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Of the 366 days, I posted backup photos on 61 occasions - roughly one in six posts on average.
The frequency of backup posts was variable, but trended upwards through the year.
October and November were the worst months, with 11 backups each, which coincides with me having a particularly bad time at work.
Fixer-Upper.
I fixed two slightly unhappy lenses this year.
Firstly, my EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS, which had developed a weird fault years ago, not long after being repaired following a rather ignominious fall from a bit of staging, which broke it almost in half. The fault caused the lens to fail to focus at focal lengths around 135mm, and also caused the image stabiliser to jump as you zoomed through the same point. The fault turned out to be a slightly damaged sliding contact, which was easily corrected, and has restored the lens to perfect health.
The second repair escapade was on my EF-M 22mm, which had developed a very dodgy manual focus ring. I pulled the lens apart and found that the glue that holds the external ring to the encoder had failed, so a bit of glue was called into service, and that one's back in working order too.
Shopping.
I bought quite a lot of new toys this year, which I've mostly enjoyed.
This started out with the Sigma 150-600mm and matching 1.4x teleconverter. It's not an especially sharp lens, and the image stabiliser is a bit odd, but it does deliver acceptable results if you treat it right, and it is relatively cheap for the focal length.
In February, I finally went full-frame with the 6D Mark II, something I'd wanted to do for years. This was a great buy, and it's a lovely camera to use. I really like the built in GPS, which geotags your photos automatically at source.
In terms of glass, I picked up a few lenses on the used market, which I've been very pleased with - the EF24-105mm f/4L IS, which is a good general purpose lens on full frame; the very special purpose MP-E65mm f/2.8 Macro lens, the EF100mm f/2.8 L IS, and the EF85mm f/1.2.
Getting the MP-E65mm Macro lens pushed me towards focus stacking, which led to me buying the WeMacro automatic focus rail, which is very helpful.
After doing more stacked macro work, I found myself needing a more appropriate flash setup, so I bought four Godox MF12 macro flashes to go with the Xpro wireless trigger system, which I'd bought early in the year. This system has proved to be very useful, nice to work with, and reliable so far.
I bought a Manfrotto MK055CXPRO4BHQR tripod with an XPRO ball head, which has proved to be something of a disappointment.
It's really no smaller, lighter, or stiffer than my old 055 classic aluminium tripod, and the fourth leg section is too thin and annoyingly light, so it doesn't extend or retract under its own weight. The only real benefit I've found is that it isn't as cold to the touch as an aluminium one.
The XPRO tilting column is occasionally useful, but I've used it far less than I imagined when I bought it, and having no easy height adjustment in the horizontal mode is not great. I've also been pinched by the leg locks more times than I care to remember!
I wish I'd bought the 3-section version instead, with no head - The XPRO ball head is really poor, especially when the column is horizontal, and I quickly stopped using it in favour of my old 486RC2 head.
I'm rather tempted to ditch this tripod and look for something that suits me better.
My latest acquisition is a used EOS R5. I'm enjoying it so far - it's a step up in resolution and general performance, and the mirrorless system seems to work well. The only minor downsides I've found so far are the lack of inbuilt GPS, which feels like a retrograde move compared with the 6D II, and the shorter battery life, which I was expecting - a live video system clearly requires significantly more power than a mirror!
Full size photos after the jump.
