Nature's Pencil: Equipment: Advice
"In itself a camera is not creative. In inspired hands it is a means for creative expression. Prizewinning cameras and cameras that can do everything exist only in the world of advertisements. There are only prize winning photographers. Meaningful pictures can be made with a camera of any kind or size. Great photographs have been taken with a lowly box. Some cameras are more suitable to certain types of work or more versatile than others. But - and this is a point that cannot be emphasised too much - it is the photographer's imagination and his ability to see in terms of photography that are important, and not the equipment he uses to express his ideas" [ Andreas Feininger. The Complete Photographer. 1966 ]
What is a camera for?
If you find yourself with lots of equipment, and wondering what to photograph, then you have got things back-to-front. Photography is not an end in itself: it is a medium for communicating your ideas and sharing your view of the world. A camera is not an end in itself: it is a tool to serve other purposes.
Choosing Cameras and Lenses
There is no such thing as the perfect or "best" camera. There is certainly no universal camera that is suited to every kind of subject and every situation. In any case, the "best" camera is not what you should be looking for. What you need is equipment that is suitable for you, for some clear purpose. You cannot begin to choose a camera and lenses until you know what you want to photograph and what you intend to do with the resulting images.
There are hundreds of books and web sites that describe the different types of camera and lens, an explain what you can and can't do with them. You need information like that, but it is useless unless you know what you want to achieve.
It is always a good idea to try before you buy if you can. Something that looks wonderful in a review might be less so in real life. Something that suits me or some reviewer perfectly might drive you to distraction (and vice versa). Think too about how the items you acquire will work together as a system.
To decide on the right camera(s) and lens(es) you need ask yourself questions like:
- Why am I taking/making photographs?
- Am I trying to communicate my own vision, or that of a client?
- What am I going to do with the results? Make a family album? Sell prints? Supply stock libraries? Newspaper editorial? Publish on the web?
- Do I want to photograph a narrow specialism or a range of subjects? If the latter do I want to use the same kind of camera for everything, or different equipment for different subjects?
- What conditions will I be photographing under?
- How tough does my equipment need to be? And how long-lasting?
- How much weight am I prepared to carry?
- Do I want the ultimnate technical quality, or am I prepared to sacrifice some quality for convenience?
- How much can I afford (or am prepared) to spend?
When the answers to questions like these are clear then choices like film/digital, aspect ratio, technical/SLR/rangefinder, auto/manual focus, appropriate focal lengths, fast/slow lenses, primes/zooms, etc. will become clear.
How much equipment do you really need?
Less than you might think!
One of my heroes Joe Cornish carries 5 lenses along with his Ebony 5"x4" camera, but he only really needs one of them! Most of the pictures in his fantastic book "First Light" were taken with a 90mm lens - equivalent to 28mm in 35mm photography. Another of my favourite photographers, Richard I'Anson, reckons to carry six or seven lenses with his 35mm Olympus cameras, but makes nearly all of his published shots with just two: a 24mm and a 100mm. Nearly everyone could get by with not more than three lenses. Despite once having cupboards full of equipment I have made 90% of all my photographs with a modest wide angle. In 35mm format that means a 35mm lens: formerly a 35mm shift lens on a Nikon SLR - latterly a 35mm f/2 on a Leica M .
Whatever your branch of photography, it is a good idea to acquire only what you really need.