Personal Camera and Lens evolution

[mkooper]

Hi all, what a great forum to post questions that are troubling me...

I am about to spend some money on a camera and lenses. I have a great camera (5DII) and great lenses (100-400L, 70-200 F2.8, 25-70 F2.8, 16-24 F2.8 L).

So you might be wondering, what else does this idiot want? Such great gear! And indeed I ask myself these questions too.

Well, this is where the real question comes in. I started with a Canon Rebel and 15-55 and 55-200 lenses (or something like that). I then upgraded to 40D, then some better zoom lenses, then 5D and more lenses.

Now I am looking at getting some prime lenses. I am also looking at getting a neat little hand-held unit with good manual settings and a good lens for those occations when you don't want to seem like a dork at a party. I hear that there is a 40MPixel Nocia Phone out (?!?). Having talked to others, I find that they have gone through similar steps and some are on the way to a similar progression.

So I guess my question is, am I going through a typical eloutionary pattern? SLR=> Zoom Lenses => SLR + => Zoom Lenses + => Primes => Small modular camera? And what will be my future descisions if I keep going? Medium/large format?

[Bennymiata]

Next step up would be either a Pentax 645 medium format, or if you have the funds, a Hasselblad.

If you are looking for a discrete smaller camera that takes really good shots and has a good lens, and has manual control, I doubt you could really go past a Canon G1X, and it will use your flashes and other Canon accessories too.

[TOM]

Everyone is different, but you could try a small or medium format rangefinder camera, in either digital or film, or a medium format SLR (these can be had cheap if you go with a film version). I guess the thing is that small format DSLR's are cheap, and although most, I would think, want to go to a Pentax 645D or even a Leica S2, a lack of disposable income will prevent them from justifying such a purchase.