5 ms·

I keep wanting to buy a new camera, but the old one rarely gets used any more. Pictures from my phone are good enough, which is annoying. Plus I just dont have

by rr888 4y ago

I keep wanting to buy a new camera, but the old one rarely gets used any more. Pictures from my phone are good enough, which is annoying. Plus I just dont have the time to even look at all the photos I've taken. I do miss the days when I used to take a few rolls of film on a vacation and throw out half those. Instead of tens (hundreds) of thousands on a nas. But the technology and construction is so sweet... they're works of art.

LocalPCGuy 4y ago
This is pretty much exactly how I feel - the camera you have with you all the time is better than a better camera that may be sitting on the shelf at home when you want to take a picture. That said, for vacations and stuff is where I really miss having a really nice camera, and while the phone does ok, there are shots I have that I can see where a better camera would have made it that much better.
testfoobar 4y ago
I'm still rocking a Canon 5D Mark II. About 15 years old. It has been to Canon service twice to have its shutter replaced. Wears out around 150K uses. With my 24-70mm and 100-200mm L series glass, I think I'm good forever.
- stinos 4y ago
  I think I'm good forever. I feel the same. Like: until USB of CF cards are phased out. I 'only' have a 40D, roughly same age, plus L lenses, always wanted a 5D or similar, but I just cannot honestly justify the cost beyond 'I want more' when seeing what picture quality I can get out of the current setup.
- ip26 4y ago
  The glass is a key. I usually can't beat my iphone with bargain glass, but with wide aperture L series glass I trounce the phone handily. Subject matter is another factor. A pretty view never runs away, and adults hold still for a picture, yet by contrast children & sports aren't going to wait for the phone to focus.
  - trap_goes_hot 4y ago
    For me, my phone can cover almost most shooting situations. I think the areas where dedicated cameras can still handily trounce phones are low-light scenes (proper astro, shooting night events.. like sporting events or other parties with dim/poor lighting), sports/action/wildlife, studio photography with strobes, and extreme macro (4x, 10x objectives mated to a dedicated sensor). I use my phone's camera almost every day for just documenting shit, like receipts, business cards or when I am disassembling something, or other random projects. I love the geo-tagging of photos, along with a date based bucketing and that allows me to easily go back and look shit up.
- trap_goes_hot 4y ago
  For me the benefits of getting newer gear has been about efficiency, not necessarily picture quality. Silent shooting w/ mirrorless cameras and electronic shutter helps a with wildlife because you can be more stealthy and not have the shutter noise distract a bird or deer or skittish animals. Advanced mirror-less cameras have a level of accuracy to the focusing that was not possible with previous systems. This allows you to rattle off picture after picture with perfect sharpness (5, 10, 15, 20 or even 30 frames-per-second bursts) - reducing time to redo shots - especially with kids who move a lot, or action shots where there is a perfect frame and sometimes with older tech, you have a couple of in-focus shots, and then a missed-focus shot. Modern high-megapixel sensors coupled with high-quality glass allows you to crop without loosing much detail. I can use a 24 or a 35mm lens and with a 50 mega-pixel sensor, I can crop to the same field-of-view as a 50mm/75mm lens and still get a ton of detail. Modern coatings in lenses eliminate internal reflections, allowing you to shoot into the sun without a huge drop in contrast (very common with older lenses, even L series).
- rr888 4y ago
  5D is such a classic, I'm jealous because I couldn't afford it the last time I bought a camera. Now with mirrorless it isn't so clear which one to get. Full frame glass is so big and heavy, but anything else feels like a compromise.
dan_quixote 4y ago
I got back into it recently after years of not wanting to carry a bulky camera around. I justified it after realizing that "wanting the shot" with my fancy camera drove me to be much more adventurous. If you're thinking seriously about it, I'd highly recommend just about any Fujifilm mirrorless. The XT-4 is kinda defined by film camera ergonomics - primarily meaning that is has the dials you expect from classic pro film cameras (exposure comp, shutter, iso).
throwanem 4y ago
The only way I've ever found to make this make sense is to make a profession, or at least a hobby, of photography. For me that's wasps, most recently this European hornet [1] who graciously tolerated my close proximity and macro flashes for long enough to get almost a dozen keepers, while a lot of half-drunk baldfaced yellowjackets [2] buzzed unsteadily around occasionally landing on my head. It helps that you can't just rip off a burst in continuous mode and expect to get anything. Your flashes have to recharge after every shot, and it's tough to nail macro focus when handholding. Too, wasps startle easily, and if suddenly shadowed will assume a predator is approaching. So you make every shot with care and deliberation, the way film buffs like to talk about, but there's still space for serendipity nonetheless. Sometimes you catch a perfect four-millisecond slice [3] out of the 100ms or so that a ringed paper wasp spends taking off upside-down from the underside of a rose leaf. There's no way to get shots like this with a phone camera; a wasp will let you get closer than you might imagine, but she won't let you get that close unless she knows you pretty well. Alas, I just bought a house and so a Z9 is thus not in the cards for some while at least, but if we're honest it'd be as much for the sake of it; I suspect I could happily spend the balance of my life working with the same D850 I use now. [1] https://aaron-m.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/img_0826.jpg https://aaron-m.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/img_0826.jpg [2] https://aaron-m.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/img_0821.jpg https://aaron-m.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/img_0821.jpg [3] https://aaron-m.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/img_9967-2.jpg https://aaron-m.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/img_9967-2.jp...
- nop_slide 4y ago
  Those shots are amazing! Very cool. Have you gotten stung yet? :) > The only way I've ever found to make this make sense is to make a profession, or at least a hobby, of photography. I recently got my first "real" camera to take better pictures of my family inspired by this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33104618#33123207 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33104618#33123207 I definitely wouldn't have gotten one if weren't for the inspiration of my kid, however I've grown quite fond of using it and learning more about taking good photos. It's been a nice creative outlet outside of coding.
  - 4y ago
registeredcorn 4y ago
Personally, I love my Pentax K1, but I do hope that you don't let yourself not using your "real" camera keep you from taking photos in general. A lot of great work has been done with phones. I will admit that the process of working with an SD card (or film) has a very specific feel to it, compared to the way processing cellphone photos are, but there is merit in each. You shouldn't feel guilt in using one over the other, if that's what works for you. I try to think of my phone as my "just in case" camera, and my DSLR camera as my "purpose-focused" camera. I take cellphone pictures for the unexpected or casual moments. I take DSLR photos for specific reasons, to get myself out of the house and into the environment, or at a pretty location, or just out in public walking around. I haven't really had the motivation to use my DSLR in probably a full year at this point, and, although I would love to do so, it's not a purchase that I regret. It will wait until I'm ready, and I'm okay with that. Similarly, it's entirely reasonable to buy a camera just to have it. Some people in the hobby just like to collect the equipment. If people can do it with dolls, shoes, guns, or comic books, there's no reason you can't do it with cameras, provided you can afford it and it doesn't strain your relationship with your spouse.
- trap_goes_hot 4y ago
  > there's no reason you can't do it with cameras, provided you can afford it and it doesn't strain your relationship with your spouse Sony makes it easy for us with the same boxy design on most of their full-frame cameras. "It's the same camera I've had for years, honey! I swear!" :P

