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Indeed. Several years ago over lunch two coworkers were debating whether Leica or Nikon made better lenses. So I said: “Take a look at the photos of your last v
by dbcurtis 8y ago
Indeed. Several years ago over lunch two coworkers were debating whether Leica or Nikon made better lenses. So I said: “Take a look at the photos of your last vacation. Then look at any random issue of National Geographic. Ask yourself: Am I really being limited by the glass?”
Blessedly the topic of conversation changed.
- reaperducer 8y agoYep. Everyone thinks that they’re a great photographer, and that if they just had the right camera/lens/phone, their pictures would be perfect. I once had to help judge a couple of photo contests where members of the general public sent in pictures. They were taken on everything from low-end telephones to high-end mirroess rigs. 99.95% of then were utter crap, regardless of the platform. Poorly lit. Out of focus. Half the subject out of frame. People will spend $3,000 on new camera gear when they should be spending $200 on a basic photography class at a camera store or community college.
- LawnboyMax 8y agoStrongly recommend taking a photography class. Photography skill is a lot more important than the camera. Bought a DLSR camera a while back and enrolled in a weekly photography class at a film school for a year. Now I barely touch this camera. It's pretty bulky and I can take equally nice shots using my smartphone camera (good enough for sharing with friends and for own memories). The only times I would want to use a DLSR camera over my smartphone is when I intend to make a big print of the photo, so I care a lot more about the resolution.
- hsbaut76 8y agoPersonally I don't use a DSLR because they are large, but i do use a professional camera and I can say, hands down, that after you achieve a level of quality for the photo, the control you have over the camera is the most important thing. You cannot get a decent amount of control with a phone. Want to shoot at 1/15 and get partial and intentful motion blur? Want to do night time street photography, shoot at 1/60, 2.0f and cap the iso at 3200 max? A phone may be OK for a selfie, but any kind of real artistic expression beyond really basic photography concepts and you won't get far.
- dingo_bat 8y agoYou can do most of these manual settings on a phone nowadays.
- pofilat 8y agoBetter cameras make photography easier and more successful. You don't need $3K but a $1000 DSLR kit can do amazing things for you and make it fun to practice. > Poorly lit. Better cameras capture more light. > Out of focus. Better cameras auto-focus faster and choose target points better. > Half the subject out of frame. High resolution cameras can capture an image for later cropping without early zooming.
- esoterica 8y agoI bet your coworkers loved having some smug asshole barging in and shitting on their skills unprovoked while they were trying to have a conversation about gear.
- devereaux 8y agoYou are needlessly offensive. Tools are rarely a problem. The person using the tool is more often the problem. This is the equivalent of someone wondering if they should the latest MacBook or the latest Surface to do some very basic sysadmin. It doesn't matter! Said otherwise, with total result as the sum of contributing factors like tools_factor + skill_factor + luck_factor + …, the partial derivative of tool is not significant.
- jacobolus 8y agoFor a lot of people speculative chatting about the tools is the point, more than taking pictures per se.
- devereaux 8y agoThat seems correct. I have never understood the propose of such speculative chatting. Maybe the conversion was not about achieving or improving a task, but idle talk for social purposes?
- pofilat 8y agoWhat's the purpose of taking pictures and fixating on the past? Anything can be meaningless if you axiomatically don't care about it.
- devereaux 8y ago> What's the purpose of taking pictures and fixating on the past? Personally, I find no value in that, but I respect differences of tastes.
- Godel_unicode 8y agoYou must be fun at parties.
- o10449366 8y agoSounds like you just obnoxiously interrupted a conversation that didn't involve you.
- dingaling 8y ago> Am I really being limited by the glass? Skill Kit Opportunity Those are the factors which make Nat Geo photos look like they do. The glass absolutely limits potential and conversely good lenses can claw back a bit from disadvantage in the other aspects. Ask yourself how many Nat Geo photos were taken with a $100 Yongnuo 85mm lens versus a $15,000 Canon 200-400.