Keeping Perspective

www.dennismook.com

I like photo gear as much as the next person.  I get excited by new cameras, lenses, flash units and accessories that may be introduced.  I used to get caught up on the latest and greatest features.  I don't anymore.  I try to keep a realistic perspective.  Let me explain.

I have a Nikon D800E, a Nikon D700, an Olympus OMD E-M5 and a Panasonic GX1 which I use on a regular basis.  I also have a Canon G9, G11 and S95 that my wife uses more than me, but I still use them on occasion.  What do all these cameras have in common?  Each will accomplish most of the photographic work I do.  Really?  Yes.  But they are so different and their capabilities are so varied.  How can they accomplish most of your photographic work?  Read on, my friends.

Over and over, I read where individuals get very excited over the newest, most exotic features the camera manufacturers include in their newest cameras.  Truth be known, only a handful of individuals really have a need for such exotic features.  When was the last time you actually needed to make an image at 1/8000th of a second?  When was the last time you needed to make an image at ISO 25,600?  When was the last time you needed 36mp or even 24mp?  When was the last time you needed to make an enlargement as big as 24" X 36"?  When was the last time you needed to shoot at 12 frames per second?  I could go on, but you get my meaning here.

Almost no one needs the things I mentioned in the previous paragraph.  Ninety-five percent of us don't.  Do we want to have that option if we ever want to do those things?  Most of us would say yes?  Do we need those options?  Most of would say no.  What we need is an instrument with very competent fundamentals.  The outliers are nice to have in about 1% of our shooting situations.

When I hear reviewers knocking new cameras because there is noise in the image at ISO 6400 or 12,800, I just shake my head as that, to most of us, is meaningless.  On very rare occasion, I use 6400.  Almost never, in fact.  I never, ever have had to use ISO 12,800.  I have never lamented that my camera doesn't shoot at 12 frames per second, yet reviewers will knock a camera because it only shoots at 6 frames per second.  Three to five is plenty of almost all of us.  I can't think of the last time I kicked myself because I couldn't shoot at 1/8000th second or the last time I cussed and swore because my cameras won't automatically take 17 images 1 stop apart for HDR.  It is the fundamentals that we use 95% of the time.

I want to read or see reviewers talk about how the camera feels.  I want to know how the controls fit under your hands.  I want to find out if the menus are intuitive.  Those are more important to me than having features that are almost useless.  I equate it to the 3D features in Photoshop.  They are useless to me.  Don't rave about them when reviewing Photoshop because they don't mean anything.  Tell me the basic things Photoshop brings to me as a photographer.

So, I would ask that we all keep a proper perspective and, when we assess the merits and demerits of a new camera, we eliminate the outliers, those features that almost no one needs or uses.  It is ludicrous to assess the value of a perfectly good photographic machine because the shutter speed only goes to 1/4000th, ISO only to 6400, shoots only 5 FPS and only has 16mp.  Ludicrous, I say.

In the second paragraph I named the cameras I own and use.  I use different cameras for different purposes.  Each of those cameras are not cutting edge in some of the categories I mentioned.  But each does its job admirably.  Each is fundamentally a sound image making tool.  I am primarily a landscape and nature photographer at heart.  But, on occasion, I also make portraits, shoot sports, capture my grandkids running and playing, shoot close-ups and macro, etc.  I'm really a generalist in practice.  Each of those cameras mentioned above, will give me the results I want and need most all the time.  Some are better for some subjects, others are better for other subjects.  But I don't ever need those cutting edge features that seem  to be so important to some reviewers even though most of us will never need them.

So, keep a realistic perspective on what reviewers say about cameras.  Discard the negative comments about the attributes you will never need or use.  Concentrate on those core features that will help you realize your vision and make better images and demand the subject assessments of feel, etc. as well as the technical aspects.

Thanks for looking.

Enjoy!
Dennis Mook