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I covered a siege in a street at night this week.

25,600 ASA was perfect on a 5D3 for news use. That's a professional use. Would I shoot portraits for wall hanging at that, well no.

I would add, study a book by a photographer you don't like! I used to be a fan of McCullin, but in recent years I've started to like Martin Parr. Something different can challenge you to take a different direction.

What is this overseas holiday thing? I'm confused...

Portrait lens? Didn't that used to be 85mm or thereabouts? I suppose 50mm is about that on crop sensor.

In practice though, that's a rule meant to be broken. I've shot portraits with everything from 15mm to 200 mm on crop and full frame. How about the Canon 24 to 105 and equivalent lenses?

I reckon it's an age thing.

The demise of film means that plenty of stuff you once aspired to is now very affordable. The possibility of using it is irrelevant to me, the joy of owning something you once aspired to owning that was beyond your reach is enough.

Then there's revisiting your youth. I would dearly love to have my old Pentax Spotmatic and MX back again.

It's a bit like those (usually) blokes who collect space dollies .

Nothing wrong with owning something you don't use. You can just enjoy them for what they are, magnificent engineering.

Oddly, one of my early mentors, a local archivist used Exacta kit. It never did it for me!

Now if you find a Bronica S2A lying around from my college days or an MPP monorail.