In this episode Martin and Steve reveal there 5 best AND worst purchases ever! We both have a bit of reputation for buying gear, so we have plenty to choose from. There are some surprises and a lot of laughs.
Martin Cheung and Steve Vaughan are professional wedding photographers based in the UK. They both use Sony Alpha cameras and lenses.
Martin's website : https://www.martincphotography.co.uk/
Martin's Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/martincphotography/
Steve's website : https://www.samandstevephotography.com/
Steve's Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/samandstevephotography/
Any technical information given by the presenters is based on their understanding and opinion.
In this episode Martin and Steve reveal there 5 best AND worst purchases ever! We both have a bit of reputation for buying gear, so we have plenty to choose from. There are some surprises and a lot of laughs.
Martin Cheung and Steve Vaughan are professional wedding photographers based in the UK. They both use Sony Alpha cameras and lenses.
Martin's website : https://www.martincphotography.co.uk/
Martin's Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/martincphotography/
Steve's website : https://www.samandstevephotography.com/
Steve's Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/samandstevephotography/
Any technical information given by the presenters is based on their understanding and opinion.
you're listening to the photography pod, the ultimate podcast for photography lovers and here's your hosts steve vaughn and martin chung.
Speaker 1:Hello again and welcome to the photography a podcast for working professionals and enthusiasts alike. My name is Steve Vaughan and I'm Martin Chong and, if you don't know us, we're both working wedding photographers in the UK. But this isn't a wedding photography podcast by any means. It's a general podcast about all aspects of photography, albeit with slight wedding tinge, because that's what we know. Anyway, how have you been this week, martin? I've been good. How are you, steve?
Speaker 1:yeah, getting busy, so I've got two editing in the editing pond right now, as well as pond pile, uh, as well as a couple of pre-wedding shoots to do as well, um, but uh, this next month, april, is where we start to get super busy. Really, april and may, for some reason, are our busiest months of the year. Don't know why. Why that worked out that way.
Speaker 2:Oh strange, Mine are definitely July and August this year. But yeah, I've had a few weddings, but I finished one last night and I outsourced the other two just to speed things up, basically, so free me up time to do other stuff like this, for example yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't regret that at all. No, absolutely, absolutely, grab that at all. Yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely so. We went down to london, sam and I went down to london last saturday, to the house of photography, the fuji film place because yeah, that's right yeah yeah, samantha won uh a ballot not to win a camera, to actually get the right to buy a camera.
Speaker 1:So she bought. It's up on the shelf here actually. She well, we bought. The business bought an x106 or vi I don't know how you pronounce it but the limited edition one which has got the old Fujifilm logo on it, a nice lens cap and an extra £500 price tag.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so basically they put a different sticker on it, a different lens cap and charge you £500 more, pretty much.
Speaker 1:There's some limited edition stuff in the box as well, but in all seriousness and we're not going to do this because it's sam's camera for her actually not for business, but um, they're on ebay already at three and a half grand, so we paid two grand for it.
Speaker 1:They're already on ebay for three and a half grand. So, uh, and food film, to be fair to them, are doing a great job in trying to trying to prevent people sort of buying them and flogging them just to do that. But obviously some people have. So, uh, I've told her she's got to look after it, not to drop it I just can't believe yeah, I can't believe how effective a marketing technique that is yeah, we bought into it, but then you know we do.
Speaker 1:You know we used to use fujifilm cameras. I'm going to mention fujifilm a bit in this podcast but uh, we know a lot of people there, we know the marketing manager there who's a good friend of ours. So you know it's nice to have, it's like a nice watch. You know if you justify the cost of it? Probably not really, but it's a nice thing to have. It looks shiny.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, absolutely. Fuji's actually probably one of the brands I know the least about. You know Canon, nikon, sony.
Speaker 1:Fuji don't know a lot about it at all. We came into this world, really the mirrorless world, through through fujifilm. But fujifilm these days isn't a really a camera company. It's a massive, massive chemical company, because obviously it used to be a film manufacturer and when the film industry died, instead of kodak just closing all the factories down, what fujifilm pivoted into making biopharmaceuticals and cosmetics. So so in my old world of selling lab equipment, they were one of my biggest customers, actually, bizarrely. So yeah, they're an enormous company and probably imaging is probably 5% of their business, but it's obviously where they started.
Speaker 2:So yeah, interesting. I think a lot of street photographers use them, don't they? They do. I don't see many. I don't know, maybe it's just not the circles of swimming, but I don't see many wedding photographers. There's a few that I know, but not many that shoot Fuji.
Speaker 1:Kevin Mullins is one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, emily Renier is a good friend of ours. She's an ambassador now using Fujifilm. I think very much people who are documentary wedding photographers tend to use the Fujifilm kit, but anyway, I'm sure we'll talk about that because I'm going to mention Fujifilm in a bit when we today. So what we said we would do today and this has been quite challenging is is to look at our best and worst purchases. So you and I've got a bit of a reputation for buying gear, haven't we?
Speaker 2:oh I'm. I'm very well known for buying gear. Sometimes I wonder if it's very justified. The other reputation I've got is making people buy gear. But then my in my defense people ask me, so I just tell them exactly and, and then they buy it. You know, is that on me?
Speaker 1:Well, I would say to the listener now, actually, if anybody wants to know anything about Apple computers or Sony gear, martin seriously is somebody you should ask, because he does know a lot of stuff about this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:I'm a bit of a nerd. I spent a long decade in IT, so yeah, I am a bit of a tech geek and I do like gadgets?
Speaker 1:oh, me too. Yeah, when, uh, when something arrives from amazon. Sam says now what you've been buying, I said it's.
Speaker 2:You know, it's something for the dog, it's not for me, honest I love it when, when she's when dagger says that and then it turns out it's for her and I'm like, haha, yeah, and. But then nine times out of ten it's something like makeup or something. So it's very rarely camera gear, because she's definitely one who she knows her technical stuff but it doesn't interest her. Just for those who might not know, my wife's a videographer, so, yeah, so she also has obviously her own set of gear, but while she understands all the bit rates and blah, blah, blah, it doesn't interest her at all at all. She's got the gear she wants and she's seriously not interested in buying anything else unlike me well, my wife's the same.
Speaker 1:So obviously again for people who don't know my wife, samantha, she photographs with. That's why we're called sam and steve photography. No, she's sam and steve, not steve and sam. Um and uh, she's the same. You know she likes the gear we use, but she doesn't get off on it, whereas I'll happily sit on our youtube video on on the pros and cons of a different bit rate on video or something, because I'm a nerd like you, really uh, but uh yeah yeah, anyway.
Speaker 2:So what we said, go on after you. No, I was gonna say I I used to well, I did for a little while, years ago start a little youtube channel off reviewing certain bits of gear that I had, but it just took so much time. And the youtube comments I don't really know how people can put up with them. They're just like absolute trolls on on youtube.
Speaker 2:You know, you just spend all this time creating your video and then someone would just go that's bs you know, you know, and you're just like oh, great thanks for the thanks, for the encouraging feedback absolutely yeah, so I did a bit on youtube last week.
Speaker 1:So we've got a tiny youtube channel. I think we've got 35 followers. But, um, I went up to the lake district a couple of weeks ago because my, my older brother, passed away in september last year and what he wanted was his ashes scattering on a particular viewpoint, uh. So I decided to make a little video about it. Really, and I don't care if anybody watches it or not, really it was for me, really and I enjoyed doing it. But I know again, kevin willins again is a friend of ours. I know he was saying recently that he he started doing a lot of youtube again and some of the comments against about his appearance, about his teeth, oh yeah, that's just brutal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's Things that you wouldn't say to people in real life. Yeah, and you just think, oh, this is, people are so rude, keyboard warriors, yeah absolutely Right.