by rr888 4y ago

LocalPCGuy 4y ago

This is pretty much exactly how I feel - the camera you have with you all the time is better than a better camera that may be sitting on the shelf at home when you want to take a picture. That said, for vacations and stuff is where I really miss having a really nice camera, and while the phone does ok, there are shots I have that I can see where a better camera would have made it that much better.

testfoobar 4y ago

I'm still rocking a Canon 5D Mark II. About 15 years old. It has been to Canon service twice to have its shutter replaced. Wears out around 150K uses. With my 24-70mm and 100-200mm L series glass, I think I'm good forever.

stinos 4y ago
I think I'm good forever. I feel the same. Like: until USB of CF cards are phased out. I 'only' have a 40D, roughly same age, plus L lenses, always wanted a 5D or similar, but I just cannot honestly justify the cost beyond 'I want more' when seeing what picture quality I can get out of the current setup.
ip26 4y ago
The glass is a key. I usually can't beat my iphone with bargain glass, but with wide aperture L series glass I trounce the phone handily. Subject matter is another factor. A pretty view never runs away, and adults hold still for a picture, yet by contrast children & sports aren't going to wait for the phone to focus.
- trap_goes_hot 4y ago
  For me, my phone can cover almost most shooting situations. I think the areas where dedicated cameras can still handily trounce phones are low-light scenes (proper astro, shooting night events.. like sporting events or other parties with dim/poor lighting), sports/action/wildlife, studio photography with strobes, and extreme macro (4x, 10x objectives mated to a dedicated sensor). I use my phone's camera almost every day for just documenting shit, like receipts, business cards or when I am disassembling something, or other random projects. I love the geo-tagging of photos, along with a date based bucketing and that allows me to easily go back and look shit up.
trap_goes_hot 4y ago
For me the benefits of getting newer gear has been about efficiency, not necessarily picture quality. Silent shooting w/ mirrorless cameras and electronic shutter helps a with wildlife because you can be more stealthy and not have the shutter noise distract a bird or deer or skittish animals. Advanced mirror-less cameras have a level of accuracy to the focusing that was not possible with previous systems. This allows you to rattle off picture after picture with perfect sharpness (5, 10, 15, 20 or even 30 frames-per-second bursts) - reducing time to redo shots - especially with kids who move a lot, or action shots where there is a perfect frame and sometimes with older tech, you have a couple of in-focus shots, and then a missed-focus shot. Modern high-megapixel sensors coupled with high-quality glass allows you to crop without loosing much detail. I can use a 24 or a 35mm lens and with a 50 mega-pixel sensor, I can crop to the same field-of-view as a 50mm/75mm lens and still get a ton of detail. Modern coatings in lenses eliminate internal reflections, allowing you to shoot into the sun without a huge drop in contrast (very common with older lenses, even L series).
rr888 4y ago
5D is such a classic, I'm jealous because I couldn't afford it the last time I bought a camera. Now with mirrorless it isn't so clear which one to get. Full frame glass is so big and heavy, but anything else feels like a compromise.

