Does gear matter?
arun.is
Does gear matter?
1–10 of 67 posts
Re: Does gear matter?
#2I'm not a professional in this field at all, but from my point of view, you don't need super advanced equipment to get very good photos (of course, there are some minimum requirements). The quality often depends on skills, a cool camera will not help a beginner.
Re: Does gear matter?
#3Gear matters when gear matters. Just like in engineering, art is all about trade offs. You might intentionally limit your gear to achieve a specific aesthetic, or you might be freelance and work for a client that demands the highest fidelity possible. It's all about bounds. Tools impose bounds, and the whole point of creativity is to find clever or novel ways to work within those bounds or to make those bounds seem surpassed.
No, the best gear won't imbue you with artistic talent or vision, but neither will the worst gear. These absolutist questions are so silly. Everything is relative.
Re: Does gear matter?
#4My stepmom took a picture of a relative that was simply enchanting.
I mentioned to my dad how nice it was and commented "she must have a really good camera" to which my dad replied, after laughing, "people have said that before and it doesn't seem to matter what camera she's using"
Re: Does gear matter?
#5Gear matters when gear matters. Just like in engineering, art is all about trade offs. You might intentionally limit your gear to achieve a specific aesthetic, or you might be freelance and work for a client that demands the highest fidelity possible. It's all about bounds. Tools impose bounds, and the whole point of creativity is to find clever or novel ways to work within those bounds or to make those bounds seem s…
This. I do a fair bit of profession photography, though not enough to go full time at it and I'm almost never gear limited. You can do an awful lot with very basic kit. Do I sometimes want to get a particular look or effect that requires a specialized lens or additional lighting? Sure. But in those cases, gear needs are driven by artistic needs and not the other way round.
Re: Does gear matter?
#6if you're wondering whether gear matters you probably have enough kit. Get out there and shoot instead!
Re: Does gear matter?
#7For certain meanings of “matters“, it does.
Re: Does gear matter?
#8My stepmom took a picture of a relative that was simply enchanting. I mentioned to my dad how nice it was and commented "she must have a really good camera" to which my dad replied, after laughing, "people have said that before and it doesn't seem to matter what camera she's using"
My wife's a pretty good family photographer (i.e. doesn't do it professionally) and she used to get the same.
I bet nobody goes up to authors and says "Great book - what pen did you use?"
Re: Does gear matter?
#9I'm at the early stages of learning photography. I've always taken lots of photos, but without much skill or care. I have an entry level DSLR and understand that the quality of my photos is almost entirely determined by my skill as a photographer. However, I don't really enjoy using the DSLR due to the size and weight. Any recommendations on what might be a better setup for me? I like travel and nature photography, but would sacrifice zoom for a more enjoyable experience.
EDIT: I should add that the answer isn't a smartphone. I understand that phone cameras are now great, but I don't enjoy using them either. There's something aesthetically and ergonomically pleasing about a traditional camera.
Re: Does gear matter?
#10What this article doesn't mention is that over time, cameras have made _huge_ leaps and bounds, while the author was transitioning through the phases he describes. It's likely that had he been already at the final stage of competence at the beginning, gear would have mattered a lot more. Cameras back then were just not able to provide good pictures in settings with non-ideal light conditions, for example.
Sometime in the early 10s I took a half-decent hobbyist DSLR camera on vacation, and my wife and I took photos of the same motive - me with the DSLR, my wife with her then-current iPhone. You could barely use half of the photos my wife made. I guess if we repeated that experiment nowadays it would be the other way round.