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| Huh? A bit of cognitive dissonance, maybe. Made with a 4mp Canon G2 camera. My very first digital camera I bought in August 2001. (click to enlarge) |
I believe we photographers, often times, buy digital cameras with the latest and greatest features, huge amounts of resolution and the latest technology merely for bragging rights. Some of us purposefully and others subconsciously. Almost none of us ever need enormous amounts of resolution or use all of the features and technology built into today’s whiz bang cameras. But, I will admit, at times, it’s nice to have all those things in a camera. But don’t tell anyone I said that.
How about we switch? How about we award bragging rights to those who can consistently make excellent photographs with older cameras—ones with older technology, few modern or computational features and using the least number of megapixels? Wouldn’t that be more meaningful?
After all, when we have the newest cameras with the most pixels, the greatest number of features, and all of the technology built into them, the camera can almost make excellent images all by itself. All the photographer has to do is point the camera in the right direction and decide when to press the shutter. Any kid can do that! But when we use older, lesser and few megapixel cameras, the onus is on us to create the excellent images, not the camera’s.
What do you think? Bragging rights for those who can do more with less. I like it!
Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
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"...the onus is on us to create the excellent images, not the camera’s."
ReplyDeleteAlways and forever! As uncle Ansel once said "there is nothing worse than a sharp picture of a fuzzy concept."
ReplyDeleteI have been making new prints from the image files made in 2003 with a Nikon D100 6mp.
The images are printing beautifully to 13x19. In fact, I do not see much difference between those prints and the ones from my Nikon Z7. This would not be possible without the current versions of Topaz Denoise and Photoshop.
In the field, the D100 feels primitive in comparison to the features and haptics of modern mirrorless cameras. But, there is quality to be found in the old image files. I find it remarkable that the old Nikon NEF RAW files from 22 years ago open right up in Camera RAW.
I’m not surprised by what you have found. I think all gear today exceeds the needs and image quality of almost all of us. We’re psychologically programmed to want more and better when we already have all of what we need. ~Dennis
DeleteI remember reading a review of a Nikon D40 with 6MP was more than enough for photography. I used one as my travel camera for a few years and got some very nice prints out of it. I guess it helps that I learned on a Nikon FM, so at least having the basics down made for decent photos. Now you see people thinking 20mp is not enough.
ReplyDelete