----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: photography vs cameras
> > A lighter load, more shots before reloading, and better lens options? > Presumably 35mm was adopted because it either gave users more good shots, > or an equal number of adequately good shots for less weight and cost. > Digital is taking over for the same reasons. And don't forget poorer image quality, in fact image quality so poor that any schmuck with a few hundred dollars to spend can do as well. > > Switching to MF or LF might make me more "elite", but it sure wouldn't > help me do my job. Depends on your job. If you are on of the 1/10 of 1%, then no, but for the rest of the pro boys, that larger negative can't help but help. > > Pro gear, even 35mm, is still outrageously expensive compared to a minimal > competant camera rig, and most folks haven't got anything like it. There > are shots that you can get with a 600 or 14 that you just can't get with > a 35-70. But thats the 1/10 of 1% category, which is the one that everyone wannabe, which is why Nikon and Canon sells so many F5's and EOS 1s to people that could just as well do with a Rebel or F60, but almost no one is actually in the group. So few as to be statistically non existent. I venture that probably 95% of "professional photography" could be done with a 35-70 zoom. > > Photography is, of course, more than technical details. Content matters, > and in most cases this requires more than "f8 and be there". Of course it is, but it is the technical details that seperated the real pros from the weekend warriors. Cameras that take away the need to be technically proficient means that just about anyone can be a pro. Take away the things that seperate the pros from the weekend warriors and the lines blur into non existence. Take away the big negative, and you don't have an advantage over the school teacher who wants to earn an extra few dollars on the weekend shooting weddings. In fact, the teacher has a real advantage, since he doesn't depend on photography for a living, and he can undercut the pros to the point that the market is ruined. It happened where I live, and I am sure it has happened in a lot of other places as well. It's not like brain surgery where you actually have to know something. All you have to do is have a working eye and you can be a pro. No technical knowledge needed. And that is why professional photographers don't get much respect. William Robb
