About Marien Cartel Photography
Marien Cartel
Professional and Certified Digital Photographer born in the USA, with 22 years of experience in the field of photography.
Every guide on Marien Cartel Photography is written from real, hands-on experience with the gear — comparisons, buying guides, and reviews built to help you pick the right camera or lens for what you actually shoot, without the marketing fluff.
The gear I shoot with
These are photographs of my own kit — the bodies and glass I actually pick up on a shoot, not stock images. When a guide here says how something handles, this is what it's handling on.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV + EF 24–105mm f/4L IS USM
My full-frame workhorse. The 24–105mm stays on it most of the time — it covers wide enough for interiors and long enough for portraits without a lens change.
Sony a6700
The APS-C body I reach for when I want to travel light. Same subject-tracking autofocus as Sony's full-frame bodies in something that fits in a jacket pocket with a pancake lens.
Sony A7 III + FE 28–70mm f/3.5–5.6 OSS
The full-frame mirrorless body that most of my Sony lens testing runs through. Still the camera I recommend most often to people moving up from crop sensor.
Batteries and charging
Four Canon LP-E6 packs and the LC-E6 charger. Unglamorous, but it's the reason a long shoot day doesn't end early.
