One of the most ubiquitous adages among photographers is variations of "It's not
the camera, it's the person behind it" and the like.

My recent favorite (from a forum poster's signature line: "Nice pen, I bet you write great stories with it."

And this idea can be strongly supported by the fact that a bit of searching turns up
startlingly good pictures taken on pretty nearly every camera ever produced.

And of course, "the best camera is the one one you have with you" is also an important
part of this. If you left your huge FF DSLR* at home, but you have a P&S in your pocket,
rather than feeling sorry for yourself, you should obviously pull out the P&S and make
the best of things.

However I feel it should be honestly noted that does not mean that there is no price
to pay for having a particular tool with you as opposed to another.

Although any camera, in any situation, can be used (by a skilled photographer) to capture
stunning pictures, they will be very different pictures depending on the camera used.

I know this seems like banal truism, but allow me to ponder it for a moment...

Lets take this random photograph as an example:

(Taken by "travelight" on flickr)



I know of no P&S that could have made this photograph.
This level of pleasing OOF background can only be achieved with the the narrow DOF caused
by high f numbers not found on (any?) P&S cameras.

So, what would the photographer have done if he found himself in the same situation while
carrying a P&S? Taken a different picture, of course. It might even have been a BETTER
picture, due to the creativity forced upon him by the limitations, but we can say for a
certainty it would bear very little resemblance to the photo that was in fact made.

Same thing with this photo:

(from "rburgoss" at Pentax Forum)



This is a photo that could ONLY have been created using a rather long,
rather fast, rather high quality lens. Exactly the sort of lens that many
amateur photographers are unlikely to be able to either afford, or lug
around with them at all times.

So, what is a poor and lazy photographer to do? Well, first of all I am going to
painfully covet a new DSLR with long fast glass, and then I am going to feel sorry
for myself, and then I am going to start to do the math and casting dark and
menacing glances at the guitars hanging on my wall...

And then I am going to grab my vastly inferior tools, and get out and there
and start finding pictures.

(well, metaphorically... what I am actually going to do is watch the latest
episode of Battlestar Galactica and then eat some pizza)

Because while I can never make pictures like these with my current gear,
there are plenty of other pictures out there to go around, and all the time
in the world spent on ebay won't find them for us.

Now if you will excuse me, I have an ebay auction to check.



[kurt]


* Glossary for non-photogeeks:

FF: Full frame. (big, expensive, pro cameras)
P&S: Point and shoot. (pretty much any camera you can fit in your pocket)
DOF: Depth of field. (the amount of the picture that is sharp and in focus)
OOF: Out of focus.
Fast: Big lens, lets in lots of light so you can take pictures at fast shutter speeds without motion blur
Long: large telephoto lens to zoom in close to your subject