No, No, No! Your Gear is ALL Wrong!

[Jamie Pillers]

I stopped reading after Point 1.
Not sure if this is a troll. but...
Film cameras do make you a better photographer.
Mary Ellen Mark and Elliot Erwitt agreed as well.

Nick is definitely not a troll. He's been in charge of RFF's "Put Up the Targets and See if Anyone Can Knock Them Down" department for years. (As always, thank you, Nick.)

And to add my contribution to this excellent nonsense, I'll repeat what I recently posted elsewhere: As a test, I just finished printing photos at 17"x22", one from each of the following type camera sensors: full frame (Nikon Df), APS-H (SD Quattro H), APS-C (Fuji X-T2), m4/3 (GX85), 1" (Nikon 1 V3), and 1/1.7" (Canon S95). I found that at normal viewing distance to prints on the wall, there's no substantive difference. At least no difference from an art-viewing point of view. I'm sure a pixel peeper would find faults, but for me, not much. And it turns out that the one print from the test that I'm going to frame for our walls is the one from the little Canon S95 file. 🙂

 

[sepiareverb]

And it turns out that the one print from the test that I'm going to frame for our walls is the one from the little Canon S95 file. 🙂

Clearly a mistake. :angel:

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Clearly a mistake. :angel:

Whenever the wife chooses, it cannot be a mistake! 😛

 

[PKR]

I am well. Alive is a great condition to suffer 😉

All this camera and megapixel talk seems akin to the ponies before the cart to me.

Yeah, hardware.. if you look at all the great pictures that have been taken, few would wonder about what camera they were made with. Large vs smaller format sometimes comes up among photographer friends, but even that is pretty rare.

When sensors got to a clean 12 MP, I quit worrying about digital quality. Our time is better spent with image content, but, you know that !

Now, camera strap color, that's serious stuff..

Good to hear your healthy and happy.

pkr

 

[skopar steve]

Whenever the wife chooses, it cannot be a mistake! 😛

Aint that the truth!

This is a very entertaining thread.

 

[BlackXList]

This is about the third time I have read Nick disparage Canon sensors, and I have no reason to doubt his personal sincerity.

I'm still waiting, however, for a Canon user to push back on this assertion.

- Murray

Canon user, fully bought in, multiple bodies etc.

Canon sensors have lagged behind.

 

[BlackXList]

As a Canon 6D user (as well as Nikon Df, D600 and D610 former user) I am happy to disagree with Nick's assertion that Canon sensors are pants. There is a world of difference between DXO's tests and real world usage and in the real world I've always found Canon's sensors to be just fine (former user of Canon 5D, 5Dii, 40D, 60D). At high ISO the 6D is on par with the Df and better than the D600/D610. Overall, image quality from Nikon or Canon won't let you down and other features should probably drive your brand choice. As I said in my previous post, how lucky are we to have so much choice and at reasonable prices (moot, I know).

They aren't "pants" but they have lagged behind in terms of Dynamic range, and there's a truly embarrassing number of the consumer models that have the same sensor over a period of years while other manufacturers were making improvements.

 

[Bill Clark]

Canon works just fine for me.

Even my old 20D from 2004 still works great.

I only capture with RAW. Easy peasy to process with my iMac and ACR.

 

[Michael Markey]

Canon user, fully bought in, multiple bodies etc.

Canon sensors have lagged behind.

Canon user ,currently a 5d3.
Also use Sony sensors in an A7S and A7R2.

They`re different but I do like the Canon sensor oh and the 12mp A7S sensor.
Sometimes the A7R2 has too much resolution for my taste but I don`t fret about any of this to be honest .
I just use whatever I pick up …. I`m more concerned about the shot ie will the content be there.

 

[Axel]

...
I just use whatever I pick up …. I`m more concerned about the shot ie will the content be there.

Agree, so I do.
And Canons all do their jobs very fine. From cheap Rebels to 5/6D.

 

[Michael Markey]

Yes it’s amazing how easy and intuitive Canons are .
It’s no wonder that half the world uses them .