Speaker 1:So what we've set ourselves a challenge today and this is going to be difficult is our favorite five purchases and our least favorite five purchases, and I guess we're going to limit it to our photography. Life are we? We're not not just to every, every aspect of life, or?
Speaker 2:no, no, no. Yeah, I think it has to be photography and and related to the photography business related. Yeah, otherwise we'll be here all day.
Speaker 1:We're not gonna talk about cars or jumpers or anything like that, no, yeah. So how do we want to do this? Do we want to go go favorites first and then least favorites? I think so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think let's do that. Otherwise I think if we kept swapping it'd get confusing it would get confusing. Yeah, let's do the top five things and then the bottom five things. I think that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Okay, I should say, I've not got them in any particular order, so in my top five things yeah, yeah, yeah Okay okay, Well, you go first then. So out of your favorite five things you've ever purchased give me an example.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I think the one that jumped out at me has to be the Sony A9. And you know I don't want to make this a Sony versus Canon versus Nikon or Fuji type thing, but it genuinely was the first camera I ever thought to myself and I even hate to use the phrase game changer, absolute game changer Just as soon as I saw the specs of it the silent shutter, any shutter speed, no warping, no rolling well, rolling shutter. There is video, but you know, no warping is what I mean and I just thought to myself this is going to be absolute game changer for for photographing weddings, which is what I do. Um, and the only thing that stopped me from rushing it and buying it as soon as it was announced was the price tag yeah sure.
Speaker 2:So I think when it dropped to the price where I could afford it, I bought one, and it was. It probably is literally the best purchase I've ever bought for the business, because it single-handedly changed the way I've approached weddings and photograph weddings. And, you know, it's got me access to photograph weddings where the vicar was like, oh, I don't want you to be noisy, and I'm like, what's full, silent shutter? And they're like, oh, okay, then in that case do so. You know, and it's enabled me to capture moments that I otherwise wouldn't have done, because the silence meant that people didn't realize I was there or I could keep shooting. So yeah, in all aspects it really has changed everything Okay, so very much the silent shutter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, blackout free as well. Blackout free.
Speaker 2:The black shutter, yeah, no, run blackout free as well. When you blackout free, the blackout free isn't as big a deal, but the fact it's full silent and any shutter speed, it's very difficult to explain to someone who's never used one of these um sensors, because other cameras now have it, like canon, nikon, have their versions of it, uh, and their flagship cameras. But, um, you know, people will say, oh well, you know, xyz camera has a silent shutter, yeah, but you're limited on shutter speed, especially indoors, um, you know, with the flickery lights and stuff. But, yeah, this one was the first one that sort of broke those limitations and you know, just to show how much of a game changer it was, it's literally the only camera I have ever owned for more than two years. And you know, seven years, six, seven years later it's still in my camera bag and it still gets regularly used, even though it's been superseded now by the a1 yeah, and well, and the a9 mark ii and a9 mark iii, for that matter, now as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I meant like in terms of those are the cameras I use on the basis now, but I still have it in my bag as a as a backup for when I need it. And you know, occasionally it does still get pulled out, for whatever reason.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what about you steve and anything for you? Well, we were. That's one off my list, because I was going to say the a9 as well oh yeah, there you go guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah you, you heard it here get the sony a9. You know, it's still the fact that we're in 2024 now and it's still, by modern standards, a very, very capable camera. It absolutely is, and you can buy them used now for, like you know, 1,200 quid. Yeah, completely you know, and the amount of camera you get for that money is just ridiculous, yeah.
Speaker 1:No, entirely. So we bought ours. So we moved from using Fujifilm cameras during lockdown because partly because we wanted to put some cash into the business. So we sold some gear and leased some gear to put cash into the business from a cash flow perspective. But also we'd been on about doing it for such a long time and Sam particularly was getting frustrated with some of the Fujifilm focusing and stuff. And we managed to get a bit of a deal on an A9 and it's in Sam's bag now. So it's still her main wedding photography camera with a 24-70 GM2. And it looks like she's used it to bang nails into the wall now.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, mine looks like it's going to do war.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. But when you think about it, you're not using the mechanical shutter apart from occasionally doing the flash work. So internally, internally, it's as good as new really, because there's no wear on it, really, because the electronic shutter yeah, so I mean you still have on the a9 original.
Speaker 2:You still had to use the mechanical shutter for flash. That's right, yeah, but even so, I mean I've still. Last time I looked I think I used about 200 and a thousand actuations, mechanical actuations, but of course, in the real world I've probably done millions of photos with the electronic shutter literally I doubt if she's done more.
Speaker 1:I haven't checked it, but we're amazed if she's done more than 20 000 mechanical actuations, because there's only a little bit of flash work that we do she. 95 of the time it's on electronic shutter. So, uh, so we'll part the a9 then I won't do that one no no no, I think it still counts the fact that we both use it.
Speaker 2:Uh, just goes to show. Um, you know that six, seven years later it's still just as good, as you know. Modern cameras I've just pulled it up now. I've done in in that many years I've done just under 300 000, so 282 000 mechanical shutters, and you know, given how often I used it, yeah, it's amazing, amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the menu is dated and everything now, but in terms of its performance, absolutely as good as anything you can buy new. Really, I'd agree.
Speaker 1:I'd agree so let me pick a different one, then, and this is going to sound a bit different. A bit different because it it's a camera I don't own anymore. Like you, I normally turn cameras around every two or three years. So we mentioned Fujifilm at the start of this podcast. I'm going to say the Fujifilm X-Pro1 was one of my favorite things I ever bought, and I bought it before I became a working photographer, so I bought it when I was still in the corporate world. If you know the x pro one, it's the range finder design camera um with uh interchangeable lenses, and I bought it as a kit that came with three lenses, so an 18 millimeter, which is 28 full frame, a 35 millimeter 54 frame, and then a 60 millimeter macro lens, 60 millimeter, f 2.4 now 90 ish-ish, yeah, 90-ish, yeah.
Speaker 1:And all those lenses were beautiful and the camera itself was fab. Focusing-wise it was appalling. And the 60mm I mean Empire's Ryzen 4 quicker than that used to focus. It was that slow.
Speaker 1:But why I loved that camera and I've seriously been tempted to buy one second action game 300 quid now. Why I loved it was really a I love the sensor on it because it was a beautiful sensor. Everybody goes on about the first fujifilm x trans sensor, 16 meg sensor, but what it really did it showed me it was like my entry gateway drug to the mirrorless world because although we had a wedding photography business and it was sam's business, I helped her out and we were using canon dslrs and looking these things around, um, and not really enjoying using them really. And then I bought this camera for me and I thought this is great, I don't have to keep looking at the back all the time, I can see in the viewfinder what the picture's going to look like. And and it was transformational for me really and you know, rolled forward another year or so. That's when we decided to switch full-time to using food.
Speaker 2:You have, and and because one of the things I was thinking about when I was trying to think about my list, the one of the very first cameras I had when I started the business was the Sony a 55, which was one of the SLT cameras. So it wasn't, it wasn't full on, it was like a hybrid between SLR and mirrorless and this funny translucent mirror, um, and as a result, it had an EVF. So you had the benefits of mirrorless, but you still had like a like a translucent mirror into sort of like, give you the benefits of slr. Yeah, and at the time I don't know whether you remember this, but proper photographers in inverted commas only use optical, and I couldn't understand this.
Speaker 2:I couldn't understand this argument. So I used to wonder around going why are they being so like elitist about it? Because this evf rocks and and I shot some weddings with it, and there was lots of other reasons why I didn't like the camera, but the translucent mirror wasn't one of them in the end. You know, it's quite ironic to me now that everybody loves evfs, because you can see exactly what you get, absolutely, and there are still a few purists who are like I like the optical.
