Originally posted by normhead I was over at Photo Extract this morning and I'd thought I'd do a quick poll, because they have some kind of jury system to select images, and images of very high quality IMHO,
I just wondered, how many of these top quality images were taken with each different camera and what cameras were used. So I just did a quick poll,
Here's the result
Canon Eos D60 -2 Canon Eos D40 1 Canon EOS 5D mark II -8 Canon EOS D40-1
Nikon D700 -6. Nikon D800 -1, Nikon 3100 -1, Nikon D200 -1, Nikon D2X -1, Nikon D7000 -1, Nikon D90 - 5
Pentax K-5 - 3 , Pentax K-x - 1
Sony Alpha 850 - 2
Despite the endless discussions of what camera is best FF or APs-c etc. etc. some people just go out and get it done with a large variety of camera systems. Some people use 36 MP, some get it done with 12 MP. Just looking down the list, the outright winner is the Canon 5D mark II. And I'm guessing that that's true because only the very serious photographers buy that camera (22%). But a lot of other very serious photographers don't buy that camera.
My conclusion would be, you can think way to much about these things.... just go out and shoot. Even if you own a D3100, you can do top quality work. You can spend way too much time thinking about which camera is best... and it's obvious there are a lot of "right" choices, and not so many wrong ones.
Its amazing how many of these top judged shooters, are still shooting with Nikon D700s. I might be wrong but memory says that's a 5 year old 12 MP camera. I guess they don't read the forums much.
From what you're read on here, you'd think every "serious" photographer would have upgraded to something better by now. It's kind of sad, people buying the latest and greatest hoping to get better, while those who are better, just keep cranking out the images, with what they've got.
Well I guess I'm going to be in the minority here, but this seems a fairly shallow post. I agree that great images can be made with much less than the latest and greatest gear. Hell, Ansel has been dead long enough to say that the best camera from the year he died is positively ancient (yet he still "out-pixeled" us with his LF gear). And I also agree that many photographers are thinking that they need better and better gear in order to get better and better photos. But guess what! It's because they are still uneducated. Just like you were. Just like I was. And who can blame them? They think and believe exactly what Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and every other manufacturer out there wants them to. They are still on the low end of the learning curve. Some areas of getting an education entail harder knocks than others. Photography has some pretty expensive and hard knocks for most people along the way.
If there is anything of truth in what I say above, and I think there clearly is, then who is your post aimed at? If it is aimed at the more clueless photographer who needs "therapy", it seems you've not addressed him/her appropriately. If it is aimed at those who aren't so clueless (as your post reads and the responses thus far seems to support), then you're preaching to the choir.
Also, those people buying the latest and greatest with the hope to get better will, probably much more often than not, get better. If they are willing to spend hard earned money on pricey gear, they'll likely pursue it until they actually do improve. Do they spend a lot of money uselessly? Very often, yes. And the difference between photographers who do so and the person who thinks they need the latest and coolest and softest sofa and chairs in the living-room is, exactly, what? People waste money. Some of those people are photography enthusiasts. So . . . ?
Do you want to educate newer and clueless photographers? If you do, I think that's great. You should take every opportunity to do so. I will.
And as for the images on Photo Extract, I think you've weighted the importance (non-importance) of the camera too heavily. I'd say the biggest skill in evidence with most of those images are Photoshop skills. Should we create a post about using Gimp instead of Photoshop?