Does the Gear You have Really Matter? Or How I learned to take a “Pitcher…” or is that a “Picture?”… I’ll take both, just in case the Picture doesn’t turn out!
Well, I will commence with a simple answer “NO”… Whether it is a Nikon, Sony, Canon, Panasonic, Olympus, Samsung , Pentax or any Medium format camera and digital back out there, it really is of no great consequence which brand you own! You want to know why? Based on a recent survey, 90 percent of all DSLR camera owners rarely print their images larger than A4 (8×10”) format. In other words and in most cases, a good 5 mega pixel camera with good noise specifications would be more than sufficient to do the job and do it very well.
Now, if what you spend most of your time doing is pixel peeping your images at 100 percent on your screen to see if you can notice any anomaly of any sort, than yes, do go out and purchase a $40,000.00, 50 mega pixel back for your Hasselblad. However, if you do so, you will find that you might notice some interesting phenomena, like high chroma noise issues at anything above 400 iso.
Another interesting problem is that when you go to press, the tram noise or pattern will destroy most of those fine pixels that you observed on the screen, a kind of natural grain producer of sorts.
Of course the quality of the sensor is very important, but I believe that any of the 10 mega pixel plus camera’s out there could do an admirable job.
I have watched with bemusement the wars that are ongoing on the forums between this and that brand and usually come away thinking that unless you know why you have purchased a brand and to what purpose, than you might as well close your eyes and do a “eenee, meenee, mynee, mo” exercise to determine your choice.
So, if you have no plans to produce an image larger than 12 x19″ and have a limited budget, feel confident that no matter what you buy, it will be overkill for that format.
Just be happy that the technology provided for the photographer today has easily out specified the top end camera that existed just 3 years ago.
Enjoy your toy and go out and play…
