Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
For the first time ever, since taking up photography nine years ago, I copped this comment from someone recently in regard to my M240. They'd been looking at the images I've posted on FB from my trip and really liked them and reasoned that obviously I'm just the monkey pressing the shutter ... and the camera does the rest. Trust Leica to provide me with a camera that brought this about ... it's never happened with anything else I've owned!
You can't really respond to this type of reasoning ... you just lick your wounds and walk away.
You can't really respond to this type of reasoning ... you just lick your wounds and walk away.
f16sunshine
Moderator
.... Or maybe they just don't know better.
To many people the difference between a photographer and a non-photographer is, .... a photographer has a camera and a non-photographer does not.
In that way of thinking... A good photographer has a good camera and a bad photographer has a bad camera.
In other words they were telling you that you're a good photographer (which of course is true!!).
To many people the difference between a photographer and a non-photographer is, .... a photographer has a camera and a non-photographer does not.
In that way of thinking... A good photographer has a good camera and a bad photographer has a bad camera.
In other words they were telling you that you're a good photographer
(which of course is true!!).
Timmyjoe
Veteran
Yeah Keith, if you'd been shooting with a Nikon or a Canon, and the images were great, then it would be obvious that you're a really good photographer, 'cause everyone knows Nikons and Canons are pieces of #*%$. But with a Leica, man any idiot can get great pictures. It's really cool how the M240 has that built in algorithm for fixing composition, exposure, backgrounds, etc.
Great pictures, great photographer.
Best,
-Tim
Great pictures, great photographer.
Best,
-Tim
siracusa
Well-known
Wonder if they also think Leonardi da Vinci had a good brush, Hemingway had a good typewriter, and sergio Pininfarina had an excellent pencil...
It's not just total ignorance about photography, it's also mindless consumerism (the idea that talent and hard work don't count, results can be bought).
As Andy says though, they were right you're a damn good photographer and also right that it is a damn good camera (just a shame everything else they said was nonsense)
It's not just total ignorance about photography, it's also mindless consumerism (the idea that talent and hard work don't count, results can be bought).
As Andy says though, they were right you're a damn good photographer and also right that it is a damn good camera (just a shame everything else they said was nonsense)
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
The thing I that I found amusing was that the person in question wouldn't know a Leica from a bar of soap ... so the comment wasn't really driven by the brand, just a narrow perception of what it actually takes to create a decent image.
Sigh!
Sigh!
Thardy
Veteran
<<< irony >>>
daveleo
what?
Well, you know, at least they complimented the images, even if they got the underlying reason wrong.
jaapv
RFF Sponsoring Member.
Don't be coy. You HAD set it to Cartier Bresson mode in the menu, hadn't you?
alan davus
Well-known
I'd just take the comment as a compliment Keith and be done with it.
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
Don't be coy. You HAD set it to Cartier Bresson mode in the menu, hadn't you?
Of course! ... I found it much better than the 'Ansel Adams' setting. Those pics just weren't decisive enough.
neonart
Established
I love it when people say "Your camera takes awesome photos!"
Like f16sunshine said, we should try to take those comments as compliments, but sometimes I think people really believe that if they just bought some fancy camera their photography would improve...
Set it to iAutoAwesome and your off to photography greatness!
Like f16sunshine said, we should try to take those comments as compliments, but sometimes I think people really believe that if they just bought some fancy camera their photography would improve...
Set it to iAutoAwesome and your off to photography greatness!
back alley
IMAGES
like telling the cook they must have a great stove...
thegman
Veteran
For some people, it would. My girlfriend and I both take photos, she with her iPhone, me with film cameras. We both took photos of the 12 Apostles in Victoria, Australia. I used a 4x5 camera, her with her iPhone. The photos are basically the same, only difference being the night/day difference in image resolution/quality.
She's taken a lot of other photos too, many of them really quite good, but 100% of them let down by the crappy camera built into her phone. It's terrible in even slight darkness, practically no ability to capture highlights and shadows at the same time.
Of course we're comparing extremes here, but I've seen first hand that a bad camera can indeed mean that a good photographer has a hard time taking a decent picture. A $200 used DSLR would easily be enough though.
Lauffray
Invisible Cities
Here's a fun story. The other day I showed my website to someone and they asked me what kind of computer I used to make it and what kind of software could they use to make one like that.
I don't get upset over comments like that, because I know that what we do and the process of it are so opaque to people it probably looks like some button pushing voodoo.
I don't get upset over comments like that, because I know that what we do and the process of it are so opaque to people it probably looks like some button pushing voodoo.
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
Don't get me wrong ... I do see it as a compliment, it just amuses me that people (some) do seem to regard the camera as paramount when viewing the final result of a photographer's hard work.
truefriendship
Well-known
Can you post the image, so we can see how good t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶m̶e̶r̶a̶ ̶i̶s̶ you are?
~Rif
~Rif
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
Can you post the image, so we can see how good t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶a̶m̶e̶r̶a̶ ̶i̶s̶ you are?
~Rif
These were just all the pics I took in outback Queensland a few weeks ago. Stunning country side ... you'd have to be blind not to take a few decent pics out there!
Thardy
Veteran
These were just all the pics I took in outback Queensland a few weeks ago. Stunning country side ... you'd have to be blind not to take a few decent pics out there!
So then it IS the camera.
