So you ask...

[ssim]

Does the equipment make the photographer??

If you do then check out this article (http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-6468-7844)

[Wilt]

ssim, I agree with you. Way too much obsession with quality of gear by too many. The photographer, the craftsman and documentarian and artist, is lacking in too many pixel peeping toms; they're busy being gearheads.

I provided advice to someone at the novice level who was thinking their prosumer digital at a photography critique session was so 'inferior' to the photos taken by everyone with dSLR. He was wondering if he should rush out and buy one. I replied that he should learn the basics first with his prosumer camera, and you could make wonderful pictures with it. Then I challenged him to tell me which photos I had taken with my prosumer vs. which I had taken with my 20D...I posted four. He got them ALL wrong (those he guessed were with my 20D, were taken with the prosumer; those he guessed with with the prosumer, were taken with the 20D ). Point made for him.

[PhotosGuy]

Point made for him. That might make an interesting thread here? And it might shut up some of the "Measurebaters"? :D




... like that's ever going to happen? http://photo.klein-jensen.dk/smilies/rotfl2.gif

[Wilt]

That might make an interesting thread here? And it might shut up some of the "Measurebaters"? :D
... like that's ever going to happen? http://photo.klein-jensen.dk/smilies/rotfl2.gif

"If you don't stop doing that pixel peeping you're gonna go blind!"

[Aray_Of_Art]

WOW! Great article! It's just like in the Art World, what you do and can create rarely stands on it's own.
And so it seems is true in Photography, you either need a "Big Boy" camera with all the fixings or you aren't a "real" photog.


Thanks for posting that great article.:D

[phylet]

amazing article! he got some great shots there, kinda humbles you a bit donest it.

[grego]

It's the eye/creativity. The technical know how with the equipment to push it to deliever what you want that's important. Heck, even with top of the line equipment, you need not everything can be done with those particular tools without pushing the envilope.

Just because you buy something like the 300 2.8 IS, does not mean you will be taking photos that are that great.

[DocFrankenstein]

He's a nut... or cheapskate.

Gear doesn't matter.

[RikWriter]

It's great that he found a new way to do photojournalism...but I can't see using a P&S digicam for birding, for example...

[Rhinotherunt]

Wow, that was inspiring. Thanks for sharing... Hmmm... may need to get a P&S. A digi P&S was how I fell in love with imaging... Time to re-kindle my first love...

[StewartR]

Mmm. This should be made a stickie. An inspiration for us all. (Except the birders of course.)

[E3_Photo_Studio]

My personal belief is that the equipment doesn't make the photographer. SKILL makes the photographer...but good equipment can't hurt. LOL :)

[Moppie]

Thats the second article Iv seen on him, its a good example of how useful compact cameras can be.
His style of work dosn't require long zooms, and he has no interest in setting up lighting rigs, he uses only natural light.
Weight and size is important, as is quite operation.
He is able to get around shutter lag by useing manual shooting modes, and having an excellent working knowledge of his cameras, and of course being able to carry several means he always has one ready to shoot, even when one is busy writing to the card, or having a battery changed, etc.

Of course while the small compacts are perfect for graining black and while images of a battle field, he would have a much harder time shooting sharp clean saturated portraits in a studio.


Its a shame the Author of the article kept refering to his cameras as Point and Shoots, when they are in reality the succesors to old the Range Finders, a camera design ideal that has been around longer than the SLR.

Point and Shoot is such a useless term, even a Canon 1D used in Program mode could be considered a point and shoot if you take it to mean a camera used with out manaul control of exposure and focus, and of course a literal translation describes exactly what all of us do. We Point the camera, and Shoot a picture. Its a gross over simplification, but its what we do.