Originally posted by Lord Lucan The criticism or ignorance of "others" is almost invariably made in a technical context ("Canon lenses are sharper than Pentax lenses blah blah blah" etc), so these DPReview comparisons are entirely relevant as ammunition against that criticism. Posting images taken in the field brings in the artistic component of picture quality which we all know (even those "others", unless they are really ignorant) is nothing to do with the camera used and is a distraction if we are comparing the technical quality.
Technical quality and artistic quality are independent of each other.
Who is talking about artistic quality here? Our colleague said that he has K1, D4, 5D Mark III and 5D Mark IV, but he tries to have a point here by posting DPreview studio shots that are impossible to replicate at weddings?
I'm talking about real life shooting conditions where you may find a lot of surprises if you shoot the same thing, from the same distance, with 2 different cameras and similar lenses. Those technical quality files that you see on DXO and DPreview are irrelevant for an event (wedding) photographer and you or him should now that by now. Why? Because DXO and DPreview doesn't tell you with those files the following:
1. how fast and accurate the camera will focus in challenging situations
2. how the camera will handle high ISO in challenging situations
3. how the skin tones are rendered in challenging situations
4. how accurate and consistent is the white balance of your camera (manual white balance is a luxury at events due to mix of lights)
5. how consistent is the flash system
6. etc.
Except point nr. 1 where there are just a few options/tricks to help you out, the others can be fixed up to a point in Photoshop, Lightroom, Capture One, etc. But if you have to tweak each image due to the inconsistency of your white balance or due to how the camera handles high ISO in difficult scenarious, then for me it's a big problem. I don't want to spend 5 days or more as Normhead did to edit the images he took. He had to spend more time due to the fact that he went to photograph that wedding being aware that he is not equipped to shoot weddings. He has experience with Pentax gear and yet, he realised 2 things:
1. despite the fact that he had a full frame camera (a field camera) the results where not the ones he expected to be; and I'm sure that if he had used K3 instead of K1 he would have had even more problems due to the fact that K3 is a noisy camera when you shoot indoor and just with available lights from the restaurant
2. fast and good opticaly lenses would have made his life a little easier (it's the same with cameras; having a better camera for a specific job will make your life easier)
Their clients were happy at the end of the day as far as I understood, but he had to work hard editing the images he took.
For the above points (2 to 5) our colleague can post images that can convince all of us that he has a point. I haven't found a single solid argument in favor of K1 for weddings (other than image quality which is very good on K1) against 5D Mark IV, D850. Sure, there are a lot of photographers who shoot weddings with APS-C cameras. The sky is the limit. I guess it depends on:
- the type of clients that you're after
- the fee you charge for a wedding
- your willingness to spend lots of hours editing files instead of buying the right tools for the job
- the number of weddings you have in one year
- the part of the world you are living (in Romania the only good light you have available is when you shoot the trash the dress after the wedding).
If you find a priest that doesn't allow you to shoot with flash, then good luck shooting with K3 at ISO 4000 or 5000 in an orthodox church
Someone above said something about being cought up on the gear. On the contrary, I don't like being cought up on the gear and I realised long time ago that being cought up on the gear is one of the shortest way to be unsuccessful. Sure, knowledge and experience will help you to go through, but on the long term, using the right tool for the job will help you grow and improve your business. I'm the kind of guy that will not go and shoot for a client with gear that I know is not ideal for that job. Helping a friend or a member of my family by shooting their events is one thing, but shooting for clients is another thing. I guess it depends on what you want: either you invest more money and make your life easier on the long term, either you save some money and work a little harder at every wedding to get the job done.