Surprisingly, last year one of the most asked questions we got with our wedding client’s was…  “So what gear do you guys use?”  To be more specific  “Leon, before we go ahead, I know this may sound silly but my fiancée and dad who are into photography wants to know…”   and this is where I spend hours on end talking about gear… and try to convert those Nikonian’s to Canon… hehe…kidding…well….

Back to business… I’m actually sooo glad that clients and prospects are asking this question as it means that if your investing in us to capture your day… you want to make sure, we invested in the right equipment to capture your day.

With wedding photography A LOT , I stress A LOT of our gear we carry on the day and for the business is for that “just in case” factor.    So… lets say just in case my flash breaks… I have another one… or just in case that one breaks I have another one too.. and if that one goes.. I got one more.  Its all about “Just in case” (remember that song from Jaheim?….anyways…) So before I go into my spheell on our gear, forgive me as I may add in some jargon that may relate more to photographers… as I know lots of my clients / friends are into photography too.

Our Bodies:

2 Canon 5D mark II – I call these my second wife(s).  I know everything about you two.  (main and back up camera)

1 Canon 5D Mark I – This is my go too …Mr. never let me down (main and back up camera)

1 Canon 7D -  I call this camera the athlete on steroids. Speed Demon  (main and back up camera)

1 Canon 40D – I call this camera that worked out naturally. No steroids but can compete with the rest of them (main and back up camera)

The Light:

4 Canon Speedlite 580 Ex II- To light up anything and anyone.  Who needs the sun? I do.

4 pocket wizards -  To move that light anywhere we want to

1 Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2

A whole bunch of light stands, modifiers and soft boxes and umbrellas, back drops, and battery grips.

Our Eyes:

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L – I love, love love this lens.  I nickname this lens Gi

Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L – So good.

Canon EF 135mm f/2.0 L – So good.  So sharp.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro – my up close and personal lens. Literally.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L – This is the back breaker lens (heavy) but the image quality it produces is worth the pain.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L –  Our do all lens.

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L – So good.

Canon EFS 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 – So good.

The Power:

80 Eneloops and a wack of Rayovac Hybrids.

2  Canon CP-E4 Compact Battery Packs

The Brains:

1 Apple IMAC 27”  I7 core and 12 gigs of Ram that super over kill and don’t know why we bought it but damn do I feel like a man when I tell people.

1 MacBook Pro 15” I7 core for days I don’t want to work in the Studio, where you can find me at a Starbucks around the city

2 – 23” LED colour calibrated Monitors, so I can watch Top Gear on Youtube while I edit. My third favorite past time.

5 external Western Digital 1 terabyte drives.  Plug and play and store away

1 Quad Core I5 PC that I never use since I converted to Mac. I’m officially that snob.

A handful of UPS backup batteries – If there is a power outage. We got power too.

Combination of 4’s and 8 gigs Compact Flash Cards that amounts to 40 gigs

Thanks,

Leon Chai