Bruce Robert Wahl Photographer

I did it.

I went crazy.
well crazier...........


I switched to Canon from Nikon this is why...

There is a lot of debate out there and pixel peeping and comparisons and lab tests....and opinions.....
and let me just say this.
if I had the budget and I could justify it.. I would shoot medium format digital with a PhaseOne camera and back with SCHNEIDER KREUZNACH Leaf Shutter Lenses.
 but I can't....yet....

So I've been a Nikon guy ever since 1997....at  the time  I had left the Studio I was working at and moved to Boston. That meant I did not have access to all the Nikon gear I used to,I needed a 35mm SLR camera.So for $550 I got a used F3 a 50mm1.8 and a Sigma 28mmf2.8 and ate Ramen noodles a little more.....and so it began

flash forward...
I had been shooting for EVER with my trusty Nikon D3 and I was using a d7000 as a back up.
For a while I was working with a D2x as a back up and one day the D3 needed to go to the shop ,no choice, and that D2 x wasn't going to cut it as a full time shooter.
The jobs I had lined up were fairly simple studio type portraits, and a D3 rental for the # of days was going to be like $100 more then the cost of the d7000.
I had been thinking of a D700....but it was nearing the end of production at the time so I figured I'd buy a D7000 and shoot with it as a back up then trade it when the D800 came out.

solid plan right?

So armed with a cropped sensor I set about shooting the jobs I had lined up.
and then got some more work.
Clients were happy and that camera more then paid for itself by the time I got my D3 back.

then I set about using it as a walk around camera. it's WAY lighter then the D3....but the cropped sensor makes your 50mm a 75mm and your 35mm a 50mm and your 20mm a 35mm lens.....

all that bugged me.
I had escaped that horror show of conversions when I got the D3......the reason I have a 20mm lens is because I use it!
I like  the 20mm angle of view...some people like a 28 or a 24, me I'm a 20 mm kind of guy. if you are going wide angle do it...but don't get all fish eye on me...
So when I reach into the bag and grab the 20mm I KNOW what it 's going to look like... that's why I grabbed it in the first place.

and now that sweeping vista that all encompassing wide angle shot with  carefully placed subject.... is a environmental portrait.....wait I wanted the 20 not the 35...if I wanted the 35 I would have grabbed that....

poo......limits are being imposed....and I didn't want to buy a lens for a camera I was going to get rid of in less then a year.....and I reach for a 35 way more often then I do a 20 so I could deal...


then the D800 dropped,I rented one.
and............

it was OK....not great just ok...I liked the D700 a little better....and the D3 a lot better....hell I was married to the D3 and only flirting with the D800....
so I put my self on the waiting list for one...
and then didn't buy it.

but the Deal breaker....FILE SIZE.......
holy CRAP those things are HUGE....un widely! gorgeous though.....and yes I know I can set it to a lower resolution... but why pay for a Ferrari if you  aren't going to go REALLY F'N fast.....

didn't make sense....I didn't like the camera any more then what I already had...
and when something is in your hand almost everyday for extended periods of time...you have to like it.
so I carried on with D3 and D7000..... and waited for the D600 to drop......
OH D600 you will be a perfect little photo dumpling....you will do everything I want and at a fraction of the price...

At this point I was a little worried about the D3....you know when you have an old car and you don't want to take the commuter lane....because if it breaks down you are truly screwed?

yeah that feeling.....
.
then there was this D7000.
the D F'n 7F'nThousdand.....
I hated that camera....it was a hate that grew over time....I can't see through the view finder....the buttons are all small and menu items grrrrr, and pop up flash as a commander is nice....but no NO NO!!!!! don't make me use it!!!!!

I'd been driving Ferrari's...and now had a Chevette.. well maybe a Honda Accord...but still....

I'm tough...and German and Scottish...I can take any thing...I'm pig headed enough, I can just sit here and take it, grind it out....bide my time and wait for the d600...the fulfillment of all my hopes and dreams......

