Canon 17-35mm f2.8L

I bought this poor bastard off my old photo editor who had used it for a couple of years. Journalist owned lenses generally aren't the best cared for however this one was in fair condition. The focus motor went out after a year of my owning it, probably three years of daily use into its working life.

I replaced that and, shortly thereafter, while taking a lovely drive up to Alaska I happened to forget it on the roof of my car. I noticed that I had done so when I saw it and my 20D bouncing down the road in my rearview. That of course left it quite broken. I did some extensive repairs replacing several main parts inside the lens and another focus motor and ta-da, it was back and alive for another day.

I still use the damn thing as my main lens. It's never been terribly sharp and I'm sure the 70mph fall didn't help that. It is however a very solid lens and has done me well over the three years I've owned it.

I'd suggest anyone interested in a wide zoom check out the 16-35, much sharper, better construction and weather sealing.

Don't buy the Sigma, I've had two of them, both died very very quickly.

Olympus WS-311M Voice Recorder

I bought the WS-311m recorder with hopes of using it as a very small means of creating audio slideshows. Wrong tool for the job. It's very small and easy to use but there's massive amounts of background noise which it seems unable to filter out even slightly.

I tested it in a coffee shop which, although probably slightly louder than a monestary, certainly should not have spiked the recorder levels constantly. I wouldn't even attempt to use it with the built in mic and with a Sony ECM-DS30p external the sound quality was better but the noise just gets worse.

If you're looking to dictate this might work well. If you're looking for a tool to create online media etc. Look elsewhere, I'm currently trying a Sony ICD-70sx recorder which, although still not cd quality, is miles better as far as noise and levels control goes.

A sample slideshow with the Sony ICD-70sx can be viewed here. That was at an extremely loud halloween party/fashion show, noise and levels control was outstanding. It did have a nasty habit of blipping once in awhile and creating dead spots in the track, not sure what that was about, will have to try some more tests.