Equipment / Gear
While my primary focus is always on the art I can make, the light I can see, the moments I can find… it can also be fun to chat a little bit about the tools I use to get the job done, and folks are often curious what I’m using. So here’s a fun little place where I list everything I use to make my imagery.
I’ll come back and add some affiliate links sometime and that’ll be a little way you can help me out if you want to buy something anyway.
Primary Camera Kit: Fujifilm
Fujifilm XF 16-80mm F4 R OIS WR
Funny thing - I’ve never owned a kit lens (meaning one that comes with the camera on purchase), or full range zoom before. It’s always been a set of primes or an ultra-wide zoom, and I felt like it was about time to make my life easier and not have to swap lenses constantly when I’m out and about. It only weighs 440g, but gives an effective full frame range of 24mm-120mm, which is bonkers. It’s got 6 stops of optical image stabilization, which is on top of the already incredible in body stabilization the camera offers. The aperture ring (the “R” in the name) is nice. Weather Sealing (“WR”) is great. Zooming is nice. The manual focus experience is absolute garbage. Autofocus is so quick and silent I forgot that lenses make sounds while doing AF until I was reading specs for this just now.
7 Artisans 35mm 1.4
My brother went on the cheap Chinese manual lenses kick and wanted to get me on to try. I was really interested in the Brighten Star 0.95 Noctelux clone, but this one was less than half the price, so it won out. It’s really a joy to use, the manual focus experience is as absolute pleasure, and the aperture ring has this really soft flowing resistance to it. I really like it. Though, it is essentially a nifty-fifty, so image wise it’s very familiar territory for me.
Canon 24mm TS-E F3.5 L
Perhaps not quite the holy grail of architecture photography, that would probably be some Rodenstock large format lens, but this is the lens of choice for the vast majority of architectural photographers I know. When I’m on an architecture shoot, this is on the camera 90% of the time. Immensely sharp, fine grained tilt-shift perspective control, a massive and lovely to use focus ring - what’s not to love?
Comes out to 35mm equivalent on the Fuji, so I use the 8mm and crop appropriately when I need something wider. Having the Canon 17mm would be a good addition, but I tend to like shooting a little tighter to create more graphic compositions.
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
This has forever been my food photography and portraiture companion. Lately I’ve been shooting wider food photos to get more atmosphere in the scene. Sometimes I accomplish that with this lens by just walking really far away, because I’m a madman.
On the subject of silent autofocus I mentioned above, this thing sounds like a noisy ultrasonic factory if you put your ear up to it. I like it.
Canon 16-35 F4 L IS USM
This was my primary lens for real estate and a supplemental lens for architecture when I needed something wider than 24mm. I don’t use it much anymore, unless I’m using my 6D as a B-Cam. Is is sharper than the Fujifilm 16-80? I guess that’s worth experimenting with.
I’m running out of steam and it’s midnight, so here’s a quick list of stuff I’ll flesh out later:
Peak Design Everyday Backpack 30L
Peak Design Messenger 13L
Peak Design Slide, Leash, Cuff, Capture, Mobile Case, Sling 10L
Profoto B10 Plus
Profoto Connect Trigger (Fuji & Canon)
Cam Ranger 1
Manfrotto Carbon Fiber Tripod
Manrotto 410 Junior Geared Head
3 Legged Thing Ball Head
Benro Travel Tripod
Manfrotto Air Cushioned Light Stands
iPad Pro M4
Mac Mini M1
BENQ 32” Monitor
MacBook Pro 2015
Windows Gaming Rig
iPhone 14 Pro Max
Yashika-Mat 124 Medium Format TLR
DJI RS3 Gimbal
DJI Mavic 2 Pro - “Skyguy”
Canon SELPHY 4x6 Printer
Epson P800 Photo Printer (broken)
Fujifilm XH-2
After years of shooting Canon, I wanted to try something different. I really wanted a GFX, but I also wanted a smaller body and lenses for my everyday, walking around setup. I carry my camera almost 100% of the time, so going APS-C got me smaller, lighter lenses, while maintaining a 40MP sensor. Mind blowing IBIS allows me to shoot motion blurred architectural images handheld, which grants me an incredible level of freedom to experiment with on photo walks. I was interested in one of Fujifilm’s smaller cameras, but when I picked this one up, it was like lifting Excalibur from the stone, and I have not stopped loving it since.
The film simulations are also a lot of fun, and have resulted in me sharing many, many more images since they’re done straight out of camera, and I don’t have to spend any more of my life doing post-production outside of client work.
Fujifilm 8mm F3.5 R WR
This thing is tiny. TINY. It weights NOTHING (215g). Compare that to the equivalent 12mm prime on Sony, or the 11-24mm on Canon EF, which are both absolute wrist breaking, front heavy monstrosities. I got this for the occasional real estate shoot, or shooting a huge building from across a cramped NYC street. I also thought it might be fun to do some Nick Carver style panos in a single shot, so sometimes I use it and radically crop it to an aggressive panoramic aspect ratio, while still being able to shoot handheld. Pretty fun.
Fringer EF-FX Pro III Autofocus Adapter
An adapter that lets me use my canon glass on my Fuji. Absolute overkill for the Tilt-Shift lens, which doesn’t have autofocus, but the AF is very good with my 100mm Macro, which I still like to use for food photography. The control ring is also nice, since it gives the same aperture ring experience to these lenses with fully electronic aperture control. Even works well for autofocus in video.
Canon EF Extender 1.4X III
I used this to make the 24 Tilt Shift into a 35mm for a little extra graphic punch. On the Fuji it brings it up to around 50mm, great for detail shots or perspective control from a good distance.
Canon 50mm 1.8
The most screaming deal you could get on a lens at the time, and maybe still even now. Fantastically sharp, weighs nothing, very bright aperture for low light imagery - it’s hard to ask for more. You could get wider apertures, but you’re paying a lot more and adding a ton of weight and size. Where’s the fun in that? This lives on the 6D year-round.
Canon EOS 6D
My trusty workhorse that made 99% of the images you see throughout my site (aside from the occasional shot on a Sony A7R, or the more recent Fujifilm images. I still love this camera to death. Incredibly light, phenomenal image quality, bang for buck is out of this world. I kinda doubt there is a better deal on raw image making horsepower for the dollar, even today. Go get you a used 6D for $300 and go to town.