Speaker 2:Oh you know, come on, join 2024 guys well, I mean, I can see that.
Speaker 1:I mean sometimes when you look through an optical viewfinder and this x100 has got both you know you can switch from either. It's nice to have that sort of, if you like. You know you can almost use both eyes. You can look with that eye through the camera and look at that eye through, look at the water, that eye and, and you know, see the difference really. So I can see that. But let's be honest, we spend all our time looking at LCDs or, you know, hdmi high-definition displays or whatever. We see the world all the time now on screens. So what's the difference between taking a picture and looking at a screen really? And the key thing, as you say, it's that what you see is what you're going to get for your finder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly Because back in the day and I'm making myself sound really old now you used to have to look at a little light meter and go, oh, I'm roughly this.
Speaker 2:And then you'd take a shot, look at it and go, oh, that's wrong. Take another shot, oh, that's a bit better, but it's still wrong. And you and nowadays you don't have to do that unless choosing flash, but gym free photography, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So I just think you know this is obviously the way forward now and uh, but I thought that you know way back in, like 2013, rather than now 2024. So I'm just glad I was right. Everybody else was wrong all right, your turn.
Speaker 2:You're gonna act oh, my turn, okay, um, so I guess the other thing then, uh, has to be the 7200 lens, because I guess this was more emotional than anything, because obviously it was like your first, like big boy lens. You know, it was like, look at me, I've got a 7200 now. But it meant that I could get those very sort of compressed, beautifully bokeh-y portraits that all photographers love. And I also do still like the fact that I managed. This is before Daiga was in the business and she used to work in an office, so I used to get all my gear delivered during the day by Amazon so that, you know, by the time she came home I'd be able to stash the boxes. And I managed to upgrade my Nikon vr1 to a vr2 and she never noticed wow, she never. Now she clocks everything because she knows what she's looking at. But yeah, at the time it was like, oh, I've managed to upgrade the entire lens and my wife didn't notice at all. That would have been a comment at the time?
Speaker 2:yeah, you were shooting nikon yeah, I I switched from sony to nikon for a bit because their full frame cameras were a bit dire at the time, yeah, um, but then eventually, when the a9 came out, I just thought right now I've got to switch back. So I, I completely switched back, because back in, you know, when the a9 came out, both canon and nikon were still valiantly resisting the mirrorless age, weren, weren't they?
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were. Yeah, late adopters yeah, absolutely so, 70-200 Nikon, but generally 70-200 lenses, I guess, and we've obviously got one as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, even my first 70-200, the VR1, was just insane. You know it was like, oh, brilliant. You know, so if you pixel peeped it weren't perfect, but you know who has the time to do that no, absolutely, yeah, get a real life what about you? Okay, we'll stay with.
Speaker 1:We'll stay with lenses in that case sense. So, like you, I've bought and sold hundreds of lenses over the time, even going back to where I used to be an enthusiast photographer, shooting film 25 years ago, when you know, after my daughter was born, and stuff. But probably my favorite lens of all time and that's a big statement is one I currently have right here in my bag down here, and it's a Sony 24mm GM f1.4.
Speaker 2:Oh, I've got that lens.
Speaker 1:I love 24mm as a focal length. It's my favorite focal length. I love when we're doing weddings. I love being quite up close to people so I can listen to what they're talking about but still have a wide enough view to get in some layers of people, like a drink, reception and things. Optically it's insane. It's so sharp. Um, the only thing about it is it will distort quite badly if you do point it up or point it down, so you do need to obviously keep it on a level. Really, um, focusing is fast. It's compact. On the r4, which is my main camera, if I need to, I can punch it into super 35 mode. It becomes a 35 millimeter on a crop sensor. Yeah, still a workable lens. You know I do that. Yeah, it's great, isn't it? Just two lens for one, really, um and uh, just everything about it.
Speaker 1:I've always loved 24s and I've, you know, owned quite a few. The 16 fuji, which is a 24 equivalent, was a nice lens as well, but this one definitely is the best lens I've ever used. It's just incredible. It's insanely good.
Speaker 2:I originally bought it because I thought I need a slightly wider lens for sparklers than 35. Yeah, I need something low light because obviously it's usually dark by then. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so the 24 1.4 seemed to hit the spot, and but I do use it a lot now. Um, and it is a beautiful lens for all around things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally good, good one. I think we said before I like to use 24, 50 rather than 35, 85, um, yeah, where possible. So yeah, it's. It's just my workhorse lens, so absolutely love it. Cool over to you okay, my next one.
Speaker 2:It's not directly photography related, but I guess it is because, indirectly, because you spend so much time in front of it. But it has to be the iMac you know, yeah, so, um, I I spent years in it.
Speaker 2:I was one of the first batch of Microsoft certified engineers. I grew up with Windows back in before version three and then I was like Microsoft Windows NT certified. Basically I was a big Windows nerd and eventually I sort of I'm going to say controversially saw the light and switched over to the iMac, and it was just because everything was in one and it just worked. And I think this is what where people I'm if I go for a little bit of tangent and a rant here, forgive me, um, go for it. But, yeah, people, you know, you get your pc people and you get your Mac people, and they're always fighting. And I just think PC people, they miss the point because they're always arguing well, pcs are faster, pcs are cheaper, and it's like I don't care. You know I don't care.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to run a business here. I want something that's good all round, I want something that doesn't cause me stress, that works, and because I'm staring at the thing all day, I want it to look good and mac hits that mark and the fact that I might have to pay a little bit more for it or it's, you know, a tiny bit faster when I'm exporting my light room catalogs. I really don't care. Uh, you know, it's just that mindset. And I find pc people who try and argue pcs are best for no other reason than you know price and speed. It's just like dude, you're just not getting it absolutely do you still?
Speaker 2:use an imac now. Um, actually no, um, because they've killed the 27 inch imac, so it's forced me to go MacBook. But the MacBooks are so good now they are yeah, yeah. So so, and I wouldn't go back now just because the MacBooks are so good and I've paired it with an absolutely gigantic monitor. But if they ever did bring out the 27 inch iMac or above, I would probably buy another one I think most photographers would yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the 24-inch is just too small for my ailing eyesight. I think if I were younger I'd love that still, but yeah, it's just a bit too small for me. I need a huge screen now, especially because the way I work now I have screens everywhere, like windows everywhere, so I need that big screen area to sort of put everything in. Yeah, it's just things like you know, the screen's great you know, 5K screen and it's all neat and tidy.
Speaker 2:When I finished at night, I put it to sleep. I wake up in the morning, it wakes up, just. And it does it for weeks until one day I think. Oh, I think I'll reboot it, whereas on a pc I had to shut it down every night, then in the morning I have to wait for it to wake up. If I put it to sleep, you did, it was 50, 50 if it was going to wake up, it was just like, oh, and back in those days I didn't have to worry about viruses either. But now I guess you you still have to a bit, even on my idea a little bit. Back in those days it was like don't worry, what's that antivirus system?
Speaker 2:you know, don't worry about it fantastic anyway, I don't want to like go off on a no it's a really great point.
Speaker 1:So I use both. So I'm talking to you now with a macbook I bought, and we bought a new macbook. We're not new. We bought a reconditioned macbook from hoxton max last month. Yeah, really great, really recommend them guys. This is a m2 pro max and it, you know, really good price on it brand new as far as I can see it.
Speaker 2:Yeah they fly, don't they? They absolutely fly.
