It has nothing to do with the camera.
It has everything to do with the camera.
More than once I have heard someone compliment a photographer by saying “You must have an amazing camera!”. It’s somewhat of a backhanded compliment, after all a quality photograph is one with excellent lighting, well composed, and of course interesting. All aspects of which have little to do with which camera is being used.
[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”You must have a really nice camera” is an insult.[/pullquote]
When does a good camera make a difference, and when is it irrelevant? I never found clear answers to these questions when I started in photography. For a long time I always chased the newest camera in hopes that it would marginally improve my photography. For the most part, it made little difference. Sure, with each newer generation of DSLR the focus would be a little faster and accurate, the auto-exposure modes would be slightly improved, the cameras would write to the cards slightly faster, have higher burst modes, and improved resolution. Again though, none of these things really make for a superior photograph, except the marginal improvement in exposures when in ‘automatic’ mode.
[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Things changed dramatically when I purchased a Canon 7D. [/pullquote]
I had little interest in photography, but was blown away by the high definition video I was seeing on the internet. This 7D shot video that looked Hollywood, and I wouldn’t of been able to explain what that meant at the time, but I was really blown away. I can remember the first video I saw was Philip Bloom’s “Skywalker Ranch” video on Vimeo.com. He used both a Canon 7D and a Canon 5D Mark II and shot such amazingly beautiful footage.
The next video I saw was “Reverie” by Vincent Laforet. It was shot entirely on a 5D Mark II, with what he claimed had no post-processing. The footage straight out of the camera was again stunning.
The reason I mention these videos was because a benchmark had been set for all future video shot on these fancy new DSLR cameras. When I tore open the box of my new 7D and flipped on the 1080P video feature and started shooting away, I quickly realized I wasn’t very good at cinematography. I realized the camera wasn’t going to make a bit of difference, as I was using the same cameras as these pro’s, but everything I produced was dull and uninteresting.
[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]…everything I produced was dull and uninteresting.[/pullquote]
This experience somehow subconsciously traversed to photography. I realized many of my favorite photos, such as old Ansel Adam’s black and white photos were all shot on old film cameras. An extra megapixel isn’t what made the difference, nor was it having additional points of auto-focus or a good automatic mode. All of this inspired learning about what cameras can and can’t do, and that is the purpose of this article, to share when you should and shouldn’t upgrade a camera.
This picture below shot on a Canon 10D, that is now twelve years old. I needed a cheap but effective camera in my shop, and I purchased it with a 18-55 lens on Ebay for $200 two years ago. The picture below was shot to demonstrate to the subject how with a fast shutter speed motion could be frozen. I was personally blown away when I brought the picture up and saw it on the big screen. I knew with a strong understanding of the manual settings, it’s quite easy to make any DSLR take a great picture, but just didn’t realize how that old technology was still so capable.
When the Camera Makes All the Difference
One thing that makes many pictures look ‘pro’ is a shallow depth of field. That’s when a subject is clear and sharp and everything around the subject is blurred. It’s an effect you typically won’t get with a point and shoot or a camera phone. It’s the result of the larger lenses used on DSLR-style cameras, there is a little more involved, but I will save it for a similar article regarding DSLR lenses. I could never of taken a picture that would look like that above with best iSight iPhone camera! However, shallow depth-of-field is not always desirable in a photo, for example when taking a picture of a landscape, typically you want everything in sharp focus. In this instance, especially on the web you will begin to have a very hard time separating a well composed photo from a cell phone, compared to a well composed photo with an old DSLR, or perhaps even a new high-end DSLR when looking at a Facebook photo.
The picture above was taken in the dark of night, and that is the moon, not the sun. Because of how significantly larger the sensor is in a DSLR vs. a phone or point-and-shoot, one thing that a DSLR can achieve that these other devices can’t even begin to touch is low-light performance. The above picture would simply be a noisy black photo if I tried taking it with my iPhone. With each new generation of DSLR’s, the low-light performance increases significantly. As a wedding photographer, this ability to shoot photos in dark rooms and low-light, while still achieving a noise-free bright picture is essential! For most consumers using a pop-up flash, this feature serves little purpose.
