This is the don't-make-the-same-mistakes-I-did post. Enjoy.
Things I Recommend you Don't Buy
1. Don't buy at Canon 1Ds Mark lll
Don't buy a Canon 1Ds Mark lll. Buy the new 5D instead and wait for whatever is around the corner coming from Nikon. It just so happens that I have bought my staff three of these cameras, so I guess I kind of regret that…Doh! Canon is for sure going to launch a bigger sensor camera that will top the mark III and my guess is that they will do so within the next six months. It will probably also have a slightly bigger sensor than the full-frame.
2. Don't buy at a PC for Image or Film processing.
Don't buy a PC! Any PC! They are just not meant for working with image processing. I really regret starting out as a PC guy and investing in PCs for my first employees. Good quality PCs, and expensive with 4GB of super fast memory, raptor hard drives and great monitors. I now have only Macs and my expensive PCs are just standing there in my storage area unused. Very stupid indeed!
3. Don't buy at a Mighty Mouse or a Mac wireless keyboard.
Don't buy a Mighty Mouse, the new thin Apple keyboard or any wireless input device. When using Photoshop all day you need precise input devices. The Apple mighty mouse and their new ultra thin keyboard are meant to be pretty before practical. This one aspect irritated me so much when I was going from PC to Mac that I was close to giving up the transition. To this day I am still irritated that Apple has not given us better ways for adjusting the mouse speed
and acceleration and still doesn't have a
"high performance" mouse available. Get a hold on the old mac keyboards, the bigger ones, and get a hold of the Logitech G5 mouse. You'll be much better off with them than what Apple offers today. The Logitech G5 runs well even without a driver, but make sure you use a good surface for the sensor to pick up the movement. A good surface has texture.
4. Don't buy Battery Packs
Don't buy large battery packs and lights. Here's a better and cheaper alternative: buy a couple of compact heads that run on normal electricity and a generator for when you want to be mobile. Put the generator far away from the shoot and bring a long extension cord. The thing they don't tell you anywhere is that the batteries for the power packs are so heavy that you could just as well have brought along a compact generator, which will run for way longer then the batteries and will generate much more power. Battery packs sometimes take more then two seconds to charge between flashes which is quite long. Compacts flashes charge very fast so for a superior and more cost effective setup, buy compact heads instead. My favorite is the Profoto Compact 600R (radio). We have 12 of those in my studio.
5. Don't buy a fancy car.
Don't buy a fancy car. Your models and assistants just want more pay and you spend more money on gas.
6. Don't buy cheap basic equipment
Don't buy cheap basic equipment. It's a waste of money because you will replace it with better equipment along the way.
7. Don't buy the Manfrotto Neotech Monopod….unless…
You see my video on how to prepare this device for professional use. If you don't do these small adjustments you end up with a useless product that will last three to five shoots and be worn down so much that it is useless. That is why the "manfrotto Neotech" is under things you should not buy, because straight from the factory, it is useless.
8. Don't buy any off these lenses. They are too unsharp.
Don't buy the canon 35mm 1.4L, the canon 50mm 1.2L or the canon 24-105mm 4L. They under perform in sharpness so much that they are not usable for fashion or stock. (The canon 24-105mm is ok above f9). The 35mm 1.4L can be very sharp, but 2/3 are lemons and you need to return them. Therefor, don't buy the lens unless you can get it sent back if you are unsatisfied.
Things I am really glad I bought.
1. Get an Apple X-serve and X-raid
My Apple X-serve and X-raid with 7 Terabytes of storage. Once we resolved the write permission issues we had starting out (and still have a little today) this machine just worked and never failed. It just runs and runs. Simply a fantastic piece of hardware with read and write speeds of up to 250mb per second. The Mac Server hardware FTP solution is fantastic, yet very simple, and again, it just works!
2. Get a Wacom Pen
A Wacom pen. Even though it took me a full week of hand cramps to get this input device under control, I have NOT regretted learning to use this wonderful tool. Today the Wacom is a part of my workday and basically anything I do in Photoshop. I use the Wacom Intuos3 A4 oversize and think this is a perfect match between size and precision.
3. Get Google Documents.
Goggle Docs, Calendar and Gmail. My whole department runs Gmail, a shared G-calender and have tons of shared docs. No one in my department saves any documents or spreadcheets on any computers or hard drive. It's all Google Docs. This way we can edit, share and discuss real-time the things we are working on. Perfect for any department. My arcurs.com email is forwarded to my gmail account and my gmail account is set up so that my reply address is also from my arcurs.com address. Sending huge files among two gmail accounts takes only seconds – perfect for the creative person. Gmail accounts don't get spam – fantastic!
4. Get a workstation with Raid.
My maxed out Mac workstation. 32GB of RAM in my workstation. A true time/life saver. My primary workstation is a Mac Quad Core with 4TB in raid and reads with speeds of 200mb sec. A pure pleasure to work with and I have never regret a single penny I spent on this machine.
5. Get an apple 30 Inch Cinema display.
A 30 inch cinema. A perfect monitor. Yes…there are monitors out there that have better colors and better contrast such as the DELL 24". Unfortunately such monitors display your images too good and you end up, under-saturating, under contrasting and sometimes under exposing as well. The 30" apple cinema is perfectly "shitty" in an ironic way, which makes it "not shitty" but pretty darn good!
6. Get 1Password for mac.
1Password for mac. Could not live without it for one day. Remembers your passwords and log-ins and works perfectly. This comes in a version for PC called Roboform and works just as well.
7. Lenses I love and that are sharp. (added)
The canon 135mm, 2.0L, the canon 85mm, 1.2L, the canon 200mm, 2.0L and the canon 70-200mm 4.0L. I Prefer the new Canon 70-200mm USM IS, 4.0L over the old Canon 70-200mm, 2.8L USM IS. The new one fringe less and is sharper or as sharp as the older.
No comments:
Post a Comment