About Marien Cartel
Professional and Certified Digital Photographer born in the USA, with 22 years of experience in the field of photography.
Marien Cartel Photography publishes comparisons, buying guides and explainers to help you pick the right camera or lens for what you shoot. Most guides are research-based rather than hands-on tests: they draw on manufacturer specifications and independent reviews, and they say so where a claim comes from.
How these guides are made
- Specifications and features come from manufacturer pages and independent review and specification sites, and guides link to their sources.
- Drafts are prepared with the help of AI tools and then checked before publishing. Where sources disagree, the guide says so.
- Guides do not claim hands-on testing unless they say so, and then only for the gear shown below.
- Apart from the gear photos below, images in guides are stock or illustrative pictures (credited where required) and should not be read as photos of the exact product being discussed.
- Some links are affiliate links. If you buy through them the site may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. See the affiliate disclosure.
The gear I shoot with
These are photographs of my own kit. They are the only original photography on this site. Guides about other cameras and lenses are research-based and do not claim hands-on testing.
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.
