With the digital age upon us in many areas I thought it was time to enter the digital world of cameras myself. I had seen some of the results that digital SLR’s could achieve and I was very impressed. I wanted to keep using an SLR style camera and that left me with 2 choices, Canon or Nikon. After many hours or research and reviews I decided to settle for the Canon EOS system. Now I had to make the choice of which camera to buy, I could either go for a secondhand D30/60 or the new 10D. I settled on the 10D in the end as it had a larger sensor and had a good set of features.
The 10D was quite a step up from my Olympus OM2000 which was fully manual. The 10D is auto everything so it was something new to learn. It has a two function auto focus, you can either pick your spot and lock or it can track moving objects and focus as it moves. I have used both methods and found it to be successful 99% of the time, sometimes the tracking focus can’t quite keep up and you end up with a slightly out of focus shot but this isn’t very often. One feature I do like is the continuous shooting mode where it can shoot 3fps up to 9 frames. This way I can ensure I get at least one shot turn out well. It is a very nice piece of kit and produces some excellent photos and I am very pleased with the purchase.
Having chosen the camera I now had to pick a lens, this becomes slight more complicated with the way the sensor in the camera is setup. I won’t go into detail here but Luminous Landscapes have an article if you want to know more. Basically the camera has a 1.6 magnification factor which changes the focal lengths of your lenses so a standard 50mm becomes 80mm. I had to put a little thought into the lens I chose as I wanted to be able to shoot a 50mm equivalent so I could either buy a wide angle like a 28mm(45mm) or 35mm(56mm) or a zoom like a 28-70mm (45-112mm). I settled on the zoom as it covered a the 50-100mm range which I shoot a lot of photos at. I soon realized I was missing my old 200mm lens and didn’t have any options for telephoto shots so I soon invested in a 200mm lens which when you take into account the 1.6 magnification factor you have a 320mm lens which is much longer then before. The only things I would really like to add is a 1.4x teleconvertor to help fill in the gaps in the lens collection and also a polarizing filter to bring out to colours and cut down on reflections.
I have since bought a 135mm lens to fill the gap between the 70mm and 200mm which is useful and I also bought that polarizing filter which I will go into detail on in the photo guide.
I think digital is the future and film on the way out, look how Movies, Music, Television and much more is now digital, its only a matter of time. I thought slide was the way on from film and although it offered superior quality it was a pain to view as you needed a projector and screen and it took ages to setup. I can view my photos quickly and easily on the computer and the shots I really like I get printed up nice and large. The quality is indistinguishable from a film print and you don’t have grain. The only thing holding digital back at the moment is price and that is sure to drop in the next few years and when more people can afford it things will rocket along. So get along to your local camera shop and invest in digital, you know it makes sense.
A vital part of equipment you need if you plan to do any night photography is a tripod as you just won’t get any decent shots otherwise. Night photography involves a long exposure so the tripod is needed to keep the camera still. Apart from night photography a tripod would be useful if you plan to use big telephoto lens to keep the camera steady. A small movement is multiplied many times by the lens and you can have trouble keeping the camera pointed where you want it. I am still using the tripod I used to use on my OM2000 and it was fine for that but now I’m using Canon gear it is a lot heavier and I can see I need a sturdier tripod. A decent tripod and ball head is next on my shopping list.
Other Equipment
One of the most important pieces of equipment a Rail Photographer should carry with them is a stepladder. If you don’t plan on venturing further than your local station platform you are unlikely to find a use for one but if however you plan on going line siding it is virtually a necessity. The number of times I have come to a location and found a shot only to wish I had an extra foot or two. With the steps this isn’t a problem and you can open up shots that weren’t available before. Another use is at bridges as some rail bridges tend to have high sides and the steps enable you get the shot. I would recommend an aluminum ladder to keep the weight down as it will soon get tiresome as you lug it across the fields. You are likely to get strange looks from walkers as you stomp down country tracks for your shots but then that comes with the rail photographer territory.
Well if a ladder still can’t get that shot you want there is another way, you want some garden clippers. How many times have you seen a shot and thought that would be a great shot if only that branch wasn’t there. Just use the garden clippers to prune bushes and trees out of the way to get the shot. We are doing Network Rail favour and doing our bit for leaf fall season.