Speaker 1:But I also use a windows. Uh, I got, I've got a Dell um XPS laptop because sometimes in in my other life, in doing sales training for the corporate world, sometimes you do need a windows machine, for various reasons really. So I flipped between the two and I and there are pros and cons so I'm using the app we use, riverside, for recording the podcast. So it only ever works for me on the Mac, don't know why.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I've got like two boys and one of them's at college still. And when I upgraded my MacBook to the 16-inch, I gave him my old 14-inch so it's M1 Pro, that one Perfect Gave him the 14 inch and after a few days I was like, do you need a spare charger? You know, just so you can leave one at college in your locker. And he was like I don't even take the charger. I was like why not? He's like don't need to just last. And then my other son he's started a new job recently and they've given him a lenovo thinkpad, which is obviously windows, and he was sat at the kitchen table the other day and like two hours later he was reaching for his charger and I'm like that's the difference, yeah that's the difference you know he was two hours and he was like plugging in and my other son's like goes like eight hours and still comes home with it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, interesting anyway, right, okay, that's my little rant over we could do a whole show on Windows vs Macs. Perhaps we will do sometime, because my wife's sister's husband is in IT and he's an absolutely Windows aficionado, so perhaps get him on the show. Well, perhaps not, but anyway we'll move on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, get him on the show and I'll take him apart. You're missing the point, dude. You're missing the point, you know, don't get me wrong, I still can do everything on windows.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, I just don't want to. Yeah, same here. Yeah, same here. All right, so let's move on. So, um, let's we moved away from cameras and lenses, uh, so, which is great, because I'm going to move away from that now.
Speaker 1:So my next favorite purchase of all time actually, you're looking at it right now and it's this microphone. Oh really, this is a Rode microphone. It's I've had it now for six years, I think it's called a Procaster. So it's not a USB microphone, it's an XLR microphone. Um, it's cost about 125 quid, I think, and again, you could hammer nails into the wall with it. It's that rugged and robust, um, but it's just great. I love how my voice sounds. I've got used to hearing my voice on it now. Um, it's easy to work with. I can get up close and get very basic if I want to, um, and it's just a reliable bit of kick because, like you I mean, you've obviously got your wedding photography podcast and you know I do other podcasts as well it just works for me really. I'm not messing about about trying to tweak the levels, trying to EQ it particularly. It just works really. So I'm a big fan of Rode gear actually, and you've got a PodMic. You're talking to me on there as well. I do.
Speaker 2:I use the Rode PodMic USB. I did originally look at the Shure SM7B, which obviously everybody who podcasts will sort of want. I guess it's like the the industry standard, isn't it but I just couldn't justify the cost and the complexity of it. I wanted something usb based. So I tried the shore sm7 um, which is usb based. It is the the, but it just wasn't quite there. You had to replace the wind muffler and then it would just what people didn't tell you. Was it just sort of flopped about? So then it just didn't feel premium. Yeah, it got rid of the plosive issue, but it just sort of flopped about a bit, and so I sent it back and got the road in it and I haven't looked back. Really, I think this one's just far superior, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that shield mic's got a horrible micro USB connector which wears out apparently as well, yeah it didn't bother me so much.
Speaker 2:the micro USB, I mean ideally USB-C, but it wasn't the end of the world. But yeah, just that little floppy windshield just made me think I've not got a quality piece of gear. And I floppy windshield just made me think I've not got a quality piece of gear and I wanted a quality piece of gear.
Speaker 2:Basically, absolutely yeah, okay, back to you cool um my next one again not directly for a photographer related, but indirectly again is my manfrotto roller case, believe it or not. Oh, wow, okay, and over the years I've had loads of different bags and roller cases. I've got cupboards full of bags and I think I've got one roller case in the loft and one roller case in the garage that I've not used in years and I keep meaning to sell them. Never get around to it. But the main case I've got is the Manfrotto. I can't remember the model number. It's like a 55-centimeter one, one which is designed to go in on cabin baggage right. So it's fairly compact.
Speaker 2:But it just seems to swallow all my gear, um, and it's just reliable. I've dragged it all over the uk and abroad, um, and it just keeps on going. Basically so that's your main bag for weddings for yeah, exactly, it's not the you know again it's not sexy, but you know, it's just something that just every day I use it and I don't realize it good point.
Speaker 1:I've got more bags up there than tesco's.
Speaker 2:I think really can like probably yeah exactly I think all photographers do, and every time I I say to my wife I bought a new bag, and she just face palms.
Speaker 1:I have got a roller bag, but I very rarely use it. The only time I ever use it is if we're doing weddings in Oxford colleges, when we're on the bus, often because we can't park anywhere in Oxford, and then sometimes it's useful.
Speaker 2:But yeah, okay, yeah, good one yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm going to go away from gear as well now.
Speaker 2:So this is going to get even more left field now. So I'm going to hold something up to you which won't work on on the podcast, audio podcast, but I'll explain in a second. So that thing, okay, oh yes. So you know what, when I was just talking about I was thinking about it look, I've got a similar one here, look, look again. For audio listeners. It's uh, it's not quite working out so let me explain what he says.
Speaker 1:This is a black widow spider holster and I've got two of these. So this is the one and I think it's designed really for smaller cameras. But this is the one where you just put a pin into the tripod thread. There's no bracket on the camera, it's just a pin and then you drop it into your um, into the, so go on your waist and you drop it in and you basically carry your cameras around on your waist all day Now.
Speaker 1:I've tried harnesses. I can't get on with harnesses. I hate harnesses. I hate the cameras dangling, especially when I'm walking around and going sideways. I'm always conscious of the swinging and doing and they don't do my back any good. So I've used these now pretty much seven years eight years I reckon and I think I've only ever missed once, when I had a fuji camera. I missed the slot and it fell on the floor, uh, but it was a carpeted room so I got away with it. But they're just great, they're just. You know, two of these on my waist, normal, normal waistband, uh. The only thing is now I'm getting a bit of a belly. I do put my trousers down a little bit, not that anybody wants to know that, particularly on the podcast. But uh, no, they're great. I mean they were 50 quid each, I think. I mean they're just rock solid, never missed little like little locating pin to make sure they they lock in.
Speaker 2:We should put them on really have you not tried using the um, the proper base plate for it, like they do um, like a mirrorless base plate for it? Now I haven't seen the need, really. No, with the pin, when you put it in, does the camera stick out sideways or does it go fully upside down, what I do?
Speaker 1:I point them in, so the lens is kind of pointing towards my nether regions, if I can put it that way. And when I walk, that's how they walk really. So they're not sort of like holsters in, like guns on my hip, they point inwards really. Yeah, I have looked at that and I've thought, well, perhaps I should be using that because the camera is a bit bigger and heavier than the Fuji's I used to use these with, but they just seem to work really I've got I'm sure I've got a spare plate somewhere I can send it to you and you can trial it.
Speaker 1:And if you don't like it, send it back. Yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:It just pushes. Firstly, it's easier to get out when you're shooting and, most importantly, if you've got a flash on, the flash points completely down, whereas I think with a pin you'd flash sort of points, sort of sideways, which then means that when you're walking around you sort of like a wider load and you have to be a bit more careful.
Speaker 1:I'm wider than it is. Thank you, martin. Not at all, not at all, anyway, I am Okay. Well, yeah, not at all, not at all, but he may have okay. Well, yeah, I'm up for that then, really, because I, I just love having so it's always a conversation piece at a wedding. Everybody goes oh, here he comes, yeah, the fastest girl in the west, or whatever, but it's something to get joking with people, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, cool, so okay, all right for all so far my last one has to be the Godox AD200.
Speaker 2:Again, this is one of those you know pieces of equipment that when I first read about it I thought game changer. Yeah, absolutely Game changer. Before this, to do off-camera flash, I used to have a big Godox. I'll say big, it wasn't that big, I guess in its day it was like a giant speed light, the AD360. I don't know if you know what it is, I know what you mean. Yeah. Yeah, it was like a pocket strobe with a battery, so you had to like lug it around with the battery pack, blah, blah, blah, and it did its job. But it was big and bulky.