 

[Axel]

I think Canon makes the cameras of this age.
Nothing special but fully useable.
When it goes particular others like Fuji or Sony or others may perform better.

But how much does this matter?

😉

 

[PKR]

I think Canon makes the cameras of this age.
Nothing special but fully useable.
When it goes particular others like Fuji or Sony or others may perform better.

But how much does this matter?

😉

The better camera is the one you're most comfortable using. The one that will get used to make photos you like. The rest is bs, in my opinion. Most modern digital cameras will produce good technical results. The sensor size may be critical for some, in some critical usage. But, 95% of the time, the camera you like, is the one you will/should use, regardless of sensor size or photo site population.

 

[lukitas]

Often, 'the best' does not have the right qualities for what a person needs. And 'good enough' is better than 'the best'.
When I was a bare-faced youngling, Hasselblad was 'the best', but almost any 35mm camera of the era was way better, because they were good enough, lighter, faster and more versatile.
To my perverse mind, none of the nikons proposed are good enough. Too big, awkward controls and ugly.
Sorry Nick, but you're wrong.

 

[sepiareverb]

Whenever the wife chooses, it cannot be a mistake! 😛

I often hear the old "Happy wife , happy life" saying 'round here.

 

[Archiver]

I'm going to go against the crowd here and say that Nick's rant is disturbingly compelling. I've never really looked at Nikon before because I was first with Canon, and after my escape from DSLR's, never really looked back. But the notion of a very inexpensive full frame DSLR with a handful of fast, high quality and inexpensive primes is intriguing.

 

[Michael Markey]

and after my escape from DSLR's, never really looked back. But the notion of a very inexpensive full frame DSLR with a handful of fast, high quality and inexpensive primes is intriguing.

Exactly what I went through …. I still don`t like the bulk but hey you can`t have everything.

Its like PKR says …. its the one that gets the pictures you like and the rest is BS.

 

[Barry Kirsten]

I can't help agreeing with Archiver... Nick has stated very honestly what many of us (myself included) are are in denial about, that analogue photography is dying. It depresses me that photography is heading slowly but surely toward a digital future, where everything is controlled by software algorithms of which most of us have no understanding and the skill involved is not with the hands on a film or print but in knowing how to use a mouse.

 

[DanskDynamit]

47 seconds that will never come back...

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

Oh c'mon. I was the biggest film advocate out there, insisted on shooting it and defended it as "superior" well into the digital era. That was me. Had film cameras -- mostly rangefinders, in every corner of my man-cave. Rolled my own on spent cartridges given to from the (closed -- now a bird feeder store) camera shop down the street. Am no strager to Jobo tanks, D76, and Dektol. Was the "hipster" guy shootig a giant Yashica GSN (every so often an old guy stopping me saying, "I had one of those!") at events when everyone else was clicking their digital point-n-shoots (now also obsolete) or cell phones. Do note, I have nearly 3,000 posts on this forum.

However, it's obviously obsolete. I'll save that rant possibly for another day. However, there is a reason why Kodak is in the sorry shape it's in, and why very few new film cameras are still made. Why -- despite living in a suburb of a major city with a population larger than many US states, I now have to mail out rolls of color prints when I could walk 1/4-1/2 mile in any direction and have film processed and color prints made not s' long ago. Why it's disappeared from the shelves and I have to order film online. Why very few pro's still use it. Why not really that young people -- not kids, may have never even seen an actual film camera in their lives.

There is such a thing as "wisdom of the crowd".

I stll keep a few cameras around -- let's see I have a Nikon AF L35, Pentax PC35 AF, an Olympus XA, and a Fujica Compact Deluxe and have some rolls in the fridge. (Do note -- these are small cameras except for the Fuji. If there's one advantage small format still has it's "full frame in your pocket".) I get it. But let's get real.

You might be right, perhaps you're wrong, either way you were a lot more interesting when you were posting about film camera stuff, Nick. This topic is as boring as bat****. By all means argue your case, if you must, but try talking to your audience, and not at them (which really is what your first post did).
Best,
Brett