[Gary Bagshawe]

Ive just found this great article on why you should not worry about what kit you have. My favourite part is about a guy who when asked what the best wide angle lens was, he replied "two steps back and wait for the ah ha,

Your Camera Does Not Matter © 2005 Ken Rockwell

[Steve]

Ken writes some great articles and is often very blunt with the truth

[stevec]

great article. so if getting better kit is no good and only my talent will improve
my shots do I give up now or what

[northernstar]

A very interesting piece of reading!

[silkstone]

Ken Rockwell seems to provoke either great admiration or hatred, but I like reading his articles because, at the very least, they are thought-provoking.

As usual, in this one he makes the same point rather too often, but IMHO he's basically right. You need a certain standard of equipment to produce certain types of photo - taking a few steps back instead of using a wide-angle lens isn't a good idea if you say "Aaaaarrgghh!" instead of "ah ha" because you happened to be on the edge of a cliff, but in many cases you can get by with far less than you crave.

There's a recent post here about 'wet developing' and whether that experience helps with digital photography. I'd suggest that some experience of manual cameras - before the days of auto-everything - is probably of more use, since it stops you from expecting the camera's electronics to get it right all the time and substitute for your judgement.

Another 2p, totally free.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by silkstone

There's a recent post here about 'wet developing' and whether that experience helps with digital photography. I'd suggest that some experience of manual cameras - before the days of auto-everything - is probably of more use, since it stops you from expecting the camera's electronics to get it right all the time and substitute for your judgement.

Another 2p, totally free.

Agree totally re the "manual" experience. My little Olympus OM-1 SLR taught me eveything I know..... ok not that much, but enough

[orangepeel]

Originally Posted by silkstone

Ken Rockwell seems to provoke either great admiration or hatred, but I like reading his articles because, at the very least, they are thought-provoking.

As usual, in this one he makes the same point rather too often, but IMHO he's basically right.

Yeah I tend to agree. He is a bit forceful in his writting style.

Also I think he's talking about asthetics rather than technicalities. Not everyone picks up a camera for arty reasons. I certainly didn't. I got mine coz I had a job to do.

Originally Posted by silkstone

I'd suggest that some experience of manual cameras - before the days of auto-everything - is probably of more use, since it stops you from expecting the camera's electronics to get it right all the time and substitute for your judgement.

Or buy a 25 year old Nikkor lens from EBay coz you don't have a clue what you're looking at.
Kinda forces you to spin that dial to "M"

[Dave]

I remember Sean_Mcr posting an article along similar lines, of not using zoom lenses, as it makes you lazy. Something to be said of going back to basics sometimes if one's photography becomes a bit stale