Camera Love

I am a firm believer that a photo's compositional quality comes not from the gear, but from the photographer. If the photographer's good, she'll pop out superior stuff relative to a more inexperienced photog given the same gear. That much is true.

However, when it comes to the gear, sometimes it really can make a big difference in one's shooting style. Take for example the compact camera vs the EVIL camera vs the DSLR. The compact camera is small, and can take shots from virtually any vantage point. It's easy to squeeze that little thing through a gap in a fence and snap shots. For the EVIL, it's got image quality comparable to a DSLR, but with speed that is somewhat faster than the compact's. It's good for slow, considered photography. Not so good for anything faster. Then comes the heavyweight DSLR, which is zippy in performance and changing settings. But of course, its primary disadvantage lies in its sheer bulk.

I was taking photos at a railway just yesterday, and I was frankly getting a bit tired of my EVIL misfocusing shots. It's doing that by giving me false focus confirmations. After thumbing the DSLR for a bit, I realized that it really was all that much faster than my EVIL (I was burning that one in previously, so I had to use it continuously). The feel was so different, and the handling on the device did make me feel a lot more confident in taking shots with it. Odd shots, too, that may involve holding the camera at odd angles.

Overall, I'd say I can now understand why I originally wanted the DSLR as my primary shooter. If there's something worth shooting and I'm lugging my gear along, I might as well carry the DSLR. It isn't really worth it going on a dedicated shoot armed only with the EVIL...it currently isn't zippy enough to do the job.