Are You Looking For A Perfect Camera? Is That What You Really Want?

A "Real" Barbershp! (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens @ 61mm; 1/250th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200

The other day I found myself thinking about what would be the perfect camera.  By perfect I mean the camera that will fit perfectly in my hands and have all the features I would ever want, even if I only used that feature rarely.  Oh! And be a reasonable cost also.  A camera that had the best and fastest focus, heavenly dynamic range, the least amount of digital noise, excellent battery life and the best image quality.  Does this camera now exist and how much would I have to pay for it?

Over the years I've written quite a few times about cameras.  I've written about the ones I've owned.  I've written about what I would like to see improved or changed in the cameras I've owned.  Also, I've written about what I would like to see in future cameras.  I guess when you are really passionate about your craft, you can't help but think about how your tools could be improved in order to help you accomplish your creative goals.  Isn't that what it is really about—creating the art you really want to create?

The more I thought about the perfect camera the more I realized I really don't want a perfect camera.  Just as with other things in my life, I don't want the perfect automobile, the perfect house, perfect sound system or the perfect anything.  (Did I mention my perfect wife—In case she is reading this?  Lol)  Perfection, to me, means everything out of the box is just the way I want it.  Everything about "the thing" always works as expected and does everything I would ever need it to do.  

Now, this is just me, but I don't think a perfect camera would be right for me.  I don't necessarily want easy.  Easy is nice, don't get me wrong but most of the time I want a bit of a challenge in what I do.  If I owned the perfect camera where is the challenge in creating the images I want to create?  The camera would pretty much do everything for me and all I would have to do is point it in the right direction and push the shutter.  Done. Over.  No sweat.  Perfect images!  In the perfect camera, I may not even have to push the shutter button!

Imperfection means that I have to figure things out for myself.  It means I have to determine the best exposure for the best image quality, not leave it to the camera.  It means I need to decide the aperture and shutter speed most appropriate to the subject.  It means that if I want to focus stack, I have to figure out what the different focus points should be based upon each individual scene.  It means that I need to set the best type of focus point(s), continuous or single focus, the number of frames per second, etc. for the situation and not depend upon the camera to make all of those decisions for me.

For most of my police career, I worked for a city with little money.  High crime but little money with which to deal with the high crime.  For 25 years, my colleagues and I had to figure out how to solve those old crime problems in new ways, without necessarily throwing money at them.  I learned how to solve complex problems in innovative ways.  I learned how to workaround limitations.  I learned how to overcome the challenges.  And we did!  Can you realize how much satisfaction it can bring to help people who cannot help themselves even though the odds are stacked against you?  In a much less important way, the same things apply to creative endeavors.  You figuring out how to get the job done and not leaving it to the available technology.

Imperfection in my camera means a challenge.  Conquering a challenge means accomplishment.  Easy and perfect almost never brings a sense of accomplishment to me.  When I have to figure something out and everything comes together as planned, I feel that I truly succeeded.  I like that feeling.  Easy and perfect doesn't give me that feeling very often.  I like using my knowledge and experience and making the effort.

A perfect camera is a nice thought, easy is a nice concept as well, but not something I would really interested in owning.  I like challenge, hacking out a solution, finding workarounds, overcoming limitations, thinking things through to achieve my own success rather than the "thing" I'm using being successful.

You take perfect and easy, if that is what you want.  Nothing at all wrong with that.  I'll take effort, ingenuity, problem solving and work in most everything I want to do, even my photography.

Now, back to some more thinking....


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Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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