The above picture was taken with a vintage 40-year old Yashica MAT-124G TLR camera. I found film on Amazon, and for more information see this post. The detail on this photograph when blown-up to full size, runs circles around my Canon 5D Mark III professional DSLR. These old film cameras can be had for a few hundred dollars on Ebay. Obviously, it’s a much different cost structure shooting film, but the point is that the ‘latest and greatest’ in digital cameras isn’t necessarily going to shoot a picture better than all the cameras that came before it!
The Camera Doesn’t Make a Difference
The iPhone 6S camera offers optical image stabilization and a ridiculous burst mode, one that far surpasses my DSLR cameras! I don’t often use burst mode in most of my photography, but if you’re into sports, your newer cell phone will probably blow away most DSLR cameras when it comes to fast and long bursts.
Resolution is something that could probably be a post of its own. Marketing has created an illusion that more megapixels means a better or sharper photo. Megapixels has absolutely nothing to do with how sharp a photo ends up, it’s not clearer, it’s not better, it’s simply bigger. There was a time, at the birth of digital cameras that the megapixels were so low, you’d find it difficult to print a 4×6 photo that looked decent. Today, nearly any camera can produce a perfect 4×6, 5×7, or 8×10 photo. Adding 50 megapixels does nothing to change that 4×6, 5×7, or 8×10 photo. So, when does resolution make a difference? If you are shooting a model for a billboard wrapping a building in Times Square, you best be using a medium or large format camera with stupid high megapixels! Other than that, megapixels do very little. There is however one exception, and that’s the ability to make significant crops without losing picture quality.
[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]If you are shooting a model for a billboard wrapping a building in Times Square, you best be using a medium or large format camera. [/pullquote]
Imagine a digital photo to be a giant puzzle. If you framed that giant puzzle and hung it on the wall, you could pull a few pieces out here and there. From far away you wouldn’t notice the missing pieces, you could probably take dozens if not a hundred small pieces from a 10,000 piece puzzle, and from a 1000 ft. away no one would ever know. As you get closer, the individual pieces become bigger and more noticeable. If it was a 4-piece puzzle, and you took 2 pieces away, half the puzzle would be gone and it would look ridiculous.
A digital photo is the same concept when cropping. The more you crop, the more significant the pixels in the middle become, as there are less of them now. Very high megapixel counts allow you to crop photos significantly, and still be able to print that crystal clear 8×10 photo. This is not really a likely scenario, as you should be framing pictures close to what the end result should be in the camera to begin with. On occasion though, I will find a gem in a portion of a picture, and will consider making a significant crop to change the point the eye is drawn too from the original photo. It’s nice to have the overheard available in these instances.
While there are some things I can do with the latest technology, that without it would be impossible, the majority of shots can be achieved with virtually any DSLR camera, even the twelve year old 10D, or the Canon D30 from 2001 (my first DSLR). There is still a pretty stark difference between DSLR’s of any age, and point-and-shoot or cell phone cameras. Cell phone cameras have improved significantly over the past five years alone. I find my iPhone 6S shoots photos superior to a few point-and-shoot models I own just a few years older. It’s so good in fact, I wonder why the point-and-shoot market still exists? The best camera is the one in your hand, and for most people today their cell phone is always in their hand.
[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The iPhone 6S shoots photos superior to a few point-and-shoot models I own just a few years older.[/pullquote]
If you are just getting started and looking to get a ‘pro’ look, I’d start with a cheap used DSLR. If you insist on new, the least expensive new Canon or Nikon DSLR is going to serve to teach you everything you need to know about photography. The core dials, buttons, and settings remain virtually unchanged over every generation. Once you learn all these concepts, you can easily jump to any camera of any brand and still have great creative control without having to think too much.