nothing else but my computer to play them.
Also, my signed copy of Elliott Erwitt XXL (see previous page in this thread) arrived yesterday, and my oh my... It's truly stunning, this is the way all picture books should be produced! Might post some snaps elsewhere later (and post a link here).
Then I purchased a set of Erwitt Flipbooks as well. Great fun to flip through and a perfect way to express Elliott's wit.
Lastly, somewhat related to photography as they're very important for a street photographer, I got some new shoes.

December shopping spree has had to come to an end now. Not much money left, haha!

- Bjorn

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Street and documentary photographer | Google+ | Twitter | Blog | Tumblr

Leica M9-P (my article on Camera Labs) | Leica D-Lux 5 | 50mm Summilux

Just ordered a Macbook Pro 15-inch Retina with 16GB Ram and 768GB SSD.
I have finally lost patience with the never-ending sources of crashes and failures on my Windows PC. And three and a half minutes to boot is ridiculous, espcially since it won't boot if any USB 3.0 devices are plugged in. The conversion to Mac will be painful but once past I hope for a life less cmplicated by computer issues so I can focus on photography.

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Brian,
Canon 5DII, 7D, EF-S 10-22, EF 50 USM 1.4, EF-S 60 macro EF 16-35 L USM, EF 24 -15L IS USM, EF EF 100-400L, Canon SX130

Congratulations!

I am seriously considering a 15" Macbook Pro with Retina display, sometime next year, with the particulars to be determined closer to the time of purchase, as things may change between now and then.

I just bought my wife two fast Sandisk SD cards, to use in her D7000. One of her old cheap cards was sometimes causing an error message until removed and re-inserted.

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Canon 7D/5D/40D/1D2N; Nikon F6, FM3A, & Coolpix A; Canon 40mm Pancake, 135L, 50L, 35L, pre-II 50mm 1.8, 100mm 2.8L Macro, 10-22mm EF-S, 28-135 EF, 400mm 5.6L; Nikkor 50mm 1.2 AI-S, 50mm 1.4G, 50mm 1.8D, 16mm 2.8D Fisheye, 180mm 2.8D, 100-300mm 5.6 AI-S; Tokina 17mm & 100mm 2.8 Macro

I've been extremely impressed by the Retina MacBooks performance, it's even comparable to the iMac's to a degree. And that display! That being said though, be prepared to pay out the nose for top end specs.

I just picked up 3 more lens caps, I'm slowly phasing out the older ones that are falling apart, from my AI-S lenses.

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-Evan

Gear: 7 Nikon Nikkor AI-S and AF-S lenses, SB-700 flash, Nikon D7000, Nikon FM, variety of accessories

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
- Ansel Adams

Finally made the decision to buy the Canon EF 100-400/4.5-5.6 L IS USM. Have not yet decided on my new body (still waiting for the announcement of the 7D Mark II which is expected in February) but I am sure it will either be the 7D or the 7D Mark II. Will later (much later) add a full frame camera like the 5D Mark II or 6D, but that's after I have bought a lot of other stuff (like filters, tripod + head, external flash). But I am first gonna enjoy my new lens when it comes in this Friday .

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Cameras: Canon EOS 7D, Canon EOS 40D
Lenses: Canon EF 17-40/4 L USM, Canon EF-S 60/2.8 Macro USM, Canon EF 70-200/2.8 L USM, Canon EF 100-400/4.5-5.6 L IS USM
Want list: Canon EF 24-105/4 L IS USM, Canon EF 100/2.8 Macro L IS USM

It's a fun lens MTK. I prefer to keep mine on the 7D because of the benefits of the crop factor on the perceived magnification.

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Brian,
Canon 5DII, 7D, EF-S 10-22, EF 50 USM 1.4, EF-S 60 macro EF 16-35 L USM, EF 24 -15L IS USM, EF EF 100-400L, Canon SX130