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05-21-2010, 09:45 PM   #46
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A few thoughts:
  • You can take prize-winning photos with a Holga (LINK)
  • You can make art with a pinhole camera
  • You can make loser snapshots with a Leica S
  • You can own more cameras/lenses than you can ever hope to actually regularly use
A few more:
  • You can't do sports with a pinhole
  • You can suffer catastrophic equipment failure due to environmental conditions
  • You can miss shot after shot due to poor AF or poor reflexes...choose your poison
  • You can miss sale after sale due to poor optics
  • You can get yourself eaten by a bear when using a kit zoom up-close-and-personal
  • You can go well beyond the point of diminishing returns buying "pro" level equipment
  • You can disappoint both yourself and your clients by not buying "pro" level equipment to help you in consistently returning with the work you are capable of producing


Steve

(Likes nice stuff...never sold a photo...ever...)

05-22-2010, 03:17 AM   #47
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QuoteOriginally posted by johnmflores Quote
If the gear wasn't that important, why are we spending so much time on this forum looking at 100% crops, debating the drawing quality of lenses, peeking in the shadows for noise? The shear volume of gear-related discussions on this forums shows how important we think it is. The Critique section of this forum is a ghost town by comparison.
I don't think that anybody is saying that gear is never important. Sometimes, it makes ALL the difference. We're just saying that it's not always that way. Maybe the reason we talk about gear so much is because folks are pretty respectful here and see each other as equals...and that makes gear a determining factor.
05-22-2010, 07:01 AM   #48
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QuoteOriginally posted by Jodokast96 Quote
I just want to touch on the cooking analogy being used, as I feel it's a bit off the mark. A good cook with the best ingredients will make a good meal with both good and bad cookware. A good cook with average ingredients will still probably make a good meal with either set of cookware. In both cases, the meal may not be the best it can be with the bad cookware, but will still be better than what a bad cook will conjure up with the best of everything. Applying that to photogs, you've got the cook (photog), ingredients (subject), and cookware (gear).
This has been my experience in the 25 or so years I have been doing this for a living:
I have been out to outside private catering in people's homes where I am forced to use their cookware and their ovens and work in their kitchen.. it is not professional quality as we have where we work. And the food must turn out to be just as great as if I used the professional equipment we have at the restaurant. Frustrating as it is and it has been there is no other choice or option. And you get good at it through experience and development of the craft.

Believe me some of these catering situations were not the best of conditions to work in and I have many, many stories but ultimately we still have to make it work and make it just as good (if not better) as if we did it at the restaurant....which we do.
Not to make this about cooking or anything but I believe all of this is relative and can to food, photography etc. Perhaps maybe not brain surgery but there are a few situations and stories that we have heard about the person who was trapped that had to take off a limb with a pocket knife (or whatever was handy) to survive and save his life?
Ultimately, after reading all of these posts, I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle of it being a bit of both and smack dab the middle of the grey area...it is not just a black and white answer.
At least to me anyhow.
05-22-2010, 07:40 AM   #49
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QuoteOriginally posted by TaoMaas Quote
I don't think that anybody is saying that gear is never important. Sometimes, it makes ALL the difference. We're just saying that it's not always that way. Maybe the reason we talk about gear so much is because folks are pretty respectful here and see each other as equals...and that makes gear a determining factor.
The irony is that we tout the importance of the photographer's vision to the general public while we've got painstakingly-researched gear in a 20 pound backpack and spent the previous evening discussing the merits of different tripods.

Yes, they are both important, but beyond a certain level of equipment, additional investment in gear yields diminishing returns. This of course depends upon the needs and goals of the photographer. A beginner with a K-x kit that wants to take better vacation photos should be spending more time in the Critique section, not the Lens section. An accomplished portrait photographer, on the other, could learn a lot in discussing glass and lighting in the gear sections.

At the end of the day I would argue that there's greater variance in the photographer than in the gear. After all, we've all seen rank amateurs with Canon L-glass take crap photos ! But for many, investing the time and humility in becoming a better photographer is a lot harder than breaking out the credit card!

