At present I am using a Canon EOS 40D, a Digital SLR with 10.1 megapixels. This Camera has awesome photo capability, considering the low price. With the high pixel count, photos can be cropped/enlarged up to 5 times before loosing good resolution. I was using a Canon 20D in the past. Many of the photos used on my Webpages have been digitally enlarged for a closer look. Most of the photos marked above 13x (taken with a Canon EF 100-400mm telephoto zoom and the 20D or Digital Rebel), were magnified on the computer. Some of those marked at 26x were taken with the Canon EF 2x extender added to the 100-400mm. Though I don't use the extender very much, as I have found that the extender used on the 100-400 doesn't produce very sharp photos. They say it's due to the 400mm end of the telephoto lens not being sharp enough.

The three cameras I mention here all have one feature that works great with any telephoto lens, the cameras magnify by a factor of 1.6. This is due to the sensor being 3/4 the size of what the lenses were made for, 35mm film. This causes the sensor to see a smaller portion of the view through the lens, in essence cropping the photo. It doesn't loose any sharpness or resolution, so actually magnifies the image. Also the center of any lens is the sharpest and produces better results. As an example, my 400mm becomes equivalent to 640mm. (Canon's 600mm lens costs more than $7,000, but I get even more magnification for less money). The part not so good is it also magnifies when using wide angle lenses. That is not wanted, so Canon produced some special lenses named EF-S (Electronic Focus - Short). These lenses fit deeper into the camera to cover more of the sensor, thereby reclaiming the wide angle.

For any of you interested in Canon's extenders, I want to warn you that the Canon extenders won't work on all of Canon's lenses, only some of the professional 'L' series lenses can mate with them. If you have any Canon 'L' series fixed/prime telephoto lenses they will work fine, but on the few 'L' series zoom lenses that fit, you will loose some in quality. Also in most cases you will not have auto focus. For zoom lenses you are better off cropping your photos to increase size, if you have enough camera resolution.

Telephoto zoom lenses are not as good when it comes to quality as a professional 'L' series 'Prime' fixed lens. It's a trade off for me. Very often the subject I am shooting will be at a distance where a fixed lens would over magnify. The variable zoom allows me to zoom back a little to get all the subject into the photo. With my standard lens, a Canon EF-S 17-85mm wide angle to 5x zoom, and the 100-400mm, I can photograph at just about any distance. Where I am often out hiking the mountains, I try to keep my camera weight down, so only take the two lenses along. I carry the camera and small lens in a belt case and the big lens in my backpack. Recently I have been using my EF 70-300mm IS for hiking. It's much lighter and smaller, yet still does a good job.

By the way, each of these lenses have IS, (Image Stabilization). With the IS, I find that I seldom need to use a tripod.

Canon Speedlite 580 EX external flash:
This flash unit reads information through the camera's lens and sets up perfect shots. The Speedlite 580EX receives sensor size information from the camera and determines the flash’s zoom position then adjusts accordingly, thus optimizing flash coverage and reducing the amount of charge required per shot. The unit distributes a consistent, even spread of light throughout the entire zoom range. Another feature is transfer of color temperature data from the flash to the camera to optimize the white balance compensation.