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Gear doesn't matter... or does it?
#1

More thought provoking stuff from Petapixel this time on the old adage of the photographer, not the gear that matters. They are claiming that there comes a point that gear does matter - basically (1) when you specialise or need specific equipment to achieve shot (e.g. tilt shift, fisheye) and (2) when you hit a certain level of expertise, when better equipment will allow you to get those great shots easier.

http://www.petapixel.com/2012/04/24/gear...n-it-does/

Thoughts?
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#2

Well - try shooting a wedding in a dim church where they don't allow flash and you find out pretty fast that gear does matter a lot. Of course - that is specialisation Smile

Canon stuff.
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#3

Heck, for the vast majority of camera users, composition and light don't matter!

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#4

I think we all agree that your gear needs to enable your photographic needs. For a lot of people, their needs are no where near as sophisticated as they think they are.

Professionals are a subset of photographers, and I maintain that they can easily rationalize the best gear they can afford. They are trying to use that gear to make a living, and any edge that the gear can give them is a quantifiable benefit.
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#5

That's an interesting take, but I think the argument itself is flawed. Before we can know if the gear matters, the question has to be answered: for what?

If I have a burning and unceasing desire to express myself artistically through photography, then the gear does not matter. If there was nothing else available I could still throw a roll of expired colour film that's been sitting on the dashboard of a car into my forty-year-old Yashica and then develop it in borax and dishwater – or do the modern equivalent, called 'Instagram' – and find a way to express myself with it. If the passion is great and the equipment is modest, passion will still drive art.

But once the standards rise above fixing a permanent image, then of course the gear becomes important. I have so many different cameras and lenses specifically because they each allow me to do something better than the others – I have three different tripods because they do some things better than the others. To argue that "it's the photographer that matters, not the camera" is to profoundly misstate what being a photographer involves.

And for what it's worth, yes, other arts and professions are just as powerfully centred around tools as photography is. A quick perusal of Penny's jewellery bench turned up five hammers, seven pliers, and six tweezers, and she works with a fairly small range of materials. Painters care deeply about brushes, and choosing a brush or a palette knife makes a huge difference to the results. And yes, Carpenters are very picky about hammers, too.


(Apr 25, 2012, 13:40)slejhamer Wrote:  Heck, for the vast majority of camera users, composition and light don't matter!

This may be the best response I've seen.

matthewpiers.com • @matthewpiers | robertsonphoto.blogspot.com | @thewsreviews • thewsreviews.com
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