[danad]

An androis tablet with vignette, and recently an iphone with instagram

[redrockcoulee]

A good and easy to use tripod.

[Canada_Rockies]

For me, the most significant gear upgrade ever was the K10D, my first DSLR. I started in photography when the auto diaphram and open aperture metering was pretty much standard on every camera but I can understand how big an improvement that must have been to folks. There were still a lot of older cameras around in the late 60's - early 70's. Auto focus was a huge improvement also. For me, it has been digital. In the first year I owned my K10D, I probably shot more photos than in the previous 10 years and once I got over my old film habits, I began bringing my camera everywhere and shooting constantly. With film, I was always chained to the budget. I or 2 rolls and pick my shot carefully. I now can shoot what I want anytime without worrying which week of the month it is and whether I can afford to have the film developed.

When I started out, the preset lens was the top of the line and my Pentax had two shutter speed dials. No, it was not a Pentax Spotmatic, nor even a Pentax S - it was the original right down to shutter speed sequence of 1, 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200, 1/500. And when shooting 1/25 to 1/500, the front, low speed dial had to be set to 1/25. Vice versa for the top dial when shooting at slow speeds. There is one thing I really, really, really, really miss about that camera. It had a T setting as well as B. press once to open, and again to close the shutter.

I have gone through several generations of Pentax, usually skipping two or three before buying up. The K10D was, for me, liberating. My little budget warning did not matter any more. I can shoot and shoot and shoot, but that was not the most liberating advantage.

The one thing I found most useful on the digital was the blinkies. I turn on the blinkies and I don't have to sweat interpreting the exposure. No red blinkies? No lost highlight detail - yeah! No yellow blinkies? No lost shadow detail - great! Got both? Take one shot with no yellows and another with no reds and use Photomatix to combine them into one. No more watching your negative come up with huge clear areas and/or huge solid blacks. Fix it while you still have the subject in front of you.

[kanzlr]

my first real camera was an EOS 1000
But what really changed a lot for me was wireless flash. I use it even with compacts.

I have no room for a studio, so wireless flashes enabled me to do controlled light shooting at all.

[TaoMaas]

A good and easy to use tripod.

+1 A good tripod was the first real difference maker for me. Oddly enough, in the digital age, it has been the ability to raise the ASA in the camera (and free myself from the tripod) which has been a game-changer.

[8540tomg]

Hey Wildman,

Unlike yourself I’ve only been at photography for a little over 30 years with a Pentax MX being my first camera. The technical improvements over that time have been extensive as we all know. Digital has all but replaced film and I can’t remember the last time I shot a roll.

Over that time I would agree auto exposure has probably had the greatest impact on my shooting. Not having to check the meter and being able to concentrate on the shot itself was a great advance. It’s the reason I got a Pentax K2 as my second camera.

I’m on the verge of buying a K5 to get the added dynamic range it provides, ISO 80~58,000 offers a whole range of possibilities over my K10 even if ISO from 30,000 to 58,000 isn’t very good. Being able to shoot at ISO 1600 with my older telephoto lenses should let me use a higher shutter speed. This will let me use the f16 sweet spot on my M 400/5.6 in much dimmer light when shooting birds. Can’t wait to try it out.

There have also been vast improvements in flash with auto exposure. Even though I seldom use flash this is a quantum leap over the system in place when I started in 1980. Remember checking the distance scale on the lens, manually setting the distance on the flash and then setting the aperture on the lens? As I recall this was what one had to do on the old MX. Very time consuming and resulted in a lot of missed or badly exposed shots.

I think these three improvements have had the most dramatic impact on my shooting. Each of them has made the task of image making a little/lot easier.

That being said, I can’t overlook the fact that the trial and error knowledge gained manually setting exposure still serves me well when AE isn’t quite up to the challenge.

[wildman]

I’m on the verge of buying a K5 to get the added dynamic range it provides,

Yea a fast high quality sensor would be a real game changer.

After all a camera is a light machine and anything that improves light efficiency improves everything else all down the line. No need for most folks to have a large, complex, heavy and expensive fast fifty for street photography when say a compact f2.8 at an ISO of `12000 would do the job just as well if not better. Not to mention those of us who use long glass or zooms.

My guess would be that if we get cameras that are as good at 12000 ISO as ISO 200 is now the difference would approach that between film and digital in importance.

Interestingly no one has mentioned pure raw optical performance - resolution, contrast, field distortion etc. My guess is that other than the special requirements of glass made for sensors rather than film the basic issues of optical quality were pretty much solved by the glass I used in the 1950's. I'm thinking of the Nikkor f/2 on the S2 rangefinder or the Zeiss f/2.8 planar on the Rollie.

One thing I do miss from the old days - the direct simplicity and ergonomics of cameras made for the serious photographer. My K20 is burdened with too many extra features that have no interest to me and just complicate picture taking. These "features" are dreamed up by marketing people with a eye on a mass market not photographers. But that's for another thread.

Thanks to all for the posts.
Wildman

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Last edited by wildman; 10-20-2011 at 05:04 AM.

[Smeggypants]

Apart from going digital and all that allows, the biggest game changer of me was getting a couple of K-5s with theit amazing High ISO performance. This has llow me to take pics at settings that would be hitherto far too noisy for normal viewing except for a few abstracts.

I hope the bar is raised regarding high ISO in the nest few years an beyond

[dadipentak]

Digital. Quite simply, it made engagement in photography possible for me. I'm not saying that was a good thing for photography but it was great for me.

[wildman]

Another thing so far as future development is concerned...

...recently bought a Canon S95 PS. Have found the SR very effective at least compared to my K20. If it got a lot better in the future perhaps we could get away from tripods most of the time.

Took this with the Canon at 1/15 sec with SR:

[magkelly]

Just being able to switch out lenses, having an SLR/DSLR vs an upscale P&S with it's pseudo lenses has made a huge difference for me. I've always had the eye of a photographer but being able to set more of my own preferences, and being able to use real lenses I wouldn't trade that. I've progressed a lot just by having a "real" camera.

[dndcdr]

The imporvement which I like, are AF lenses, Everything else is great, but If I had only one advancement to choose, it's AF.

[freewheeler]

Digital shooting and PP.
To be able to check if the focus is right on the lcd and Lightroom instead of darkroom for me.
With MF and AF to many pics were out of focus.
I was never good in the lab at home nor were the consumer level labs in my opinion.
Now the photo is sharp and I can brighten up darker portions later on.
Third improvement is the now affortable good K and m lenses for me.

[Mike Cash]

[Ahab]

I too have been capturing images for more than half a century. But then I started listening to radio broadcasts on a crystal radio I built for a lot longer than that. Technology will always progress and that's a given. The ability to quickly establish the quality of an image, massage the information, and disseminate it for others to view, is the epitome of technology but what is next?