The “Right Camera”

If I’ve learned anything in the past year since starting this blog it is that which equipment you choose to use for photography really doesn’t matter much. Now I know this will come as a shock to those of you who have read through all my rants about why film is better than digital and why one camera or lens is better than another. You may also have noticed that in the last year or so I have bought several cameras & lenses (most of them used and/or seriously discounted), and at least one flash. I even built one camera (a pin hole camera - see blog post of 4/28/12). If I thought about it a little while I could probably come up with some other photo related gear& gadgets I could add to the list of things I bought.

The truth is however, at the end of all the techno-babble and personal preferences most photographic equipment these days works pretty well and most of the accessories and gadgets are unnecessary. I went through much of the 1970’s, all of the 80’s & 90’s, and a few years into the 21^st century with one Olympus OM-1 35mm SLR body, a Vivitar 283 flash, and three prime lenses (35mm, 50mm, & 135mm). During that time I took thousands of photos with that equipment, many of them excellent. I guess what I am trying to say is constantly upgrading to the latest, newest camera and equipment is not an essential part of being a photographer. The real question is are we going to spend all of our time reading & talking about and trying out all the new gadgets or are we going to actually go out and take some pictures.

My answer to that question is – yes !

The photo above was taken in a football stadium at night with those weird colored field lights using the Nikon P-300, which is rapidly becoming my favorite digital camera. It has a fast f1.8 lens that zooms from 24mm to 100mm (35mm eq) and seems to be able to deftly handle almost any situation with or without my help (and it does have partial or full manual control as part of its features). It’s about the size of a cigarette pack and is fully pocket able so it is usually with me and ready to snap a few pictures. It even has a built-in flash.

No it doesn’t have a big sensor like the DSLR’s but the pictures are incredibly sharp, the color is perfect and it’s a whole lot easier to carry around and use. Besides, I have never printed anything bigger that 8x10 in my life.

What good is a $15,000 medium format DSLR that will allow you to take great pictures and blow them up to mural size if it’s too big to carry around or too complicated to operate quickly and easily? The truth is any camera that takes pictures you like to look at and helps you to take more of them is the “right camera.”