dan_quixote 4y ago

I got back into it recently after years of not wanting to carry a bulky camera around. I justified it after realizing that "wanting the shot" with my fancy camera drove me to be much more adventurous. If you're thinking seriously about it, I'd highly recommend just about any Fujifilm mirrorless. The XT-4 is kinda defined by film camera ergonomics - primarily meaning that is has the dials you expect from classic pro film cameras (exposure comp, shutter, iso).

throwanem 4y ago

The only way I've ever found to make this make sense is to make a profession, or at least a hobby, of photography. For me that's wasps, most recently this European hornet [1] who graciously tolerated my close proximity and macro flashes for long enough to get almost a dozen keepers, while a lot of half-drunk baldfaced yellowjackets [2] buzzed unsteadily around occasionally landing on my head. It helps that you can't just rip off a burst in continuous mode and expect to get anything. Your flashes have to recharge after every shot, and it's tough to nail macro focus when handholding. Too, wasps startle easily, and if suddenly shadowed will assume a predator is approaching. So you make every shot with care and deliberation, the way film buffs like to talk about, but there's still space for serendipity nonetheless. Sometimes you catch a perfect four-millisecond slice [3] out of the 100ms or so that a ringed paper wasp spends taking off upside-down from the underside of a rose leaf. There's no way to get shots like this with a phone camera; a wasp will let you get closer than you might imagine, but she won't let you get that close unless she knows you pretty well. Alas, I just bought a house and so a Z9 is thus not in the cards for some while at least, but if we're honest it'd be as much for the sake of it; I suspect I could happily spend the balance of my life working with the same D850 I use now. [1] https://aaron-m.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/img_0826.jpg https://aaron-m.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/img_0826.jpg [2] https://aaron-m.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/img_0821.jpg https://aaron-m.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/img_0821.jpg [3] https://aaron-m.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/img_9967-2.jpg https://aaron-m.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/img_9967-2.jp...

nop_slide 4y ago
Those shots are amazing! Very cool. Have you gotten stung yet? :) > The only way I've ever found to make this make sense is to make a profession, or at least a hobby, of photography. I recently got my first "real" camera to take better pictures of my family inspired by this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33104618#33123207 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33104618#33123207 I definitely wouldn't have gotten one if weren't for the inspiration of my kid, however I've grown quite fond of using it and learning more about taking good photos. It's been a nice creative outlet outside of coding.
- 4y ago

registeredcorn 4y ago

Personally, I love my Pentax K1, but I do hope that you don't let yourself not using your "real" camera keep you from taking photos in general. A lot of great work has been done with phones. I will admit that the process of working with an SD card (or film) has a very specific feel to it, compared to the way processing cellphone photos are, but there is merit in each. You shouldn't feel guilt in using one over the other, if that's what works for you. I try to think of my phone as my "just in case" camera, and my DSLR camera as my "purpose-focused" camera. I take cellphone pictures for the unexpected or casual moments. I take DSLR photos for specific reasons, to get myself out of the house and into the environment, or at a pretty location, or just out in public walking around. I haven't really had the motivation to use my DSLR in probably a full year at this point, and, although I would love to do so, it's not a purchase that I regret. It will wait until I'm ready, and I'm okay with that. Similarly, it's entirely reasonable to buy a camera just to have it. Some people in the hobby just like to collect the equipment. If people can do it with dolls, shoes, guns, or comic books, there's no reason you can't do it with cameras, provided you can afford it and it doesn't strain your relationship with your spouse.

trap_goes_hot 4y ago
> there's no reason you can't do it with cameras, provided you can afford it and it doesn't strain your relationship with your spouse Sony makes it easy for us with the same boxy design on most of their full-frame cameras. "It's the same camera I've had for years, honey! I swear!" :P