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My Photography Gear

TODO: Double-check the product codes

Actively-Used Gear

Bodies:

Lenses:

I also have various other items but I won’t list them out here.

Unused Gear

Bodies:

Lenses:

Nikon D5200 + Kit Lens

My first nice camera! It was released around December 2012, and my parents probably got me this camera in early-mid 2013, which allowed me to use it during the middle of 2013 for some special events, and later in the year for an overseas trip.

The vast majority of its use was 2013 where between me and my parents, we shot thousands (maybe tens of thousands?) of photos, and again in 2022 where I used it for photographing my hobbies (the photos look so much better than a smartphone!) and I briefly used it for various day-to-day photography. The camera also saw occasional use in the years in-between.

My D5200 taught me about the exposure triangle back in 2013. I experimented with tweaking each parameter, intentionally setting the shutter speed higher if I need to freeze the action, stopping up to increase depth of field, or using the tripod and slowing the shutter speed to get cleaner pictures of things in dim indoor lighting.

I wish I got a nicer lens with this. I actually never realized how soft this lens looks until I got my second camera, the Sony α7C II with the Sony FE 28-60mm F4-5.6 kit lens. Even the Sony kit lens is leagues better than the D5200’s kit lens. It’s terribly soft!

I’m not too sure what I want to do with this camera now. I don’t want to use it with the kit lens. I’m thinking of finding a 23mm (35mm ff equivalent) compact prime for it, but practically speaking, there isn’t much of a point since I already have a significantly better camera, and I’m not too interested in using it for artistic or nostalgic purposes.

I think I’ll keep this camera in my collection. It seems like I could sell it for some $200-400, but to me, that’s not a high enough price to be worth selling.

Sony FE 28-60mm F4-5.6 (SEL2860)

My first lens on the Sony! Looking at it even when I own some spectacular lenses like my GM lenses, I still think this is an amazing lens! It’s incredibly compact, 28-60mm gets you a lot of shots, and I find this lens super-sharp!

I would’ve wanted it to go to at least 24mm, even if the lens becomes 24-50mm. 24mm is one of my favourite focal lengths for wide photos that show off my environment. A super-compact 24-50mm would be perfect for me! The FE 24-50mm F2.8 G is the closest to what I want, but it’s too big a lens for me.

But honestly, 28-60mm is a great range anyway if it’s what’s available. As much as I love 24mm, I’d still be shooting a lot in 28mm and 35mm anyway. Focal length isn’t really the reason I don’t use this lens anymore.

My reasons for not using it are:

The lens hood problem might be solved by finding a screw-on lens hood or something like that. I want a lens hood for everyday carry since it physically protects the lens from accidentally being touched and putting fingerprint dirt on the glass, or accidentally knocking the glass on something whenever I try to maneuver the camera through obstacles.

But even if it had a lens hood, the slow aperture still kills the lens for me. Granted, it’s “only” one stop of light at the wide end (I probably wouldn’t mind only shooting wide at night anyway), but I’m a bit of an image quality snob. I want cleaner images!

This lens has been replaced by:

I still keep this lens in reserve anyway for times where I need a compact zoom, just that such situations are probably very unlikely. Maybe I’ll use it for travel? Maybe I could use this kit lens when there’s good light, then I break out the compact primes when it’s dark. I don’t know yet.

As a bonus, the aperture goes up to f/32, which (as far as I recall) is the smallest aperture of all my lenses, so I actually still use this lens for checking how much dust is on my camera sensor.

I don’t mind keeping this in my collection. I got it for about $200 AUD, so I doubt it’ll sell for much anyway.

I really love the concept of this lens though and I hope Sony continues to design and manufacture things like this. Is a hooded f/2.8 ultra-compact zoom even possible? Because I’d love to see one come out, and if it doesn’t come with image quality compromises, I’d totally buy one and use it as my new everyday carry lens!

Sony FE 50mm F1.8 (SEL50F18F)

Your first lens is usually a kit zoom lens, which is basically always small-aperture, and the image quality is often quite poor. Or if you’re lucky, your first lens might’ve been an f/2.8 normal zoom with great image quality.

The Sony FE 50mm F1.8 is the nifty fifty for Sony full-frame. Nifty fifty refers to cheap and compact 50mm f/1.8 lenses and are a great “second lens” that newcomers into the hobby often buy after that first lens. They’re highly recommended to beginners on the internet, and I believe it’s justified because it’s a low-cost way to experience something entirely different to what a newcomer is used to. (I bought mine brand new for a little more than $200 AUD.)

Compared to a kit zoom lens,

These advantages of a nifty fifty might be a little diminished if you got something like a great-quality f/2.8 zoom lens, but you can probably still get value out of the wider f/1.8 aperture anyway.

Anyways, all that to say, the Sony FE 50mm F1.8 is the second lens I bought (after the Sony FE 28-60mm F4-5.6 kit zoom), but I’ve since outgrown it. It was a great starter lens for the reasons I stated above. When I first got it, I got pretty obsessed with taking photos of everything around the house to experiment with bokeh, I took it out a lot, did a bunch of portraits for friends, and I especially got a lot of use out of it in low-light. But I primarily stopped using it because the autofocus is slow and loud, which made the lens not-fun.

I’ve since replaced it with these two lenses:

Although I don’t use it anymore, my Sony FE 50mm F1.8 will remain in my collection as a reminder of where I came from in this hobby, and to use as a tool to introduce other people (or my own kids) to the world of photography. I highly recommend this lens for other newcomers into the hobby, though I wish Sony could release a new version with better autofocus, and to bring in the recent advances in optics to make it a bit sharper and more compact.

Wishlist

Bodies:

Lenses:

Lighting:

Aspirational Wishlist

Everything in my wishlist above are items that I see myself ordering right now if I find myself needing to fill in a gap in my collection.

On the other hand, the items below are unlikely to be items I will buy in the near future.

Lenses: