Why Your Camera Does Not Matter

Ah! Well, now, Holga.......that's a whole other mystique, y'see. :-))

Of course one needs camera gear and usually the "correct" gear but I do not think that is the point of Rockwell's article. Say I have Pentax camera and a Sigma 400 lens and wanted to be a better bird photographer. I could look at the work of the better bird photographers and buy the same equipment as they do and although my images will be a bit sharper as not that satisfied with my Sigma, my photos will not be anywhere near the quality of those photographers. If I however kept the equipment that I do have and build a blind and acutally got out and scout more locations and spend more time there my work would improve. Of course no matter how good my equipment is I could not be a bird photographer if all I owned was a ultra-wide angle lens.

Ansel Adams did not use the best equipment nor does Rockwell and dismissing their options based on claims that they do is false. Adams used good lenses but not necessarily the newest or those claimed to be the sharpest and large format can be much less expensive than 35mm or now adays digital SLRs. Rockwell is using one of the least expensive large format cameras and I also bought the exact model of one of his lenses for $78 last year on ebay. He uses the D200 not the D2X.

The point of the article is that it is not looking for the silver bullet in terms of the best camera so that you are a great photographer but leanring and using your existing equipment and more importantly learning to see and visualize images. I have know people to swap entire systems and own three different systems in less than 3 years just trying to make their photographs better. I do not think that Rockwell means that we can all take our photos with a box camera and they will be great. But I do think he is right in it does not matter if you use Leica, Nikon, Canon or Pentax in order to create great photos

I think it's a whole lot more people than Ken Rockwell.....Galen Rowell, Jerry Avenaim as mentioned above.....plus the "those old picture works" crowd of Adams, Haas, Feininger, Evans, Steichen...<br><br>here's another present day quote from yet another photographer...."...Every camera in this store can be a professional camera in the hands of a professional, but on that same note every camera including the one you pointed to is also an amateur camera in the hands of an amateur...." - from <a href="http://npnphotography.wordpress.com/2006/07/06/what-camera-system-do-you-use/"><u>James H Egbertﾒs "What Camera System Do You Use?"</u></a><br><br><a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=James+H+Egbert+photograph"><u>James H Egbert</u></a><br><br>

<br><br>....from <a href="http://www.rednotebook.org/pics/pinhole/index.html"><u>Doug Stewert's article for The Smithsonian</u></a>..."...ﾓThe popularity of pinhole photography among art photographers is in part a reaction against the idea that a serious photographer is someone with six cameras slung over his neck whoﾒs constantly swapping lenses,ﾔ says Terence Pitts, director of the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona. ﾓThereﾒs a strong determination to prove that itﾒs the artist, not the equipment, that makes the image.ﾔ...."

These are tools.

 

Sometimes you need a computer, sometimes just a pinhole.

 

The focus is about YOU.

Thomas, I agree with your message fully. Great example you posted there.

 

Damn fine thread qith fabulous links! Thanks!

In fact, there was a followup posting of the Dollar Camera- the response wasn't overwhelming. But the posting is still here:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/nw-fetch-msg?msg_id=00FW7v

 

I think the points made above about Ansel Adams and the Brownie are interesting...he visited the same site with the Brownie, and then with a view camera. The shots from the view camera are famous, but we never hear about the shots with the Brownie. So what exactly does that show? Now, I suspect if the had used the view camera when he was a kid, the results wouldn't have been impressive. But I also doubt he would have made any famous shots had he taken only a Brownie out there later in life. Yes, he was more experienced and knowledgable, but part of that experience and knowledge told him to drop the Brownie and get some first class gear.

"Now, I suspect if the had used the view camera when he was a kid, the results wouldn't have been impressive. But I also doubt he would have made any famous shots had he taken only a Brownie out there later in life. Yes, he was more experienced and knowledgable, but part of that experience and knowledge told him to drop the Brownie and get some first class gear."

 

Well said, Stephen. Ansel primarily was the grand poobah of gearheads.

"My camera dont matter now, because I have a Leica and a Hasselblad, But it really mattered when I only had a vivitar"

 

-Ken Rockwell.

 

The unedited version of the article.

</c>Just trying to get the centering off.

</center>One more try, then I give up.

</center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center></center><br>Can't see a problem with 'center'...