In pretty much close to mint condition, and with genuine Canon BG-E2N vertical grip – £300 ONO

The hotshoe has minor rubbing from having a flash fitted a handful of times. The only other mark I can find is a minor 0.5mm knick on the ridge between the front control wheel & the shutter release. Anything else being picked up by the flash is dust, or finger smudges. Short of finding one that has never had a flash fitted, I’m fairly sure there will be few as nice as this out there. I’ve got the box for the body (which has all the original CDs, charger, cables etc), not got the box for the grip. Will include 2 batteries.

History – it was bought by my dad as a hardly used mint backup when his main (also hardly used) Canon 30D needed to go in for repair, and so got about 2 weeks light use (ie it probably went out the house twice). I then took this off his hands two years ago as a backup/second body to my 5D. During this time, I’ve added the grip, it’s been out the house about 5 times, and rattled off sub 500 frames in that time. It’s because of this lack of use I’ve decided to let it go.

Specs
8MP CMOS DSLR
3/5FPS
2.5″ LCD
Magnesium body

For full specs see the DP Review on the 30D

However I still find neither of these bags perfect, the Lowepro 350 can hold a LOT of kit

here is the Fastpack 350 with 2 bodies & grips, 3 lenses, 2 flashes, cleaning kit, plus batteries, filters etc hidden away, plus there’s the slot in the back for the laptop to hide in too.

or here with a single SLR set up and a few more lenses.

However one of my big bug bears with this, and a lot of other backpacks, is that in order to access your kit, you’ve got to put the side that goes against your back, on the ground. Lovely summer days, fine, after rain, snow, farm parks, this means putting it down in mud, crap etc, or carefully kneeling trying to balance the bag across your knees whilst you fumble with an SLR & 2 lenses…

Another backpack issue is you’ve also got to make damned sure the bag is zipped up before you (or someone trying to be helpful) pick it up, which then drops all your kit all over the floor… It’s also not useful at some motorsport events where you are right beside the course, and frankly there isn’t the time to zip it up before grabbing it.

The laptop slip on the FastPack 350 is also on the side too, so even that isn’t safe, if it had been top loading you’d have to turn the bag upside down to lose your laptop…

The Nova 3 is again very versatile, and can hide a lot of kit in what looks a small bag

whilst this looks full there is more hidden underneath

It’s a bit of a squeeze, but yes all that lot DOES fit. Though is does involve stuffing the OC-E3 (coily cable) & the blower case in the outside side pockets, the fisheye & small 19-35 slip into the pockets under the grip. However whilst filling this bag when I had a 400D & some lightweight lenses, you kind of regret taking this more than a mile or two with some heavier kit in it. However what I do like about this is you can just leave it over your shoulder and change lenses, when you put it down in the mud, it’s the side that’s going to drip on the floor in the mud, you can also pick these up whilst not fastened and gravity does all it’s work of keeping the lenses inside…

However I’ve got past the weight issues, and also ‘blatant camera bag’ theft worry issues, by stuffing the Nova 3 inside a top loading Adidas sports bag. this gives backpack advantages, but without the camera backpack disadvantages, It also gives you somewhere to keep your lunch/coat when doing hikes for double bonus. I also don’t care what anyone says about Crumpler & ThinkTank bags not looking like camera bags so not noticed by thieves, bullshit. Except for the opportunist & take any old crap crackheads, thieves specialise, if we can spot a Crumpler & Thinktank bag a mile off, so can a thief. So I think the mid sized shoulder bag hidden inside a non camera bag is a lot more discreet for when out in tourist thief hotspots & dodgy areas.

However recently I’ve traded the Tamron & Tokina lenses for Canon equivalents, and they’re a bit bulkier (especially the lens hoods), so I’m now probably going to have to look at this all over again at the Focus show in a few months…

Santas in the Fountain

and attended today as their official photographer. So here’s a selection of images from today

(PS I know I gave my card to a few parents today, if you know I took a picture today & it isn’t here and you want a copy please contact me and I’ll email one over)

Santa Gets Funky

Darth using dastardly tricks

Santa Love

Santa Baby

Frozen Chesterfield Canal

A little splash of colour in the mainly empty town centre car park. This is Monday before it had really hit.

Winter Wonderland

Uphill Struggle

Just out doing the shopping

Cleared over a foot of snow off my car last night, only for it to be covered by morning, but even with benefit of chains with 2′ of snow for a fair distance before even hitting the road, I’m not driving anywhere for a day or three.

Some motoring heros & zeros

Her0s – The emergency services who’ve kept going through the worst of it (both the visible & behind the scenes people)

Delivery drivers still getting through. The Warburtons van driver paid in loafs to those that helped dig out. Think if those in shop had known that everyone would have helped. Local Co-op was queuing all the way around the shop & very quickly sold out of both bread & milk.

Zeros -

Those that couldn’t be arsed to remove any of the snow before setting off

Especially professional drivers who didn’t ever clear the whole of the windscreen, this one of Tower Taxis

You shop, we get stuck half way...

Abandoned Slalom

Abandoned vehicles

But the star award goes to Spire Tyres

who’ve got no excuse not to be running winter tyres, and also waited until they’d gone sideways on the main A619 & blocking it, before deciding it may be a good time to fit snow chains…

The usage is backed up in Lightroom too, instead of being a ‘one trick pony’, it has been used for nearly 40% of my shots, the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 just pips it at 44%, but suspect those figures will soon be reversed. Favourites though, the fisheye is a clear winner, not just for myself, but evidently very popular amongst my Flickr viewers too.

Snout

Like everything on a full frame camera, it vignettes wide open, but it soon goes as you start stopping down, not that I care much as I usually like it, and if you don’t it can be quickly fixed in Lightroom. It’s also sharp, I’ve not looked closely at 100% samples, but The Digital Picture spend a lot of time looking at those things so I don’t have too.

One unexpected downside is limbs, from the Tokina 10-17mm fisheye, I knew fisheyes were wide, but the Canon 15mm is a few degrees wider in Canon mount and it’s quite easy to get your own elbow in shot when bracing, or your knee, or your backback, legs are pretty much expected on most days. The flip side of this is of course how close you can be to a building and still get it all in shot, usually you can pretty much take a few steps out of the door, turn around and you’ll fit it in neatly demonstrated below, this was taken from within the boundary of the Gherkin in London (about 20′), and you can see it’s managed to capture in the whole building.

The Gherkin

Genuine bad bits about the lens, the focus motor is one of the older micro motor lenses and it’s a bit slow, and, but more annoyingly the push on lens cap doesn’t have quite enough grip, and is prone to falling off in the bag, I’ve taken to holding it on the lens with an elastic band till I find a more permanent solution.

Of course all that is forgotten the moment you pick it up, bung it on the camera and start smiling at the results you’ve got. Worried about getting one? Don’t be. They’re excellent fun and a great addition to the kit bag. If you are using one of the many crop sensor bodies though, I would thoroughly recommend the Tokina 10-17mm fisheye which is just as superb.

The World Through my Fisheye