Stock photography in isolation with a vintage digital camera

[DailyHack]

So whilst in isolation, my pro photography shoots with work have halted for the time being, I am luckily enough to step back to web development mode to keep my head above water until I am aloud to travel around again.

So, whilst I am at home I decided to look through all my old Canon bodies, I always keep my gear as it is never worth selling it once I've used it and I'm a hoarder...

Anyway. I do quite abit of stock photography in my spare time, been doing so for about 2 years now, little late to the party but it is a good bit of passive income it has turned out to be, although many say stock is dead I'm finding it isn't, and it is coming in helpful when I'm stuck sat on my arse at home.

Check some of my work out here if your actually interested, if not then thats fine most shot on my leggy 5dmkii

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/Dan+Jardine

So, step up my vintage EOS Canon 10d, with it's mighty 6.3MP sensor...stick that in your pipe iPhoneX!!

Also equipped with the very sought after OEM battery grip haha

You can see there is a few marks here and there, its lost its cover for the inputs and the viewfinder thing has fell off some where...but all fixable.




I forgot how much I loved using this camera. It is built like an absolute tank it really is, proper magnesium body and with a battery grip it is a heavy piece of gear - always been Canon guy just ergonomically they fit my hands, and a brief flirt with Nikon & Fuji S3 Pro (Remember that DSLR??) But couldn't get them to feel right in my hand, using the controls etc.

So body chosen, I have done a few home shoots to add to my stock photography portfolio just for laugh to see if they pass the IQ approval, some have gone through, some are still pending...

Equipped with the nifty fifty 50m 1.8 (great cheap prime btw) I was pleasantly surprised on how good the files look off this camera, we get so use to perfect refined images these days as you would expect from commercial photography, but there is such a "filmatic" quality these old digital sensors have, they are very fun to look over, also people/hipsters actually like the "grain" now, why use presets when the body does it for you?







And to be honest 6.3MP sounds poultry nowadays compared to the newer bodies, but do we really need all this MP's unless we are blowing/printing images out etc, I don't think so, i use a 5dmk4 at work and it's amazing resolution but for a specific job, and gives you a little more to play with in terms of cropping and posting, but to be honest I could do many of the shoots (light permitting, high ISO etc issues) with this 10d, also just have the screen set to histogram the image view is bad, terrible in fact - see it as only a quick reference on composition and exposure and your good to go.

It is slow! Unbelievably so! I forgot how slow it was, don't give it to any millennials or anyone younger than 20 years old, they would be bored straight away, and won't be able to share to instaface or Facest etc

But, it makes you take your time and enjoy what your doing which is the main thing, it isn't a sports camera by any means, but more a portrait/still life camera I would look at it so.

I'm a little oldksool in that respect I print a few of my images out print upto A3 this camera is still great, and thinking about it 6MP is actually perfect for Instagram, nice small RAW files is also very nice for not filling up HD space etc.

So, a quick review of one of my old venerable workhorse, miss this old thing, funny really and glad I kept onto this body it is somewhat overshadowed by today's standards but as a simple vessel to capture light and life, it's still a wonderful piece of gear and was very much ahead of it's time.

Released in 2003 it was over £1200+ body only, quick look around they are £40/50 now, it is actually laughable how cheap they are, if your after a bit of nostalgic fun it's ace.

Edited by DailyHack on Sunday 29th March 13:15