Letter to George ....

This is just a humorous yet disturbingly accurate article from Mike Johnston. Excuse the Nikon bit ... just do a mental search and replace .. it will work just as well

http://theonlinephotog​rapher.typepad.com …/05/letter-to-george.html

Humorous? Eh - not my thought. Unless we're laughing at this Mike Johnston. What an elitist, patronizing douche!

Everyone needs to start somewhere, and not everyone can start at the top, and Mike needs to keep this in mind when he is answering the OP's question. $400 will get you a decent Rebel with lens - granted, maybe 2 generations old, but still that is much more camera than my $1600 10D was when it was new, (at a quarter the cost!) and I have taken some great shots with that 10D. No reason that George can't take some great shots with an older Rebel.

What this Mike Johnston can't understand is the concept of buying equipment to match your skill. When George's experience and skill improve to the point that the equipment is keeping him from attaining his vision, then get better equipment. But Johnston's idea that he plop down 3 and a half large for a camera that will be obsolete by the time it's figured out is just plan stupid!

George, if by some chance you read this, on behalf of all photographers everywhere, I apologize that the first photographer you met - Johnston - is an asshat, and used your question to show this to the world. We aren't all that way. Hope that you join POTN, where we will welcome and help you, regardless of your budget, experience, and ability.

Rad

1:
The only Johnston that matters is Karl Johnston.

2:
Rad's reply

3:
$400 will get you a nice 35 mm film SLR and a couple of lenses, a box of film to practice with and on top of that you can get a scanner for a little bit more. That's about the best bang for your buck as you could get...or you could just shop around for something a few years old. There are plenty of 20Ds selling for less than 400 all the time, and that's a well capable camera on its own.

Radtech1 wrote in post #10272604
Humorous? Eh - not my thought. Unless we're laughing at this Mike Johnston. What an elitist, patronizing douche!

Oh my goodness - this was the most tongue in cheek letter! In case you utterly missed it, George was entirely fictional <sigh>.

I, for one, fall very neatly into some of the replies to "George". And I will bet 100% of people here have also fallen into one of those categories.

Buying cheap can be problematic in photography ; I have numerous "cheap" things in drawers with the final, most costly, purchase now used (lenses, triggers, tripods, heads, bags, straps, monitors). I knew I should have bought them at the time but I convinced myself the Ebay clone etc. was probably as good. I shudder to think how much I have wasted.

Did you read his follow-up? Have you never bought anything only to regret it and wished you had taken [forum/person's] advice that the better item would be a wiser investment?

http://theonlinephotog​rapher.typepad.com …ps-but-not-to-george.html

This.

Michael Johnston is one of the best writers on photography, and I would seriously recommend that people follow his site.

And yes, as bunyarra points out, Johnston was being facetious.

bunyarra wrote in post #10272867
Oh my goodness - this was the most tongue in cheek letter! In case you utterly missed it, George was entirely fictional <sigh>.

Did you read his follow-up?

Yes, I did miss that - and no I didn't initially read the f/u. Sometime, it only takes one strike and you're out. As presented, the "Letter to George" was one of the most, well, not tongue in cheek, but rather something-in-the-mouth I have read. An FYI-JK follow up doesn't ring right. If I had written such mean-spirited douchery, I would f/u with a claim that George was fictional as well. S'pose we'll never know for sure.

Rad

Heh! I have the idea that some folks didn't actually read the article before forming an "opinion"!

Try reading the article, or at least the first few paragraphs, and you should see it's a tongue-in-cheek commentary on what we could call, say, the Photographer Hobbiest Syndrome (PHS). Start out with a "firm" $400 budget, and in 3-5 years, presto!! you have spent about $10,000 in "got to have" gear.

Sound familiar, anyone?

LOL I knew it was facetious from the get go. I personally found it pretty funny because it reflected a lot of things I've done myself.

LOL

I suspect a few people who replied to this thread don't like being made fun of....

I'm half way through the 25 step program myself...

There's one of these about tripods as well ^_^
http://www.bythom.com/​support.htm

I think that it is pretty clear that it is facetious - but I disagree with the conclusion. I am happy that I started with canon a95, moved to the s3 and then moved to a dslr. I think for me it was necessary for my psychologically to make the active decision that the a95 was not fulfilling me needs. and then the s3.
I needed to grow and experiment and decide...so if i happened to spend more money on the way, it doesn't bother me. And since this is a hobby - what the hell do I care if it took 5 years? Sometimes it takes that amount of time to come to a conclusion. During my time with the a95 I took about 1000 pictures- 1500 pictures. In my s3 I took in the neighborhood of 2500 pictures....most of the serious phtoographers here do that in weeks - it took me about 4 years! Now that i got the 7d, I went through that in less than 4 months. (again some people do this in weeks...not months)

So, while I understand what he is trying to say, I think sometime the journey is as important as the destination....

my 2 cents

ceriltheblade wrote in post #10274570
I think that it is pretty clear that it is facetious - but I disagree with the conclusion. I am happy that I started with canon a95, moved to the s3 and then moved to a dslr. I think for me it was necessary for my psychologically to make the active decision that the a95 was not fulfilling me needs. and then the s3.
I needed to grow and experiment and decide...so if i happened to spend more money on the way, it doesn't bother me. And since this is a hobby - what the hell do I care if it took 5 years? Sometimes it takes that amount of time to come to a conclusion. During my time with the a95 I took about 1000 pictures- 1500 pictures. In my s3 I took in the neighborhood of 2500 pictures....most of the serious phtoographers here do that in weeks - it took me about 4 years! Now that i got the 7d, I went through that in less than 4 months. (again some people do this in weeks...not months)

So, while I understand what he is trying to say, I think sometime the journey is as important as the destination....

my 2 cents

I wouldn't call it "facetious", I'd just call it "poking fun", and I'd agree that in practice it is a fairly normal "growth" path from the $400 budget to the $10,000 budget. But it's OK to laugh at ourselves -- you may note that at the end of the article he admits to having traveled the path himself.

I agree with his point about wasting too much money along the way, buying and replacing inferior gear, but not everyone has the kind of cash to buy great stuff on day one. If they saved up until they did, they'd be missing a lot of photography along the way. I think he does exaggerate the the costs by having his fictional photographer buying, selling, and re-buying gear while racking up losses along the way. He could have started with a Rebel or used 20D, and made smart lens buys along the way that wouldn't have needed to be sold as he upgraded his bodies.

That said, I personally made the decision to jump from an OLD Olympus P&S to a 5D. I skipped the stages of newer, nicer, higher end P&S cameras mainly due to the shutter lag issue. That was probably the must frustrating issue I had with my old camera. Of course, I could have gotten a Rebel instead of a 5D but I had a unique opportunity to spend the money, so I did. Since then I've invested in quality glass and accessories that are going to outlast many bodies. Now I have NO EXCUSES. I cannot blame my gear for crappy pictures. I know that as I learn and improve, I'm unlikely to hit the limits on my equipment anytime soon.

tonylong wrote in post #10274601
I wouldn't call it "facetious", I'd just call it "poking fun", and I'd agree that in practice it is a fairly normal "growth" path from the $400 budget to the $10,000 budget. But it's OK to laugh at ourselves -- you may note that at the end of the article he admits to having traveled the path himself.

I love laughing at myself! After all, I do some goofy things! And when I don't, my wife helps me with it!

I agree that he is probably laughing at himself as well...
and as I said - I undertsand what he trying to say....well, sort of....

though i have yet to get to the $10k budget - I am aiming there....