After my last purchase of gear for my camera I must admit I got a bit greedy. I noticed all these nice little gimmicks that I wanted in addition to what I got before. As I often do I figured I would wait and think about it before I made the decision. After all, these were spur of the moment things. Well, I thought about it and right before we go on vacation this Saturday I decided to get the following:
- Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II camera lens (including a UV protector from Hoya and lens hood)
- Canon BG-E3 Battery Grip
- Joby Gorillapod for SLR
We are going to Portugal like we did many times before. However, this time is different. We first fly to Lisbon and stay there for four days. We’ve been to the city a couple of times and liked it during the day trips. So we decided a longer stay should be even better. We are staying in Heritage Hotel Britania which is a nice boutique art deco hotel in the Lisbon historic center. It should be a great base to explore the city. After the four days of Lisbon we go down to the Algarve (Carvoeiro) and stay at my parents house to enjoy some days of beach, sun and fun.
Back to the goodies I picked-up. After hearing good things about the Canon 50mm lens from Bram and checking out the results other photographers had with the lens on Flickr I was sold. This should be a great lens for both portraits and day and night shots which are saturated with color. I can’t wait to try it out in Lisbon. The battery grip gives me room for two batteries (which I already have) and extends the grip which should be good because I have big hands. It’s also great for Lisette when she goes to Africa because two batteries of course means twice the shooting time. The Gorillapod is something I discovered through Vincent. He has a small one and I love the build, weight and versatility. Hopefully I can put it to good use.
I must admit I did pick-up something else tonight (damn this internet shopping!). I got a Sony Ericsson C702. I currently own an old Nokia which I use when I go out and about and don’t need e-mail and other gimmicks but it’s getting pretty dated. I have been looking around for another rugged phone. I like the idea of the Sonim XP1 but I’m not THAT rugged (or a contractor either). So I went with the C702 which sports 3G wireless internet, a 3.2 megapixel Cybershot camera, GPS (and Google maps!) and some other neat features while being water and dust resistant. It should make a great companion next to my iPhone which I’m stil waiting for to be delivered (T-mobile does not equal Deutsche grundlichheid).
So with the new camera gear and the new phone I should be all set for vacation time! You can be sure I will show off the results here.
