Shel wrote:
>Now, one of the conversations often heard on the Pentax list is that >equipment doesn't matter. Good photographs can be made with almost any >decent camera and lens. I've subscribed to that idea myself to a degree, >although those who know my preferences know that I constantly seek >sharpness and resolution from my lenses. While good "images" can be made >with most any lens, a great photograph requires the finest equipment >possible to wring the most detail from the subject and put it on the film, >excellent exposures, precise developing, and superb darkroom equipment and >technique. There is no way that the quality obtained by Salgado in these >prints could have been the result of even average, or above average, >equipment. If Cartier Bresson started started out today he would most likely used a Nikon or a Canon EOS with a bloody zoom lens. I doubt his images would have been worse for it. I find of those who insist on using the same equipment as a famous photographer their admire whether its a Leica or a Canon EOS-1, and then try to intellectualize their "choice" into having anything to do with the images and their context quite funny. Using 3200 ISO film makes all differences between quality lenses totally meaningless; in fact, it could be argued that using quality lenses is meaningless. If you want to spend extra money on the best optics it's then a futile exercise to leave the tripod at home. You'll never ever get the resolution out of your lenses if you're not using the finest grained films and a tripod unless you have invented a way to suspend the laws of physics. "Street photography" doesn't really put any demand whatsoever on technical image quality. That's why you can get away with murder in terms of technique and still get front page of Life Magazine. No, equipment doesn't make an impact photographically. Only on those consumerist who needs alibies for spending money on their status symbols. You find plenty of them on the various equipment photo newsgroups. They are people who use Leica because Cartier Bression did or Canon because Arthur Morris or Art Wolfe does; all of them argues that the name of the equipment makes the difference. The equipment makes a difference in as much as the photographer feels comfortable with it; that's about the extent of it. Pål - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
