New year, new camera?
Written by David WhiteThis is a little note from experience. I see lots and lots of photographers, both young and old, experienced and not, who are convinced that upgrading their camera/s will give them the edge that they are looking for, somehow focus their creativity, improve their game, and even get them more work. This time of year plays a part- new year, new start and all that. I’d just like to say STOP. I would bet you a tenner that a new camera ( unless your old one is fubared) will not improve anything that anyone else will notice. It will just deplete your bank balance. Maybe, just maybe, buying a new camera will inject a degree of fresh creativity into your work, but that’s about it. Even that doesn’t work if all you are doing is ‘upgrading’.
I know this because I used to fall into the same trap:
Theory: Better cameras, more confident me, better pictures which make people awake and look in awe.
Reality: Better cameras, more skint and stressed me, same pictures, people still asleep.
Put that money you were going to spunk on a new M9 into training, learning, into travel, logistics, fixers,books, business…even a newer car to get you to jobs is a better spend than thousands on new cameras that make you think you can compete with the best. It is not the camera that elevates the user, it is the other way around. If you really want to stand out then you should make your own camera 🙂 The students on our photofilm training all use the lowliest digi nikon slr’s, and it is impossible to choose images taken with those than from images shot on my top line Nikon once the work is completed. ( Before you point out the hypocrisy in the above, I use a ‘good’ Nikon because it takes the relentless abuse, and because my old camera was dead.)
I suggest that you should learn to disappear with the cameras you have. Become so quick, so fast and invisible with it that all you are left to think about is the subject, context, light and moment, to name a few. Plus, if you’re using that old beater you know like the back of your hand, it doesn’t hurt so much when you drop it, when someone in Dhakar asks how much it’s worth, when it gets nicked.
How does it make sense to spend thousands on kit when you can’t even bring the money in using what you’ve got?
Discussion (6 Comments)
‘How does it make sense to spend thousands on kit when you can’t even bring the money in using what you’ve got?’
Great quote.
Infact up until three days ago I was making a BBC doco, edited on a £220 netbook, a £200 digi recorder, and with the photos on an old camera.
Then again it could be shit.
Well, you have just summed it up. Content is king.
If it is shit, I’ll eat my fedora.
Ben, you’re on a roll. keep up the inimitable work you do.
This is a fair point ben. I work for a well known manufacturer, mostly in the retail environment and conduct training on the latest kit and have come across more people that I care to remember who ‘demand’ the latest kit and neglect vitals like optics. And not mention enough ‘****holes’ that want to fight about which manufacturer is better, usually coming from amateurs and my simple reply is get some decent glass and then start shouting the odds.
However, what it often comes down to is ‘your own preference’ and like you said if you know your way around your trusty workhorse why chop it in unless you are adamant that you need to have bells and whistles that ‘may’ make you more competitive than the next guy/girl.
Commonly many people often neglect the basic theories and principles that some of us were tortured with 10 years ago, prior to the advent of digital (without regret of course!), the same theories that people simply cannot be arsed to entertain now where one’s inexperience or lack of knowledge is typically blamed on the camera.
So, in my experience, understand the limitations of your camera, the limitations of the lens, but most importantly your own knowledge before you go and fork out on a three grand bit of kit with a £100 bit of glass on the end.
How does that funny “M” function work again? I never seem to get that working for me so I don’t use it 🙁
You don’t need fancy gear! The key ingrediets in exceptional work is creativity, passion, conviction and some balls.Last time I looked non of these were available in Argos.