05-22-2010, 07:45 AM   #50
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The artist is more important than the gear

Photography is an art. A talented, experienced artist with basic equipment is likely to get better results than a klutz with the best gear. I do get better results with my good cameras (MX, Super A, F4, N90S, D40) and quality lenses like the Pentax M 50-1.4 than I get with my wife's little Canon A1000is with its tiny sensor & lens no matter how careful I am. I'm planning on getting a better DSLR to replace the D40 not so much for better image quality but because a Pentax K7 or a Nikon D90 will make my job easier.
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05-22-2010, 08:46 AM   #51
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It is always the photographer's skill that makes the photo.

Because, part of the skill is to select the right camera for the job, or making do with what you've got.

And if anyone cares, the egg came before the chicken.
05-22-2010, 10:50 AM   #52
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QuoteOriginally posted by johnmflores Quote
If the gear wasn't that important, why are we spending so much time on this forum looking at 100% crops, debating the drawing quality of lenses, peeking in the shadows for noise? The shear volume of gear-related discussions on this forums shows how important we think it is. The Critique section of this forum is a ghost town by comparison.
Well, technical talk does kind of by its nature generate more talk. Sometimes the medium is part of the message.

I certainly had a lot of general 'shopping-' related questions as I built up a Pentax system: whereas if it'd been, say, starting over with Canon FD, or probably with old Nikon, it wouldn't have taken me so much research.

Me, I kind of enjoy some of the tech-talk, even if it's for stuff I don't personally need.

05-22-2010, 12:35 PM   #53
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Anyone who thinks the gear isn't important hasn't tried doing something with the wrong equipment.
Better lenses take technically better pictures than lower quality ones. Better cameras allow photographers to take better pictures than they would get with inferior quality cameras.
05-22-2010, 05:39 PM   #54
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QuoteOriginally posted by mel Quote
But if I used Roger Federer's non-Walmart racket, I still couldn't win at Wimbeldon. Both are important.
If you put a hundred monkeys in a room with a hundred typewriters for a hundred years, they couldn't replicate the works of William Shakespeare.

That, or some variant, is often offered as being a profound observation on the nature of talent versus random chance.

But lest we become too vain let us also reflect upon the fact that a hundred Shakespeares in a room with a hundred typewriters for a hundred years couldn't replicate the output of any one of the hundred monkeys either.
05-22-2010, 09:54 PM   #55
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QuoteOriginally posted by Mike Cash Quote
If you put a hundred monkeys in a room with a hundred typewriters for a hundred years, they couldn't replicate the works of William Shakespeare.

That, or some variant, is often offered as being a profound observation on the nature of talent versus random chance.

But lest we become too vain let us also reflect upon the fact that a hundred Shakespeares in a room with a hundred typewriters for a hundred years couldn't replicate the output of any one of the hundred monkeys either.
But what if we gave a hundred monkeys a hundred professional tennis rackets and a hundred years' worth of tennis balls?
05-22-2010, 10:01 PM   #56
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QuoteOriginally posted by Mike Cash Quote
If you put a hundred monkeys in a room with a hundred typewriters for a hundred years, they couldn't replicate the works of William Shakespeare.

That, or some variant, is often offered as being a profound observation on the nature of talent versus random chance.

But lest we become too vain let us also reflect upon the fact that a hundred Shakespeares in a room with a hundred typewriters for a hundred years couldn't replicate the output of any one of the hundred monkeys either.


There is a chance the hundred monkeys would. Same with the hundred Shakespears.
05-23-2010, 08:12 AM   #57
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QuoteOriginally posted by Ratmagiclady Quote
Me, I kind of enjoy some of the tech-talk, even if it's for stuff I don't personally need.
Same here. If truth were known, I have all the gear I really need. But right now, what I really want is a 12-24 zoom. Do I really need it? Uh...no...not really. But I still like reading about it JUST in case I ever decide to pull the trigger and buy it.
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