Your camera doesn't matter! - An essay.

[CindyLynn]

I've read this essay. (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/150-vs-5000-dollar-camera.htm)
I believe it is more then true, and want to know what Mogulville has to say.

[Vaughn Whynot]

lol this is pretty good
i never plan on buying a pricy camera

[toppie34]

hmm yeah but there's a bit of a diffrence they are talking about camera's that take photo's and were talking about camera that take movies (a string of photos) and we color correct while they really didnt so yes it was usefull but it was still a bit diffrent from what you get in filmaking

[waveform]

Yeah it's right to a degree, probably for most folk in fact, I'm also an advocate of the 'megapixel' nonsense, where marketing has lead people to think that a 10mp camera is simply better than a 5mp one, when in fact the 10mp one might have a crap piece of glass in font of it which is poorly aligned to the chip and is mounted in a body with minimal or simply naff facility for adjustment.

It's that latter point what the writer of that article seems to be ignoring. Many, not all, Pro photographers and keen amateurs are not just buying a camera, they are buying part of a camera 'system', and depending on their chosen subject the lower priced camera simply won't be able to handle certain situations. Who's going to want to try and photograph surfers from the shore with a compact when serious, fast, telephoto lenses are needed. At the other end of the scale macro photography simply can't work if bellows or extension rings can't be fitted. What about frame rate? How many compacts can machine gun a subject at 10 frames a second at high resolution (increasingly more in some areas) with those long lenses? What about control over depth of field? Shutter speed? bracketing? exposure compensation? Mirror lock up? Stop down preview? External Flash sync? TTL Flash? Indeed TTL viewing through SLR's? And so on.

Yes, undeniably a posh piece of male jewelry will not get a better result for most people, but anybody wanting true control is going to need a far better camera. It's about the system, not just the standard stuff.

For digital I have a small Olympus C350 for snapshots, and an array of Olympus E-10's for time Slice and more serious stills, but for real care I still turn to medium format Hasselblad's, Mamiya's and Bronicas because digital is still way off meeting those.

Along with this discussion should go one other thing about camera quality that's pertinent, that buying high end cameras does not make you a better photographer, but it does extend the tools available. The same goes for video cameras, many good videos have been made on cheaper cameras, it takes the skill of the operator and the setting of the scene to make an effective image. On this forum, and indeed in many other activities, people put their equipment in their sigs like it's some sort of badge, 'I have this, therefore I'm cool and I know what I'm talking about' is one impression that generates, but really, who cares? Judge people's ability by their results, not what they have to get them.

Me? I have cheapo consumer camcorders, why? Because I'm not good enough yet to know how to use half of the facilities fancy video cams have, and therefore having one will make little difference to my results at this stage. I'd rather spend the money travelling to a place worth filming.

So fundamentally I agree that it's easy to find a £100 camera that's capable of generating a quality image, but unless it's a simple subject you're not going to get an image in some circumstances, and it's still the vision and creativity in the person behind the camera that really matters, the camera is chosen to enable the desires of that person to be met.

[KMProductions]

This can be true but also may not. It is true that you can use a $150 dollar camera really well and produce a better image than a baby holding a $5000 camera. But I just don't agree with the people who say "well my $150 camera could totally own your $5000 camera. The truth is that there is a reason that one camera is more expensive than the other, because it is better. I personally though that the picture he took with the $150 camera was too dark and too red. I would have chosen the shot from the more expensive camera. DIY is cool and all but there is a point at which professionalism will surpass DIY.