Speaker 2:And when I saw the AD200 with its interchangeable heads and everything's one device, and it was speed light sized, I just thought, oh my God. So yeah, I remember buying it as soon as it came out. I took it on an engagement well, engagement pre-wedding shoot in London where we traveled around at the crack of dawn to sort of get those wedding photos. And I just thought to myself I don't think it would have been a lot harder to do it with the AD360. And then I sort of got addicted and bought. I think at the peak I had four of them.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, just to sort of do the off camera flash rather than use speed lights, cause it just gave you the sort of that power. Um, and yeah, I just believe that it was again a flash ahead of its time and this, you know the companies out there now who have copied it correct. Yeah, godox obviously still do a very, very you know a lot of business with it. But nowadays I've moved on to the ad100 because I've found, as, as my style's maturing, I don don't need the raw power but and I'm prioritizing the speed and size rather than, you know, the raw power, but otherwise yeah, you know, the AD200 was the one that changed everything basically, I'd agree with you on that.
Speaker 1:We've got two um and absolute game changers. Often we just put them on poles lighting the dance floor, um, and we just put them on poles lighting the dance floor, and I've got well, I call them a flash bag with several Godox flashes. I've got a V1, the 860 and all the MatMod stuff in there as well, really, and yeah, I might get a couple of hundreds actually as well, because we often do the light on the pole thing now, where I might bring the light up and Sam will take the picture, or vice versa. Yeah, it's ideal for that vice versa.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. But what I found was I just don't need that. You know when, when you are shooting? You said you put your 200s up. I found it that I was using such low flash power. Yeah, that the you know. There's no need for a 200 watt flash.
Speaker 1:The 100 is more than enough. Yeah, I do love doing that. I love the directional light you get when you put the contrast, even though it's not trendy nowadays, is it? It's all about direct on camera flash nowadays, which makes me feel old, but um, yeah I still love that off-camera flash.
Speaker 2:Look me too, me too, yeah absolutely all right.
Speaker 1:So last one for me. I'll just say I've done four so far. So there were lots of things I could have done. I've got various brackets and other things as well, but I'm actually going to pick software um or it and, and it was a toss-up between two.
Speaker 1:So I very, very rarely had studio ninja, so it was an honorable sixth place. I'm having studio ninja because it's been a game changer for us in terms of automating our business generally, sorting us out, making sure we don't double book ourselves or our invoicing. Everything's done on studio ninja. But I'm actually going to have pick time. Oh, interesting choice. Pick time for me has been, for us, shall I say, has been really and again it's a cliche, but it has been game changer.
Speaker 1:So we were using shoot proof before, which was fine, yeah, but everything about pick time I just love. I love the way the images look on pick time. I don't know what they do, but they look, you know. I mean, obviously we'd like to think they look pretty good anyway. Love the way the images look on PicTime. I don't know what they do, but they look, you know. I mean, obviously we'd like to think they look pretty good anyway, but the way they look on a phone or on a tablet or on a computer, they just look fantastic. I love the way you can have the separate scenes, so we break the colour photos down into scenes and we give another scene where we have all the same photos in black and white now as well, black and white now as well?
Speaker 2:Could you not do that in?
Speaker 1:Shootproof? Yeah, you can. Yeah, but it just seems easier in Pick Time. But the other thing about Pick Time is that it makes us money. So I reckon last year we did three grand on prints, wall-mounted items, frames, the Illuminae, the Loxley Illuminae I've got one up here. You can see it, it actually makes us money. So for the 400 quid a year, it costs us.
Speaker 2:It actually is. It doesn't cost you anything. And yeah, this is this is my biggest argument to people I like, like you, steve, I use pick time and before I was on pixie set, which was, which was quite pretty. I always found pixie set to be quite pretty, shoot proof, to be very functional. It was very sort of like here you go. It looks very corporate, but pick time sort of has both.
Speaker 2:But the biggest difference was when I was with pixie set, if I made enough to cover the costs in a year and bear in mind I was on the lower tier back then so if I made 200 quid in a year on print sales, I was like, oh, that's cool, I've made my money back for, yeah, for the hosting costs. As soon as I switched to pick time first year I was making, like you know, like three, four grand, and last year I made three grand as well. So it was just like, why would you, you know, if someone said to you, steve, give me 400 quid and I'll give you three grand? Is that 400 quid a cost really?
Speaker 1:well, not really in pure account, it isn't, it isn't, yeah, yeah exactly yeah, but in reality you'd be a fool not to.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know completely, and that's where I've got to now with with pick time. I mean, I'm not sold anything yet this year, but I'm confident, once the summer weddings start rolling in, that I'll make some money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's on albums, by the way, because we do our albums Exactly.
Speaker 2:We still do our albums manually.
Speaker 1:This is all prints, frames, wall-mounted stuff, really. It's just, and it's almost like free money because you don't have to do it, it is. You definitely want a lot of setup to set up your suppliers and things, which is done. Do you use the early?
Speaker 2:bird promo. Yeah, exactly, that's the main thing I use and I know people who use a lot more. So, again, for people who don't use PicTime, they've got these things called sales automation. So it's like preset stuff that they do for you, that all the emails are taken care of everything. You just literally tick a box and it starts doing the chasing up, which is why it's so accurate, it's so um effective. They do all the chasing up for you, etc. So the early bird one, you know you can set, you can tweak it, but I leave it to the default, which is 20 off. I know some people set 50 off, but I know photographers who are literally, and they've shown me the screenshots, the sales reports from their pick time. So I know it's true, they've made like one guy made like nearly eight grand and another guy made like nearly nine grand. You know just from print sales. I mean, this is not chump change and I know so many people who have gone. Yeah, I've switched over and it's making me money. I think you've got a very good choice.
Speaker 1:I wish I'd have thought that one and actually when I say I say three grand, that's three grand of profit, not three grand of turnover. By the way, and I don't push it very hard either- I don't push it very hard.
Speaker 2:You know it's just early bird and there you go. If I enabled all the other stuff like you know, anniversary and Mother's Day and stuff like that Christmas, Black Friday, yeah, Black Friday, yeah Could potentially make more money, but I just don't want to overload people who visit with emails.
Speaker 1:No, exactly.
Speaker 2:But if you really want to make some serious money, then I would definitely recommend Pick Time.
Speaker 1:So that should get us a sponsorship for Pick Time next week, Martin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's sponsored by Pick Time.
Speaker 1:No, this is an unsponsored show, at least yet it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've said all this and we genuinely are not sponsored by anybody. No, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:So we're already into our longest ever podcast. Martin, you're okay for time? Oh, are you really? Yeah, oh, my God, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So let's carry on, let's carry on, let's hope people are interested to listen to this because I think my first worst one that was, without a doubt, the worst thing I've ever bought. Tell me more. So what happened was the theory was great. My wife had just given up work. She really didn't enjoy her job. She wanted to find a new direction. So I thought to myself right, I'll tell you what we'll buy a photo booth Brilliant, she can run it in the evenings whilst she learns to be a videographer.
Speaker 2:I can sell this when people book in. You know like it's extra revenue. It is a win-win and it was. It was dead easy to sell, you know, or you could throw it in If you really wanted to close the book and you could throw it in. The problem was, first of all, daika absolutely hated the thing. She really did not. She does not like being bored and it's a very boring job just sitting there for two and a half hours just handing out photos. So she hated it. She was like, honestly, she sat there some days like a sulky teenager and I hope she doesn't mind me saying that because genuinely she used to sit there like with her arms folded, like pouting that. Because genuinely she used to sit there like with her arms folded like pouting um.
