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Does gear matter?

arun.is

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Re: Does gear matter?

#21

Post by pompino »

gadders wrote: post #8
readthenotes1 wrote: post #4

My 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?"

Its not the same, the act of taking a picture is seen as simply pressing a button - which is true.

The process of designing an image isn't. So if you were an art director in a studio in charge of the look of the model, hair, makeup, etc, nobody will question your credentials, but if you were the photographer hired to simply take the photo, then you're merely an operator of an instrument, not someone with a creative vision.

Re: Does gear matter?

#22

Post by dataflow »

pflenker wrote: post #10

What 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…

From what I've seen of my friends' gears, iPhones beat conventional cameras easily if you don't do any processing. But if you're going to process your DSLR RAWs, smartphones will just lose in comparison.

Re: Does gear matter?

#23

Post by twelfthnight »

twelfthnight wrote: post #14
jebarker wrote: post #9

I'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, b…

Personally I love my Ricoh GR III. There are two versions, one is 28mm and another is 40mm (GR IIIX). They are fixed lens which sounds bad, but in reality it prevents you from constantly thinking about buying new lenses and switching lenses. There is essentially no other camera that can fit in your pocket. So if you want interchangeable lens, it kinda doesn't matter what you get at all because they will all require a…

EDIT 2: Wanted to say that personally I have an interchangeable lens camera _and_ a Richoh, and think of the Richoh as costing about the same as a (nice) lens. The more you do photography the more you will realize there isn't just one thing you can buy and be happy with forever, you'll be constantly buying and selling used gear, so don't fret it :shrug:

Re: Does gear matter?

#24

Post by cruffle_duffle »

pflenker wrote: post #10

What 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…

> I guess if we repeated that experiment nowadays it would be the other way round.

As somebody with a long unused DSLR packed away… I’d say it depends on the lens. Maybe. One thing that iPhones still can’t do as good as a DSLR is very low light (eg starfield), however the current crop of phones are getting pretty good at even this.

Those DSLR’s are huge and quite frankly their workflows aren’t as smooth as on phones. If a DSLR could automagically upload all images to my repository (ie icloud) then I’d probably use them more.

But as they say, the best camera is the one you have on you and the camera I have on me is almost always found in my phone.

Re: Does gear matter?

#25

Post by ghaff »

pflenker wrote: post #10

What 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…

I have a fairly large Canon DSLR FF system I rarely use. There are a few cases (wildlife photography, sports, concerts, certain nature) mostly with very long or very wide lenses but, for most other shooting where I'm not going to spend an hour setting up a shot? Not worth it--especially when traveling or hiking.

I do have a Fujifilm mirrorless but with the standard long wide to short tele zoom, I still bring it on certain types of trips but honestly it's almost a backup at this point. There's not a lot it beats my iPhone 15 Pro at--certainly for web viewing which is all I really do. This is especially true if you're not going to shoot photos with a lot of care taken to depth of field, shutter speed, etc. To just shoot, the phone probably does a better job a lot of the time.

Re: Does gear matter?

#26

Post by luqtas »

cruffle_duffle wrote: post #24
pflenker wrote: post #10

What 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…

> I guess if we repeated that experiment nowadays it would be the other way round. As somebody with a long unused DSLR packed away… I’d say it depends on the lens. Maybe. One thing that iPhones still can’t do as good as a DSLR is very low light (eg starfield), however the current crop of phones are getting pretty good at even this. Those DSLR’s are huge and quite frankly their workflows aren’t as smooth as on phones.…

also don't forget precise F-control and shutter speed, which are worlds of exploration for artistic outcomes, as well, better looking photos that the non-knowledgeable eye won't notice but the overall feeling is just better than a freaking constrained 700 mega-pixel iPhone camera... now, if one travels to rural Kazakhstan and register a touching moment, i think we can get along even with a Nokia pre-2010 camera

Re: Does gear matter?

#27

Post by ghaff »

dataflow wrote: post #22
pflenker wrote: post #10

What 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…

From what I've seen of my friends' gears, iPhones beat conventional cameras easily if you don't do any processing . But if you're going to process your DSLR RAWs, smartphones will just lose in comparison.

You can also shoot raw with many smartphones. And there are camera apps that give you more control. I'm not sure it's categorical that DSLRs clearly win over iPhones if you process (including cropping etc.) both.

As someone else noted, DSLRs really win on lenses. Also things like high burst rate, high shutter speeds, etc. (And the viewfinder can be handy for better framing and just seeing what you're shooting).

Re: Does gear matter?

#28

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

It definitely matters for some photos.

For example, I would want a very powerful telephoto lens when photographing this lion: https://i.redd.it/706yzd4nhs211.jpg

I definitely would not want to be taking that picture with my iPhone, even though it is possible if I got close enough and held the phone still enough.

Re: Does gear matter?

#29

Post by aimor »

gadders wrote: post #8
readthenotes1 wrote: post #4

My 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?"

You might be surprised how interested people are in the tools of any trade

https://www.tagari.com/is-stephen-king-still-typing-away-on-...

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27407502

https://www.cassidycash.com/quill-pen/

Re: Does gear matter?

#30

Post by jebarker »

twelfthnight wrote: post #23
twelfthnight wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I love my Ricoh GR III. There are two versions, one is 28mm and another is 40mm (GR IIIX). They are fixed lens which sounds bad, but in reality it prevents you from constantly thinking about buying new lenses and switching lenses. There is essentially no other camera that can fit in your pocket. So if you want interchangeable lens, it kinda doesn't matter what you get at all because they will all require a…

EDIT 2: Wanted to say that personally I have an interchangeable lens camera _and_ a Richoh, and think of the Richoh as costing about the same as a (nice) lens. The more you do photography the more you will realize there isn't just one thing you can buy and be happy with forever, you'll be constantly buying and selling used gear, so don't fret it :shrug:

Yeah, I've noticed when reading about options that it's probably helpful to not try and find one size fits all devices. They the to cost more and yet still be compromised.
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