Today’s Post by Joe Farace
If you want to change your photographs, you need to change cameras. Changing cameras means that your photographs will change. A really good camera has something I suppose you might describe as its own distinctive aura.— Nobuyoshi Araki
I don’t think about what camera I should use that much. I just pick up the one that looks nicest on the day.—William Eggleston
The above quotes are some food for thought.
Several weeks ago, I wrote a post called “Do You Hate your Camera?” This is the counterpoint to that.
I was eight years old when my patents gave me the old Kodak box camera that started me on the path to becoming a photographer and I’ve been passionate about it ever since. That passion is one of the reasons why I created this and my car photography site/blog. But a year or so ago, what I thought was an undying obsession was sorely tested when working on a project where I tested a group of lenses that required me to shoot using my full-frame and APS-C DSLRs.
After the project was complete and I went to the UPS Store to ship those lenses back to the manufacturer, I felt a sigh of relief as if a burden was lifted from me. The three lenses along with shipping box and brown crunchy paper packing material weighed 25 pounds. Yes Virginia, I don’t get to keep all of the gear that’s loaned to me by photographic manufacturers, although I suspect that’s not true of some bloggers.
How I Made this Photograph: The above image was made while taking a walk around Bingham Lake in Douglas County, Colorado and I thought it made a topical photograph for this first day of Fall. It was made with a Panasonic Lumix G5 before I had it converted for infrared capture. The lens used was a Lumix G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens at 42mm with an Av exposure of 1/320 sec t f/8 and ISO 200.
From time-to-time during the aforementioned lens testing, I used my Olympus and Panasonic gear for some of my personal photography and the comparison was eye opening. Hint: The EOS 5D Mark I weighs 59% more than my Lumix GH4. That is not to say that my choice of Olympus and Panasonic Micro Four-thirds cameras has been perfect and I’ve written about some of my camera woes here, And to be sure my personal mirrorless camera system lacks the depth of focal lengths I would like to have. In the past year or so I’ve added the Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm f/2.8 Asph. Mega OIS lens and a M.Zuiko Digital 25mm f/1.8 lens that were purchased used or as a refurb. Right now, I can’t afford to add longer or wider focal-length lenses lenses because for some reason Micro Four-thirds lenses seem priced awfully high, especially when compared to many DSLR lenses. I don’t think that I’m alone with these kind of limitations.
SHOOT WHAT YOU LIKE
Lots of people are content shooting their DSLRs or mirrorless cameras and I am genuinely glad that they’re happy and would not dream of changing their enthusiasm for their gear. Because that’s what photography is all about —excitement. It doesn’t matter what kind of camera you prefer to use—DSLR, APS-C, mirrorless or even a film camera—what matters is that you are having fun. And to me that’s what photography is all about.
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