Following on from my pre-focus blog a few days ago………
The prices did get the expected drop, Jacobs were very competitive on the new stock front. New the 5D Mk II was £1499, which is £100 cheaper than Mifsuds online store. The B-Stock prices also took a downwards turn. The price ticket had last years price of £1399 crossed out and replaced by £1299 (Calumet also were selling B-Stock for the same price)
So without any hesitation I grabbed a B-Stock unit, plus a B-Stock BG-E6 grip for £149 – which to be honest is still vastly over priced, but as they retail for around £200 I couldn’t really complain (New stock at the show was around £170). The guy at Jacobs had a look round for a B-Stock battery but couldn’t find one, he offered a new one for £54 – but I declined that as I knew I could get it cheaper.
It wasn’t the end of my purchases, as the 5D MkII produces 21mp images the 4gb CF cards I have probably aren’t going to cut it. They would probably only yield around 115 images, which isn’t too bad. But to be honest it’s like having 2gb CF cards back on my original 5D. Talking of which, I have 2 of them which are now looking fairly surplus. So after the rambling you’d expect that I would have bought a bigger card – yes you’re right I dropped £50 on a 16gb Sandisk Extreme which was is around £15 cheaper than online – I may visit on Wednesday and get another one – seriously this is good value.
Not content with a bigger memory I really needed a 2nd battery, My preference is normally for cheapo clones. With my original 5D’s I had 2 originals, so it was easy to pair them up. But for the MkII I’d have to buy a second Canon one. Which I did for £50, which isn’t great – but again cheaper than online at the moment. Only issue I have is only 1 charger. I may rectify this again on Wednesday, but looking at Hähnel’s dual charger and It might be worth getting a couple of their batteries as they are currently £30 each (Didn’t want to mix Canon/Hähnel together).
And finally………….
The end of the long running bag debate is over. I finally replaced the aging, but great Nova 4 (which is getting kinda holey in it’s old age). I replaced it with another Lowepro, this one is pretty much a direct replacement – Nova 190 AW. It’s had a few tweaks, like the AW cover and a few pocket changes. To be honest if the Nova 4 was around I would’ve got that as I feel the pocket changes are quite annoying. Still it’s progress, and now it’s waterproofed (ish) and it only cost £50 – which is probably the best price for the bag (in Black).
I spread the purchases out a bit, with the bulk going to Jacobs (5D, grip, bag), Premier Ink (Memory) and CameraWorld (Battery).
With an honourable mention to Amateur Photographer for making me part with £2!!!!!! for a copy AP and WDC. I did get to speak to the mighty Tharg for a while though. Also a mention to Moo as I spent £4 on a couple of Moo card key fob things.
And a special hello to the lovely Jemima Wade from Photobox PR and Promotions – very nice and chatty.
Right pictures (you deserve it after reading this far!)
New and Old face off
Obligatory f/1.4 shot
Side by Side, the big screen makes all the difference
New and Old LowePro bags
So, pictures then? Well none yet, unless you want a closeup of my monitor and loft ladders. The truth is I didn’t get a chance to test it, was messing around with Custom Functions for a while, attempting to get the rear button focusing on ‘*’ instead of the AF-On button (succeeded in the end).
I’ve not attempted Live View or Video yet, but hoping to do that in a few days. Tomorrow I hope to get a few shots in and around the Jewellery Quarter – unless it’s chucking it down of course.
