Does bigger gear make you look more like a pro?

Please watch video and discuss https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=6ky0mcoDR_E

i kind of agree with him tbh.

i am currently doing a 100 strangers project where i approach 100 random people i meet outside and i get a better success rate with my 5d3 attached to a 70-200 f2.8 and many times the people i meet think i am a pro making money out of this.

thoughts? Do you agree that the average joe thinks your a pro when you have large gear?

People think I'm a gigalo because of...

Oh. wrong gear.

Carry on.

umm ok

It makes me fat. Yeah, I shoot with a 4x5 field camera. Or at least I would want to.

yes people think the more crap you have around your neck the better you are.....

Thats why I love to work on the street with my Leica. They pay no attention to me which is just the way I like it.

stanclark wrote in post #16000065
yes uninformed people think the more crap you have around your neck the better you are.....

Fixed that for you

benji25 wrote in post #16000089
Fixed that for you

Exactly, uninformed people will be impressed and think "oh that must be a pro photographer".

But it doesn't really matter. In that video the guy talks about a big camera impressing the parents, but if they already hired you to do the work...? The final product is what matters, if the pictures are plain sh*t, it wont matter if you used a 1DX, and if they're good, it wont matter if you used a 20d etc.

jonneymendoza wrote in post #16000016
Please watch video and discuss https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=6ky0mcoDR_E

i kind of agree with him tbh.

i am currently doing a 100 strangers project where i approach 100 random people i meet outside and i get a better success rate with my 5d3 attached to a 70-200 f2.8 and many times the people i meet think i am a pro making money out of this.

thoughts? Do you agree that the average joe thinks your a pro when you have large gear?

There is definitely an assumption made there. I've even encountered it from other photographers.
Let me relate a little tale from last year. . . . . . .
I went down to check out the Op Sail event (tall sailing ships) by myself. I had my gripped 5D2 with L bracket, a few lenses in my Crumpler 8MDH, and my tripod. As the sun started to set I went looking for a place to shoot the fireworks. Right at the harbor there is a building called Waterside that is a two story mall converted to restaurants and bars. I went inside and walked right out onto a balcony overlooking the ships, ignoring the sign that said "reserved for private event" (there was no one out there and the balcony was in between two restaurants). A few other people ended up following me out there. I set up my tripod with my 24 TSE and started shooting while waiting for the fireworks. In the meantime the private party showed up and they kicked everyone but me off the balcony. They all assumed that I was part of the media and was supposed to be there, without even asking me.

I shot high end medium format weddings for years until 1997 when I switch over to all commercial work and at one wedding I was shooting and a guy with his new EOS whatever it was in the mid 1990s came up to me and said I can't believe you don't shoot weddings with a professional camera. I was shooting with Hasselblad 500 C/Ms. I looked at him and said, "Yeah I know. I'm trying to save up enough money for one now."

Who freak'n cares what anyone shoots with as long as you come back with the goods.

Yes. I just had my Rebel with me at Cedar Point and several people were asking me to take their picture. Not sure if they thought I was a professional or they were just trying to be annoying. In any case, I denied all of them.

It depends on your objective. Being discreet has its advantages. People are so used to folks holding their phones up to snap a picture something like a NEX-7 would hardly be noticed so the defenses people exhibit in the presence of a big camera may be less in play.

i think people are afraid of big cameras because they thing they can zoom into their private lives. seriously i cant count the number of times people ask whats it like being to zoom all the way in.

usually i have a 50mm or 85mm attached.

mike_311 wrote in post #16000337
i think people are afraid of big cameras because they thing they can zoom into their private lives. seriously i cant count the number of times people ask whats it like being to zoom all the way in.

usually i have a 50mm or 85mm attached.

I've never encountered this because I don't use dslr's in the streets, but I have heard a lot of reports of people feeling threatened by dslr's. I would image a big white lens would only make it worse. That's probably why so many prefer rangefinders, or small cameras in general, they allow for a much stealthier approach, and when noticed don't pose the same threat as a paparazzi cam. I shoot in the streets with what some might call a big camera, a mamiya c330, and when people notice it I get nothing but friendly smiles and polite encounters by interested people, no hostility, theres a sense of charm to this camera. Most people don't even notice I'm taking a picture because looking down on the ground glass is less obvious then pointing a camera at someone from eye level.

To answer the original question; yes I believe that. So does it help with a 50/100 strangers project to approach people with a "serious-looking" camera? I don't see why not.

I also believe it works the other way around, if you want to be incognito use a smaller non-dlsr camera.