9 13 2012.

I get a hold of one of the little buggers...and....why am I holding a toy? why for the love of all things holy does this camera suck.....
really...REALLY?
it would seem that Nikon was reeling from the tsunami and designing cameras in a bubble...
I was Bummed...despondent.....I stared looking at d700's.
and turns out so did everyone else...... couldn't find one....




Now, during all this time I had been working with,  talking too, hanging out and drinking beer with all my Photographer buddies...
and there are 2 camps....NIKON and Canon.....well some Leica guys....but they are crazy people. lovely. demented. CRAZY BASTARDS...whom I love.

and while looking at my friends work or working with them...I started to realize 2  things.

1.
This is my own personal bias, I liked the "look" of the canon images better.....
it's like the difference between Fuji and Kodak from the film days.....and I was a Fuji guy....

2.
Everyone who was a Nikon shooter  talked about it like it was a girl friend / wife that they 'really loved...'  "Yeah, no, we are soul mates, sure she does some stuff that drives me nuts but I'm in it for the long haul....I'm really into her, she's really great.....and then 3 months later you run into them with the new hotter younger girl that they were just friends with....
it was like they were talking themselves into liking the camera....they had spent all that money on it after all.

so here  I was a Nikon shooter for the past 15 years......and I needed a new camera, it was time....I couldn't trust my main body and I hated the back up.
I really felt like Nikon had not made any better cameras then what I had....and the D600 didn't have a PC terminal...it's the little things you see...and a friend said to me well what do you want for $2000, the world?

I talked to my Canon buddies and the opinions they had were it's you and some glass man, chip, camera etc. it don't matter.....the final image matters how ever you get there.
My Nikon buddies were like"You can't be serious! NIKON... dude NIKON!!!!! You have all that Nikon Glass and gadgets and FLASHES!!!!! don't leave us!"

so there I sat.... and I had a Job get postponed.... and so I went through all the photos I had taken that I liked in the past 3 years...5 years...personal, client, family....
and I looked at the meta data.... and wow... I shoot focal lengths 35mm 50mm ...some  20mm and 85-100mm and 200mm.
I have sitting on the shelve 14mm f2.8 20mm f2.8 35mm f1.4 50mm f1.8 85mm f1.4 24-70mm f2.8 80-200mm f2.8 60mm macro all fast glass.
I use the 35mm 1.4 the 50mm 1.8 MF over the AF....and the 80-200mm at 200 for 90% of what I shoot. Why do I have these other lenses....?
Some were good deals and I thought I needed them at the time.

so I sat there and Mr Whiskey sat there as well, willing me to feed him Tuna...and I pondered....and Whiskey pondered Tuna...then I rented a Canon 5d mkIII for a week with a 24-105mm f 4.....
it was Christmas... and I played around with it a BUNCH....
I wanted to hate it..
I did, I wanted it to suck. I looked for it to suck at every opportunity....
I wanted the thing to feel wrong and unwieldy
I swore at the Menus and the dials and buttons that were all in the wrong Places!!!!!
I made bad images.....and fumbled with it
but

I also made some nice ones....ones that really stood up....I shot side by side with the D3 and the D7000...........and My Hassleblad....
and looked, really looked.
then I showed the images to lay men, and art directors and designers that I know, and drink with.
Canon won....it came out on top...not for pixels or speed or technically perfect spherical abdee stabilized blah blah blah....
it just looked better....looked the way  I wanted it to with out a lot of post production....and by now the menus and buttons were where I thought they might be...

DAMN IT!

so I returned the rental.
packed up all my Nikon Gear. went to E P Levine put it on the counter and explained my self to John....
a few people there tried to dissuade me...tried to sell me a D800 a D600.. a D4...

meh.

I walked out with a Canon 5dmkIII 24-105mm f 4 and a 50mm 1.4
I have a 5d mk1 on loan from a friend as a back up and it seems to be working out...