Speaker 2:But it was also so much faff to set it all, pack it down, I bet it was there were some nights we didn't get in till through the door till midnight because by the time we've packed it all, drove it home. Then we have to unpack it into the garage. You can't leave it in your car. Um, it was just horrendous. And it got to the point where this is how daft it was getting. It got to the point where customers would sit, you know, when they were talking to me going oh, I see you do a photo booth as well, and I'd spend the next 10 minutes trying to talk them out of it. You know, oh, please, don't book this yet. Yeah, yeah, just have a thing. You know you've got your budget and to think about. You know, come back to me later. Um, you know, come back to me later.
Speaker 2:You know, and I tried to find people to run it, but very hard to find reliable people. One of my friends used to be like oh, martin, I'm so skint. So I'd be like, oh yeah, come on Friday then and I'll give you a hundred quid to run it. And he'd be like oh, you know, I've got a pub on Fridays. Is that what you're not asking? No, asking, and I so, yeah, it just turned out to be the worst purchase and ended up selling it to a friend of mine and I just said to him look, I don't care about the money, you know, just have it um for a nominal fee, but the only condition is you've got to take over all the bookings I've got um. And he was like, yeah, that's fine. So he, he delivered all the bookings for me but and I sold him dirt cheap, basically, and took a huge loss on it just to get rid of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was awful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was just back in those days were actually you go next? Because I'll. I'll mention this on on one of my later ones.
Speaker 1:I just think it's the kind of thing I would have come up with as an idea as well. I think we did one stage dabble with buying some props and putting a light up for people. But I'm ambivalent with photo booths. I mean, they can be a lot of fun, can't they, um? And we always go and have a photo talk in the photo booth as well. But also they do drag people away from the evening. When you're trying to sort of mingle and get some candies and things, everybody's queuing up to put a silly hat on.
Speaker 2:So I think for us it was just after the after the first dance, we were ready to go home yeah you know, a bit of dancing and we're ready to go home.
Speaker 2:And then the idea of staying till 10 o'clock and plus you had to like. I remember once, like daiga was having a standoff with a four-year-old because this four-year-old was come, you know, absolutely convinced she was going to come up, she's going to take some props and she's going to go on the dance floor with them. So you know, daiga's trying to get these props back because obviously, the more she took, the less we had, and this four-year-old was having none of it. So you ended up having a fight with a four-year-old, you know, and you just look like the meanie, don't you?
Speaker 1:A big athlete trying to like snatch toys off a four-year-old, not a good, look, no, exactly.
Speaker 2:So yeah, don't do that people.
Speaker 1:Don't do that. No, don't do that. Yeah, okay, all right. Well, mine's not as interesting or as exciting as that my first one, but uh, um, I've probably, like most people, looked at ways of trying to speed up my editing workflow over the years, and about three um further photography shows ago, I bought a loop deck yeah, yeah, I've got one.
Speaker 1:I've got a little one. Anyway, everybody's got one somewhere. I bought the one that looks like a keyboard. It is a keyboard, basically, with some knobs on it. Yeah, the huge one. Yeah, the original huge one. Yeah, yeah. And I thought this is going to save so much time and for about two weeks I really tried hard to use it and then in the end I thought in the corner of my little office here and then I flogged it about a year later for a significant loss. So not a fan of those things. The biggest thing to speed up our editing workflow is After Shoot, which we could have had as another bestseller.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, good point actually. Yeah, I think loop decks are basically the treadmill of the photography industry. You buy with all the best intentions.
Speaker 2:You use it a couple of times what a great analogy that is and I've got one here and I haven't used in months, in months, I swear, and everybody's got one. I've actually recently, just as a slight tangent I've actually recently, just as a slight tangent I've actually recently bought something called LR Super Keys, which a friend of mine, Rhys Beddoe, put me onto. It's just so much easier. So you know, for those who don't know rather than use an external thing like Loupedeck, you use the same keyboard and you just assign keys. So if I want, for example, I've assigned the key Z to sort of control exposure. So if I want, for example, I've assigned the key Z to sort of control exposure. So if I hold down Z and then use the mouse wheel, it changes the exposure for me and I can control everything. Oh, that's quite cool.
Speaker 2:So they've had to go up to the. Yeah but the thing I really like and saves me time is I have a hotkey for various presets and brushes and you can't do that on Loop Deck, where you press a certain key on the loop deck and it selects a specific brush. You can't do that, whereas on this one you can. So I press a specific key, it brings up my burn brush and I start like using it. So that saves me time. So that's super cool.
Speaker 2:I've actually bought that and I don't need to know more about that, and perhaps we'll put that in the show notes as well. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely Okay. All right, so your next worst purchase, okay.
Speaker 2:So I guess this is one of those where every photographer starts off going through buying UV filters for your lenses.
Speaker 2:I see what you're saying, because you think, especially when you first get your equipment, you're like, oh, I've got to protect that piece of glass. I've got to protect that piece of glass. So you, so you spend a thousand pound on a lens and then you go out and you buy a 10 pound piece of glass to go on the front of it, and then you wonder why you know your shots aren't as sharp or there's some goat sting on on your images and you can't figure out why. Um, and then eventually, I remember once dropping the 70 to 200 and people think, oh, yeah, but the uv filter will protect it. No, it didn't.
Speaker 2:What happened was the uv filter bent, the glass smashed. The bent uv filter now couldn't be. Yeah, I couldn't get it off, right, right. So now it's stuck with all the broken glass which and the broken glass shards actually scratched the front element. Wow. So I was like, ah, so yeah. So in the end I managed to eventually prise it off, using a hacksaw and brute force exactly, and then sweeping up very carefully the the broken shards of glass. Um, and eventually I realized just use a lens hood.
Speaker 2:You know, just, and the couple of times I've dropped lenses after that, the lens hood saved it. Saved it. Yeah, I've had to buy a new lens hood, but that's 20 quid and it easily comes off and you just throw it away.
Speaker 1:Yeah absolutely I've. I don't use UVv filters. I have scratched the front of our 135. I've noticed the other day but uh, yeah, you'd have to. You'd have to do this, I've got scratches on some of my lenses.
Speaker 2:But I batter my lenses, you know, I don't people. You get some photographers who really look after every piece of equipment. Don't try, I don't, I don't. I just like sling it in the bag, it's, it's, it's a tool. I don't see a builder going around going. I'll really look after my hammer, do you know? I mean, you just like whack it and use it and that's it. You know you should have been a war photographer yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a good one. Yeah, and I can probably echo that one. So I'm going to go next. When and again, when we started in this business, every set of presets I ever bought was a waste of money. All these look cool. I'm going to buy those, uh why does everybody look passage steve?
Speaker 2:it's a right of passage.
Speaker 1:Why does everybody look like orange? Why does everybody look brown? Why does everybody look like they've been in a cave for six months? Uh, yeah, it's just. You know all the tribe archipelago ones and uh, visco ones and all of those ones. They were utter waste of money. I've still got them. They're all in a folder somewhere, you know, on my hard drive.
Speaker 2:But uh, over the years I've collected so much, just by you know, when friends have bought them. Oh, can I try that? So they'll. They'll send me the preset so I can try it, and I have no objections with buying them if I like it. But I've yet to find and again, I've bought some, but I've yet to find a preset which I bought that I thought, oh my god, this is amazing yeah yeah, absolutely, which you've got a certain look and a certain you know style of photography.
Speaker 1:You don't keep messing about absolutely which. You've got a certain look at it and a certain you know style of photography. You don't keep messing about with how you've put us anyway, so we designed our own ages ago. We thought we'd know to be fair. No, we didn't. We work with um northern presets, um yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and she customized them. Then we've tweaked them from there, really, and that's what we've used for the last three years and they're great. Yeah, just put it pretty cool, so okay okay, back to you.
