Equipment issues / dissatisfaction

[Tony Parsons]

I occasionally read posts where someone either has problems using their equipment, or is dissatisfied with the results obtained. For me, the issue is easily explained :

The equipment was built by experts - I was not. Therefore, the problem is more like to reside with me than the equipment.

 

Thoughts, anyone ?

 

[Sanford]

3-6% keepers is the best anyone can hope for.

[BeBu Lamar]

46 minutes ago, Tony Parsons said:

I occasionally read posts where someone either has problems using their equipment, or is dissatisfied with the results obtained. For me, the issue is easily explained :

The equipment was built by experts - I was not. Therefore, the problem is more like to reside with me than the equipment.

 

Thoughts, anyone ?

 

How many of those experts can take photos as good as the many photographers who use their cameras and surely not knowing how to build one? 2 different skills.

[AJG]

36 minutes ago, Tony Parsons said:

I occasionally read posts where someone either has problems using their equipment, or is dissatisfied with the results obtained. For me, the issue is easily explained :

The equipment was built by experts - I was not. Therefore, the problem is more like to reside with me than the equipment.

 

Thoughts, anyone ?

 

While I agree that most of the time the faults lie with ourselves, there is is lot of poorly designed equipment out there.  Many of these items are designed by engineers and marketing people who are not photographers and while adding more features can be attractive from a marketing standpoint it doesn't always lead to equipment that is intuitive for photographers to use.  The attempt to build in technical knowledge in the form of auto exposure and auto focus, while helpful for most people, doesn't always lead to the best results.  And menus on DSLRs?  How many hours have we spent learning how to control our cameras when something from the 1950s can be immediately obvious to someone with some fairly rudimentary photographic knowledge.

[Tony Parsons]

34 minutes ago, BeBu Lamar said:

How many of those experts can take photos as good as the many photographers who use their cameras and surely not knowing how to build one? 2 different skills.

I think you missed my point - I was indicating that, as the equipment was made by professionals, whereas I was the result of random chance, any faults are more likely to lie with me rather than the kit I am using. Sorry for any misunderstanding.

[Tony Parsons]

35 minutes ago, AJG said:

While I agree that most of the time the faults lie with ourselves, there is is lot of poorly designed equipment out there.  Many of these items are designed by engineers and marketing people who are not photographers and while adding more features can be attractive from a marketing standpoint it doesn't always lead to equipment that is intuitive for photographers to use.  The attempt to build in technical knowledge in the form of auto exposure and auto focus, while helpful for most people, doesn't always lead to the best results.  And menus on DSLRs?  How many hours have we spent learning how to control our cameras when something from the 1950s can be immediately obvious to someone with some fairly rudimentary photographic knowledge.

Sadly, these days it seems that 'rudimentary photographic knowledge' is possessed by fewer and fewer people - I have spoke to students at our local art college who bemoan the fact they are being taught using manual cameras, asking 'What's the point ?' In so many walks of life, thought is actively discouraged.

[AJG]

26 minutes ago, Tony Parsons said:

Sadly, these days it seems that 'rudimentary photographic knowledge' is possessed by fewer and fewer people - I have spoke to students at our local art college who bemoan the fact they are being taught using manual cameras, asking 'What's the point ?' In so many walks of life, thought is actively discouraged.

You are indeed correct that independent thought is not encouraged very often in our current society. I have often explained to my photography students that Picasso, famous for his non realistic paintings, knew how to draw in proper perspective but chose not to because that didn't allow him to say what he wanted to say.  His work didn't arise out of ineptitude.  And on the flip side a good friend of mine who went to a fairly famous art college discovered to his horror that they hadn't taught him how to properly gesso a canvas before making a painting, something he found out the hard way when paint started flaking off in a few months. I suspect that most of the students you talked to won't have the discipline to pursue a career in the arts, which isn't easy even if you work hard.  There are only so many "conceptual artists" who can be supported by galleries and museums, and these artists will have to work hard at self promotion if they aren't making interesting art.

[Rick Helmke]

Sometimes it is the equipment, I’ve seen firmware updates, poor white balances, slow autofocus, even a need for faster write speeds for raw files.  You spend too much time fiddling with the camera that you don’t pay attention to photography. Sometimes you’re just having a bad day. The Nikon D8xx cameras work so much better than the D1X as one would expect. I don’t have to pay as much attention to settings and can work on composition, lighting and so on.

 

Rick H

[cameragary]

My 2 cents, hence why most people with cameras today take pictures in auto mode.we are taught not to think and let technology do it for us.

I put my camera on manual all the time now just so I would have to think about what I want from a picture and judging by what they look like then I am nothing special in the picture taking dept.i do it to see if I can get something close to what I see

 

[tholte]

If you have an interesting subject, expose it halfway decently, have nice light and compose the image correctly you will have a nice photo no matter what camera or lens you are using. I still go back to many of my Nikon D70 (6mp) and love some of the images where I was able to follow my above advice.