That's a lot of tripods. Do you have any medium format camera gear? What lenses do you shoot with most? Do you shoot your portraits at a home studio or commercial space? What kind of light modifiers do you have for your studio strobes?
Also, its sounds like you recommend the Rebel XTi over the newer D40x; what makes you choose mega pixels over the better ergonomic design and LCD information display of the D40x?
It's actually only 1 tripod, and a pano-head, and a few other attachments. The only things I have that are medium format are my Holgas. I shoot with my 50mm the most, and my 17-40L second, I keep a 200mm and a 28-135 IS in my bag just in case I need them.
I disagree that Nikons have better ergonomics. I grew up with Canons, my film cameras were all Canon, my lenses were Canon which played a huge role in my decision to stay Canon when I went digital. Having grown up using Canon, their ergonomics make more sense to me.
Plus, Canon has superior high ISO noise handling, and I do a lot of long-exposure night shots (astrophotography is one of my hobbies) and nightclub work, which demands higher ISO. Until the D3 Nikons have suffered from bad noise over ISO 400, so they just were not suited to the work I enjoy.
I also prefer how Canon's Digic III processor handles color. Back when I bought my 20D, Nikons were still shooting low contrast and really cool, while Canon was punchy contrast and warmer...just a personal preference thing...now I use Lightroom for all my processing and shoot RAW neutral, so the Digic chip doesnt even do anything.
As for the LCD info display, that barely figures into my shooting methods...I still shoot as if I were shooting film, and I only look at the LCD to change a function, or to check the histogram while I'm testing exposures since I dont use a light meter.
But for the purposes of this thread, I was only mentioning the XTi as a comparable option, I dont believe one system is superior to the other for the most part, each has their own pros and cons...it comes down to holding them in your hands and trying to match form and function with your own needs. Some of the most popular shots I've sold were shot with a $16 underwater disposable film camera - when I had a gallery showing with those shots, I kept getting the question "Did you shoot this with the Nikonos system?" and they were blown away when I showed them the el-cheapo tool I used. Cameras are just tools, it's the photographer that makes the image.
Most of my portraits are shot on-location. Sometimes I do my fine art in my garage with my portable backdrop and some roll paper. Other times I borrow studio space from some friends (
www.vermillionphoto.com there's a studio tour on that site).
As for light modifiers, I shoot AlienBee strobes, and I use the foldable softboxes that they make... I have about 10 friends who are pros too, and 3 of them shoot AlienBees too, so we all share lights and modifiers to keep our individual costs down.
Any other questions? hehe...
over 5k on just lenses. And none of that makes up for skill which I have little of lol.