Speaker 2:Uh, my next one and it's funny you mentioned it because you brought up the, the spider holster. Uh, back when I was still sort of building the business, I was trying to save money so I actually bought several, not just one, fake spider holster belts, you know so fake, well, fake, knockoff ones. So they were basically Chinese, cheap Chinese clones of the spider holster. And, oh my God, um it was. It seemed like a good idea at the time. You know, you get all the all the benefits of spider without the price tag. But then I remember one belt had this plastic clip holding the belt together. And you know, back in the day when I hold, when I um, so, so basically not the buckle, but halfway around the belt there was like the belt didn't go all the way around, it just had this plastic sort of like o-ring that held the belt together. And back in the day when I used to look DSLRs with 24 to 70 and 70 to 200, it was a lot of weight.
Speaker 2:And I remember one day I was walking around a venue and all of a sudden it all happened in a split second. I heard this ping and I instinctively grabbed my waist and just in that split second I managed to stop everything from tumbling to the floor when this plastic ring snapped and I was like, oh my god. And then another one. The plate wore, um, like a hole in the metal bottom bit of the holster and I couldn't understand why for like an afternoon where every so often I thought I'd missed. I put the camera in the holster and it just falls to the floor, and it was basically the hole at the bottom had gone bigger, so the whole thing just fell through and I was just like, oh so, no, now I'm done with the fake ones. I bought an original and I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1:Some things just force economy, aren't they?
Speaker 2:yeah, exactly, and I've paired the spider clips with a think tank belt. That that they no longer do so. They don't make this belt anymore and it's the most comfortable combination ever, and I will be so sad if that belt ever breaks because I can't buy a replacement anymore.
Speaker 1:I think I've seen that actually.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've seen it in a photo show before it's a big belt but it doesn't pull your pants down, like you were saying earlier, and it's just dead comfy because it's very padded um and I, you know, I can put both cameras on. I can put like a lens changer um a pouch on as well, and it's like bulletproof basically, you don't like batman with his utility belt, then yeah yeah, that's what people say in it, you know.
Speaker 2:But again, I like the look. Dagger uses the um. It's like the uh, it's like a clone of the money maker, you know. But again, I like the look. Dagger uses the um. It's like the uh, it's like a clone of the moneymaker. You know the leather harnesses and I bought one because I thought I like how they look. But I can't get on with the way they jangle and when you get used to the freedom of the spider, you can't. You don't like being tethered again no, I just hate harnesses.
Speaker 1:I mean I could have had harnesses in this because I bought a couple, but uh, I've got one in the cupboard. Don't use it.
Speaker 2:Don't use it, yeah okay, that's a good one um, so my next one then?
Speaker 1:um, probably like I'm gonna cough, excuse me. Like most photographers, uh, we use lightroom, we use photoshop. Uh, at various stages we've been able to negotiate different packages where we've got the whole Adobe suite from time to time. But the biggest thing I hated and I hate using and I've paid for it over the time is Premiere Pro. I hate Premiere Pro with a passion. So we're not serious videographers, unlike you and Tiger, but we do have a reasonable amount of video. But every time I've tried to use Premiere Pro, the bloody thing just crashes on me every time, no matter what computer, what device, and I think now it does autosave, but when I was using it then it didn't. So you'd be spending like two or three hours putting together this timeline. The thing would crash and you'd go back and it's all gone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was just so buggy and so unfriendly. So so buggy and so unfriendly so I do everything with DaVinci Resolve now. I love Resolve. I think it's a great app, and the fact I can switch between computer and Mac as well, if I need to, is great. So Premiere Pro. If you use Premiere Pro, guys, get rid of it. It'll destroy your life.
Speaker 2:I genuinely don't understand why people still use it. With Lightroom you can argue that Adobe have got got a virtual monopoly, but they certainly don't with video, because davinci results very, very good.
Speaker 2:There's also final cut if you're a mac I use final cut as well um, and, and, like you, when, when dagger first started in video, she used premiere pro and it got to the point where she would refuse to upgrade. So when the new version came out, she just wouldn't upgrade until she no longer could. You know when, like, a plugin got updated and she couldn't use that version anymore and that's the only time she would upgrade, because, in her own words, I know where the bugs are, you know. So she would know how to get around the bugs that were in that version. And the last thing she wanted was a new update which introduced all new bugs that she now had to, like iron out and work around, and blah, blah, blah. So, yeah, it was ridiculous. Introduced all new books that she now had to, like iron out and work around, and blah, blah, blah. So, yeah, it was ridiculous yeah, well, you've heard it.
Speaker 2:First, guys get rid of premiere pro yeah, and then people still use premiere pro and I don't understand why yeah, no, it's horrible, horrible software.
Speaker 2:Okay, two left, two left each, so two left, each right. My next one, I guess, is the anti-imac. So I, when I you like I said I was a big fan of the imac and I remember one particular year I thought to myself I need an upgrade, I need an upgrade. This is getting slow now and I couldn't quite bring myself to pay the price. So I thought to myself you know what, I'm gonna go back to windows and I going to buy an all-in-one pc. So I did my research and I bought from amazon a lenovo all-in-one pc.
Speaker 2:It was crap, basically. I really tried hard to like it but it just didn't work very well. It was just not just didn't feel premium. Everything felt cheap, everything ran a bit slower and I just thought to myself this is awful. And I think it lasted about two weeks and eventually I yeah, I had to admit defeat and the fact that I hated it and I ended up sending it back. Which for a large item like that, amazon make you pay for the postage. So I had to not. Which for a large item like that, amazon make you pay for the postage. So I had to not insignificant expense to myself send it back to get a refund. And then I bought. I just went out, literally plonked my credit card on the table at the Apple store and went, I'll have that one and bought an iMac again, and then I was happy again. So yeah, that was a bad purchase.
Speaker 1:Lenovo used to be IBM's brand, didn't they? Because it's a Chinese brand now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no, sorry, tell a lie. No, no, no. Lenovo was always a Chinese brand, but they bought a lot of IBM's Sorry, that's right. They bought the ThinkPad range and the corporate range. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Range yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, bad move.
Speaker 1:I tried really hard to like it really, really tried hard, but it just wasn't meant to be. No, okay, I I would probably give it that long. I'd probably given it a day before I sent it back, but still that way to give it a fair crack of the whip all right, so two left for me? Um, one is one that's sitting under my desk right now. This is going to sound like I'm having a moment of tomato mine, I'm not.
Speaker 1:So about five years ago, we bought a computer from kevin mullins, who's a good friend of ours and and kevin's very much a pc guy and it was the time when we were I mean, I don't know whether to go mac or pc and, um, he, his computer was was at the time. So this was five years ago very, very highly specced PC 64 gig of RAM, two spinning disks, a couple of SSDs top of the range spec and we were starting to do some video and it was taking forever. And what we were using, so bought it gave Kevin a fair price on it, To be fair, for a couple of years it was a great workhorse for us, but the motherboard hasn't got the right chip on it to run Windows 11. So it's a Windows 10-only machine, ever, ever, ever, ever. And it's sitting on my desk now and I've been trying to sell it on eBay and I can't get 150, quid for it?
Speaker 1:I mean, if you ripped it apart for the components you'd probably get more, but I can't be bothered to do that really. But it's just sitting there as a big lump in the way really. And I'm going to go with Kevin because you know it was a very fair transaction and, to be fair, it was a great computer for us for a couple of years. But when we wanted to go back to Mac I thought, well, I'll try and sell this, and nobody wants to know.
Speaker 1:That's the other thing with PCs they're so hard to sell.
