Why I still use my 8 year old camera (plus new video)

Every year around Christmas and my birthday my girlfriend Sonia asks “Are you getting a new camera this year?” .

But my answer is still “no”.

Sure, technology has progressed and camera sensors are getting better… 

But my trusty Canon 5D Mark II has served me well and is still as good a camera as it was when I bought it new. 

Thinking about it practically, the only real benefit to upgrading my camera is a better sensor that captures a wider dynamic range and has better image quality at higher ISO ratings.

But as a landscape photographer who mainly shoots high contrast sunrises and sunsets, I can eliminate the need for all that new improved stuff by simply taking another bracketed exposure and blending it with the rest in Photoshop. 

Which brings me on to the video I want to share with you today…

It's a 3 exposure blend of a seascape scene sent in to me by Steve McKenzie for my “processing subscriber images” series. 

I'm not sure what camera Steve used to capture this scene, but whichever it was, the scene required 3 bracketed exposures to capture the full dynamic range – as is common with this kind of scene and any camera.

In the video I show how to blend the three exposures accurately to create the ideal starting point to continue the rest of my 6 stage processing workflow on.

Click here to watch it now. 

Talk soon, 

Steve