On lens envy

Pete Souza is a lucky guy. He gets to be official Whitehouse photographer, not just the current one, but he was also Reagan’s too. He also gets to play with lots of shiny toys, and uploads photos to the Whitehouse flickr stream.

Thanks to this, you can EXIF stalk his kit. But not too closely. They strip out the device serial numbers from the EXIF, so you can’t tell how many of each he has. Let’s assume it’s a few. I wish I had a couple of Canon 5D mkII (AUD$3995) cameras. Anyway, this seems to be what he’s been using:

• EF135mm f/2L USM - AUD$1565
• EF50mm f/1.2L USM - AUD$2135
• EF24mm f/1.4L II USM - AUD$2395
• EF28mm f/1.8 USM
• EF35mm f/1.4L USM - AUD$1970
• EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM - AUD$2690
• x1.4 Teleconverter - $495

It’s a tough life. I really want the 24mm f/1.4L II USM. Hell, I’d even settle for version I :P