Speaker 2:Exactly, the resale value is virtually worthless on most PCs that are built. You have to sell them for the parts.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm going to do, I think, whereas Macs.
Speaker 2:I can advertise my Mac tomorrow and I'll you know. As long as I put a fair price on it, I know that it'll be fine. And if I don't like it, you know, if I don't like that price, I can fl and flog it to someone like Hoxton, like you did, from where you bought your Mac from.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah. So if anyone wants a nicely specced PC with two, three terabyte hard drives, gigabytes of SSD, yeah, on the downside, it doesn't run Windows 11.
Speaker 2:Drop me an email, yeah.
Speaker 1:Right last one from you, martin.
Speaker 2:Last one from me. Okay, so this one. Basically, I bought a 32 inch tv, which doesn't sound photography related, but I bought it for doing same day slideshows at weddings, and this was something I learned. Uh, someone else had done it and they swore by it and, um, I jumped on the bandwagon. So what would happen is, during the wedding breakfast, I'd sit down rather than eat my dinner. I would sort of like, well, I'd eat my dinner with one hand and be trying to edit some previews with the other hand, with the, with the idea that when the evening reception starts, I'd put on on a 32 inch tv because obviously it was go big or go home, um, you know, the photos on a slideshow so people could marvel at the quality photos, and the idea was it would wow the bride and groom and hopefully their friends who were engaged would then get in touch with me because the photos were so epic.
Speaker 2:I can see that yeah it was just such a faff. Did they get any bookings from it? Not sure. Half the time the bride and groom were way too busy, you know, talking to guests and they weren't that engaged with it. No, of course not. Eventually someone stole it from my garage when I left it unlocked one night, um, so it was just again. It was just a faff, and I've since learned and this was something I was going to mention earlier you just get to the point where I've realized that, rather than trying to keep doing more, I just need to do what I do better. So this is something a lot of photographers do. We try and do more because we think if we do more we'll get more bookings from customers. But there are certain things which customers don't care about, and there are certain things customers care about. Quality of photography is something they do, to a certain extent, care about.
Speaker 2:It's not the only thing, but they care about that, yeah, the, the, the garnish, like slameday slideshows and magic mirror photo booths. They don't care about that. It's not the deal breaker for them. If you do, you know, whether you do a magic mirror photo booth or not isn't going to be the linchpin of whether they book you. And if it is, you need to look at the quality of your photos Correct. And the same with the same day slideshows. You know. If it is free, of course the customer wants it. You know, oh, yeah, that'd be nice. But if I said to them it's an extra hundred quid, it's an extra hundred quid, but yeah, any money that I'll take it out, correct, yeah, yeah, so it had no value. Uh, did I get any bookings from it? I can't say 100, I did not. That. I know of um and in the end I just thought I'm not doing this. This is such a faff and and I don't have to look at 32 inch tv now and it's every single wedding no, you don't want to be doing that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for a while we um and we still do occasionally we we took a little portable printer and printed some pictures off during dinner and pass those around, um, but again it was more. That was more as a nice surprise for the bride rather than as a, you know, a marketing agent for us, really. But again, it's just faff, isn't it really?
Speaker 2:again, it's something that we try and do because we think that by doing these, doing more, that the customer will love it. And blah, blah, blah, blah. And do they like it? Yeah, of course they do, because they're not paid for it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah, if it is, it comes down to this thing I mentioned, um, I think, last time on my podcast with nick church that when we were at the photography show, um, do you remember when we were at the photography show? Do you remember when we were in the Adobe lounge for the drinks and I took two little pins the Lightroom and Photoshop pin badges because they were free I don't need them, never worn them, but they were free, so I took them.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean that's where something has no value, but do I like it? Yeah, it was free. If you asked me to pay 50 P each for the matter, not bothered.
Speaker 1:No waste time. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Good point, anyway, so my last one, then last one for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we've kind of got there a little bit already. Really, probably it's going to be some age. Seven or eight years ago I bought fairly well, no, actually a pretty high spec epson photo printer and it sat there and got used about three or four times. Sat there like a brooding, you know monolith in the in the corner of my of my little study here really. And photo printers should be consigned to room 101. They're just a pain in the corner of my little study here, really. And photo printers should be consigned to Room 101. They're just a pain in the backside.
Speaker 1:All printers are like that Well true, yeah, but particularly photo printers, where you're poncing around with different settings trying to get your workflow optimized, eating ink like it was, you know, like free wine at a reception, and very quickly I realized well, actually, what's the point For all the printing I'm doing? I can just order a print from a proper lab and get it done properly.
Speaker 2:That's exactly what I do. Yeah, it's not worth the high, it's not. You buy these expensive inks because obviously the colors have to match, that's right. And then one of the nozzles gets blocked and then it won't print, and then, like, the printer refuses to print for whatever reason. Yeah, oh, it's just not worth the heartache.
Speaker 1:Is it? No, I think I spent getting on for a grand with it and I think I skipped it in the end. I don't think anybody wanted to buy it. It was just such a pain in the backside. And, you know, I got perhaps half a dozen nice prints out.
Speaker 2:I'm going to return on the investment of that. It's horrendous really.
Speaker 1:But it seemed the right thing to do at the time. But what?
Speaker 2:a pain in the backside. Funnily enough, the printer that I use the main printer I use is actually a Dell LaserJet, and there's a funny story about that. So basically it was a color LaserJet and I got it from Tesco's of all places. Wow, and basically I used all my Tesco's of all places. Wow, and basically I used all my Tesco club card points. Or there was a special money off voucher that they sent you the bonus voucher. If you spent so much money you get X pounds off. Then on top of that I paid on you know club card vouchers, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:Cut a long story short, it was something like by the time I took it was already on discounts. By the time I took everything off it cost me like £8.61. And I felt so embarrassed handing over all these coupons basically for this printer. I've carried this color laser chip out, feeling like I'd robbed Tesco, expecting the security guard to tackle me. But to this day I mean it must be like 10 years ago now To this day it still works and I just buy cheap refills from amazon, because I don't use it for photo prints, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:So I just buy cheap toner yeah, exactly, so yeah it's cool. Yeah, printers are the spawn of the devil, aren't they?
Speaker 2:yeah, I hate printers. Don't, don't, don't come near me with a, with an inkjet printer so you heard that first, martin.
Speaker 1:Uh folks, if you want to annoy martin, turn up with a printer that'll guarantee to. Uh well, that was a lot of fun. We've just gone through in hours yeah, I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed it. I hope everyone else um either enjoyed it or can at least identify with some of our uh best or worst purchases.
Speaker 1:Well, let us know. So we'd love to hear from you as to what has been your best purse and your worst purchase. Uh, you can obviously drop us a line contact details, but if you don't know, there's also a Facebook group for the podcast now as well, called Not Surprising the photography pod. So you do have to apply to join, but we'll let you in because we're nice people, and come and tell us in there what your best and worst purchases were yeah, let's read out some of the best ones, and the next one.
Speaker 1:That's a good idea, yeah, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:I'd love to hear because I bet some of these are hilarious like we've all done it. We've all done really terrible purchases, like my photo booth, yeah I think that goes.
Speaker 1:That's probably the number one, the photo.
Speaker 2:It was that honestly, I lost thousands. It still irks me. It literally was thousands we lost, but we just got to the point where forget it, don't care anymore absolutely, absolutely cool.
Speaker 1:So if you have enjoyed the show, folks, don't forget to subscribe on apple or spotify and leave us a review. It does help us in lots of weird ways, so we'd love to get a five star review from you. We'll be back in a couple of weeks time with more thoughts on various aspects of photography, but until then, happy shooting out there and we'll talk to you soon. Bye.