Hope you enjoy & as always, let me know if there is a question you’d like answered!
- What brand of gear do you use & why?
Digital photography has exploded in the last decade. Technology that was once only available to those willing to invest tens of thousands is now readily available to anyone with a couple hundred dollars. As a result, many people own ‘good cameras’ and hold the misconception that anyone with a ‘good’ camera can take great photos. While the potential is certainly there, it takes a bit more than just having the apparatus in your hands.
There are two primary brands in photography; Canon & Nikon. Camera gear; specifically lenses, are camera-specific. While there are companies who manufacture lenses for both (& some do it well), you will find more professional photographers in one camp or the other. There is a long-standing face-off of sorts on who has the better gear. I have found that I don’t stand firmly in either camp. I believe both sides have their strengths & weaknesses. I choose Nikon gear because I believe it’s strengths better suit my purpose.
In my conversations with other photographers I’ve heard several explanations of how they came to own the gear they own. Some were gifted a camera & built on from there. Some knew someone who had one & liked their results so they went with that brand, others intended to buy one brand but when that was out of stock they bought the other & have stuck with it. My decision to go with Nikon was a combination of several people I knew owning one & my own research.
As is typical in my household, before Hubs or I shell out a substantial amount of money (anything over $50), we like to be well-versed on the product & why we’re choosing that product over the competitors. (We’re geeks, we know this but in my defense, he started it.) When I decided I wanted a photo to take better pictures, I started researching.
First I decided a point & shoot, no matter how new & shiny, wasn’t going to cut it. A DSLR was what I wanted. Next came the decision on brand. This was where my real time in researching started. If you just read reviews both the Nikonians & the Canonese say they have the best cameras on the planet. Well that’s all well & good but didn’t help me make my decision. I needed something objective, something that quantified what exactly was different about Nikon & Canon & could help me make a decision. I discovered several wonderful websites, one of which being Ken Rockwell (*I visited so many sites & read so much info during this time that it would bore you to tears for me to re-cap it all, so these are the highlights). Mr. Rockwell was an absolute wealth of information & while he did rave about this or that from a personal perspective he also did many lengthy & in-depth discussions of the camera’s actual capabilities. Initially, this required many hours of looking up terms & comprehending what exactly he was talking about. Once I got a handle on the lingo I started diving in.
What I found, in general was this; Canon’s strengths lie in exposing for color. The SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera, a little lingo there) images in a Canon are often superior to Nikon on the color range. Nikon’s strengths lie in auto-focus. While the color might be a little duller Nikon’s images are often sharper, especially when you get beyond the center focal point. At this point I knew virtually nothing about my photography interests, but I knew the vast majority of photography involves action of some sort. So my thought pattern was this; color can often be tweaked in post-processing, a blurry shot is just that a blurry shot. So I went with Nikon.
*For my Canonese out there, PLEASE don’t crucify me here, this was simply MY thought pattern, I am no authority. These are just my reasons, no more, no less.
My first DSLR was a Nikon D40x which I purchased off of Ebay for $242. I downloaded the camera’s manual that same day & read it cover to cover before the camera arrived. When it finally came in the mail I was astonished at its size, thinking it was huge (oh how much I had to learn). As predicted, lens envy struck not long after that & I’ve been on a roll ever sense (Hubs would say a down-hill slide but ya know).
Since that initial purchase I’ve upgraded bodies twice. I currently shoot primarily with the new Nikon D7000 & aNikon D90 as back-up.
The next logical question I get from those versed in photography is; Why not full frame?
DSLR cameras are manufactured on two frames, the full frame; which has an electronic sensor inside it equal to that of a 35mm film camera or the DX censor; which is cropped, usually by 1/3. There is much controversy about the pros & cons of full-frame versus cropped. I’ve shot with full-frame & although I like it, it doesn’t provide me with anything I don’t already get. Also, most full-frame cameras start in the $2500 range & climb very quickly. Obviously when I purchased my first camera that range wasn’t even conceivable to me.
Additionally lenses are manufactured for both full-frame & cropped sensors & as I’ve invested more & more money into high-quality glass (photographer speak for lenses), built on a cropped lens, it has only made sense to me to stick with cropped or DX cameras. One day I might go full frame, I certainly won’t rule it out. But it will be when I have the money to invest & I find a camera that provides me with something my current ones don’t. It won’t be simply because the cool kids are doing it.
This comes back to my original premise that so many people these days think that having a ‘good camera’ is all it takes. That is totally untrue & since my cameras, in my hands, provide me with images that myself & my clients are delighted with, why change without good reason?
A true photographer is one who is as intimately acquainted with their gear as a surgeon is with the human body. After all, do you want your photographer standing around on your wedding day trying to find a setting or figure out what something does while your wedding is happening right in front of their eyes? Um, no.
That is the very reason I continued using my back-up camera on sessions, even after purchasing a new body, until I was fluid with the new one. I knew I had the body if necessary but I wasn’t going to chance missing a moment because the buttons weren’t exactly the same.
And now, just because I can (& it will make Hubby twitch), a photo, of my happy little (mostly) Nikon family. A new member is expected soon so stay tuned!
Toodles!
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