Photo hardware
What I shoot with and what I use each piece for. My kit is put together so that I stand out as little as possible: a fast zoom that keeps me close to the action even from a bit of a distance, an 85 mm for details and low light, and flash only once it gets properly dark.
The mirrorless cameras and all the lenses use Sony’s E-mount, so every lens fits every camera.
Cameras
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Sony Alpha 7R V
My main camera, with me on almost every job. The 61 megapixels give me room to crop in tighter, and the autofocus finds eyes so reliably that all I have to watch for is the moment.
Shot with: Weingut Hans Winter, Resi & Moritz, Born & Winter, Lena & Jairo, Wildfang, Svenja & Jannik, Svenja & Felix, Verena & Thomas
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Sony Alpha 6600
Small, light and with image stabilisation. With a prime on it, it’s the camera that simply comes along when the big one stays at home.
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Sony RX100 VII
Fits in any jacket pocket and still zooms to 200 mm. It always comes on holiday with me, and my personal series from the North Sea and the Neckar were shot entirely on it.
Shot with: Weiße Flotte, Cadzand
Lenses
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Tamron 35–150 mm F/2–2.8 Di III VXD
My most important lens. At weddings it stays on the camera almost all day: at 150 mm I’m close to people’s faces from a distance, and at 35 the whole group fits in. And with an aperture of f/2 to f/2.8 there’s enough light indoors and in the evening too.
Shot with: Resi & Moritz, Born & Winter, Lena & Jairo, Wildfang, Svenja & Jannik, Svenja & Felix, Verena & Thomas
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Meike 85 mm F1.4 AF STM
The 85 mm goes on the camera for details and portraits, often wide open. That makes the background soft, and there’s enough light even where it’s too dark for the zoom.
Shot with: Weingut Hans Winter, Resi & Moritz, Born & Winter, Lena & Jairo, Wildfang, Svenja & Felix
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Viltrox AF 14 mm F4.0 Air
My wide-angle for interiors: 14 mm, and small and light with it. I used it to photograph the practice rooms at Born & Winter, each view as an exposure bracket.
Shot with: Weingut Hans Winter, Born & Winter
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Sony FE 100 mm F2.8 Macro GM OSS
For the really tiny things: it reproduces at up to 1.4× magnification, and with the teleconverter even 2.8×. That reveals details you can barely make out with the naked eye.
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Sony FE 200–600 mm F5.6–6.3 G OSS
For everything I can’t get any closer to. It zooms internally, so it doesn’t get longer as you zoom, and with the teleconverter it reaches 1200 mm.
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Sony Sonnar T* FE 55 mm F1.8 ZA
Small, sharp and a classic among Sony’s primes. On the small camera it becomes almost an 85 mm.
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TTArtisan AF 50 mm F1.8
A 50 mm with autofocus that hardly weighs a thing and hardly costs a thing. Just right for the days when I only want to take one lens.
Shot with: Weingut Hans Winter
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Viltrox AF 26 mm F2.8 EVO
A pancake lens, only just over two centimetres thick. It makes even the big camera small and inconspicuous.
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Viltrox AF 28 mm F4.5
Even slimmer than the 26 mm: just over one and a half centimetres and 60 grams. An aperture of f/4.5 doesn’t let in much light, but in return it makes the camera so small that it simply always comes along.
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Vintage lenses
Old glass with plenty of character: a Biotar 75 mm f/1.5 from Carl Zeiss Jena, a Helios 44-2, a Zeiss Distagon 18 mm f/4 and loads of 50 mm lenses at f/1.4. Adapters put them on Leica M, and the Techart adapter gets them onto the Sony and even teaches them autofocus.
Flashes and accessories
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Godox V100
My flash for the evening, when the dancing starts at weddings: it freezes the movement. At 100 watt-seconds it has more power than most hot-shoe flashes, and the round head spreads the light evenly.
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Godox iT30Pro
A pocket-sized flash, a mere 120 grams. It fires on its own or controls the other Godox flashes by radio.
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Godox Lux Senior
Looks like a flea-market find, with a flip-up reflector and little dials instead of a display, but it charges via USB-C. For the direct, harsh light of old party photos.
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Sony 2× teleconverter SEL20TC
Doubles the focal length, on the super-telephoto and on the macro. That costs two stops of light, but sometimes it’s exactly the reach you need.
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Techart LM-EA9
Turns manual lenses into autofocus lenses: a motor moves the whole lens back and forth until the camera reports focus. That way even my old glass finds eyes on its own.
Also: Photo software