{"id":131101,"date":"2019-09-24T17:21:32","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T16:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amateurphotographer.co.uk\/?p=131101"},"modified":"2020-08-12T15:15:32","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T14:15:32","slug":"john-gilbey-change-lens-good-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/john-gilbey-change-lens-good-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"A change of lens is as good as a rest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In my defence I didn\u2019t go into the shop to buy a lens at all, but was seeking a toaster to replace the one that had mysteriously caught fire over breakfast. To get to the kitchenware, however, you have to go past the camera section first \u2013 which proved to be my undoing.<\/p>\n<p>From a glass case devoted mostly to cheap-and-cheerful compacts, something interesting peeked out at me. Lurking bashfully at the back of the cabinet sat the Canon 22mm f\/2 designed to fit my original EOS M small system camera \u2013 and it was less than half price. Now, I told myself, the last thing you need is another lens and you\u2019ve always been happy with the 18-55mm zoom that came with it. But, I replied to myself, it\u2019s a prime lens, an ideal street optic at a 35mm equivalent focal length, it\u2019s much faster than the zoom \u2013 and did you notice the price?<\/p>\n<h2>Unexpectedly useful<\/h2>\n<p>At less than a hundred quid it was certainly a bargain, and I left the shop with both the lens and a toaster \u2013 which should confuse someone\u2019s marketing statistics if nothing else \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t just the bargain price that attracted me. The Canon 22mm lens is much more compact than the standard zoom, turning the EOS M from a slightly awkward chunk into something distinctly pocketable.<\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-131522 size-large\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/eos-m-400x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" \/>\n<p>As a freelance all my lenses have to earn their living, so a few days later the Canon and the 22mm went into the camera bag with my Nikon D800 for a day of walking on the Wales Coast Path. I was writing a column for <em>The Guardian<\/em> and wanted some images that really captured the experience \u2013 which often means a mixture of telephoto images to capture detail and some wideangle establishing shots. Leaving a 70-300mm zoom on the Nikon, I used the Canon for all the rest of the day\u2019s images, and found it unexpectedly useful.<\/p>\n<p>While it lacks an electronic viewfinder the original EOS M has a large LCD screen which \u2013 with the gain cranked up \u2013 is usable even in bright sunlight. Not being a zoom, the 22mm lens meant that I had to do a lot more legwork for each shot, which inevitably made me think more about the subtleties of composition. Meanwhile, the wide aperture gave me the option of pulling the subject \u2013 often a single wildflower \u2013 out of a confusing background by using a shallow depth of field.<\/p>\n<h2>The right camera for the job<\/h2>\n<p>One memorable moment came when capturing a clump of sea thrift (<em>Armeria maritima<\/em>) flowers right on the cliff edge \u2013 while recording both sea and sky behind them and keeping the horizon straight. Sprawled face down in the turf, the lightness of the EOS M \u2013 even when held out at arm\u2019s length \u2013 really helped get the image I wanted. Interestingly, although I submitted photographs from both the D800 and the EOS M, and I was pleased with the results from both, all the images selected for publication by the picture editor were from the Canon. To me, this demonstrates once again that the right camera for the job isn\u2019t necessarily the most expensive or highest specification \u2013 it is the one that fits the role.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-131523 size-thumbnail alignleft\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/jg-135x100.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"135\" height=\"100\" \/>John Gilbey is a writer and photographer based in west Wales. He tweets as <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/john_gilbey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@John_Gilbey<\/a>.<\/h3>\n\n\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this column are not necessarily those of Amateur Photographer magazine or TI Media Limited<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How a trip to buy a new toaster led to the discovery of a versatile, inexpensive lens and an opportunity to revisit composition values<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":131082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,466],"tags":[],"product-category":[],"class_list":["post-131101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photo-news","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.8 (Yoast SEO v26.8) - 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