• Victor at Space - ISO 2000 why not? •

Aaaaand I’m back. Sorry for no content this past week or so. You know how it is. 

I got into an interesting discussion the other day with a friend of mine. Obviously over the past couple of years, the commonality of the DSLR has skyrocketed. You can now get yourself a “kit” (body/lens) for well under $1000 dollars and use said kit to generate amazing images on both a technical and aesthetic level. 

It has led to the ubiquity of the “guy with the camera” in nightclubs around the world. Some good, some amazing, and some (well, a lot) just not worth talking about in the grand scheme of things. 

And it’s the latter whom I see lusting for the upgrade, when they barely push the boundaries of their current kit. Now, there’s nothing wrong with wanting that 1-series body (hell, I want the 1DX when it drops in March 2012) but from a practical standpoint I think photographers have to really, sincerely ask themselves if they need an $8000 camera body. And, in the nightlife shooting world, the general answer is a big, fat, “no”, for most people. Including myself. 

I am by no means a well-financed-top-earning photographer. I make decent money shooting, but I still have to do other things (web development and testing) to afford the lifestyle I want. I’m fortunate that I don’t mind doing those other things, they are interesting to me. I think even when I earn the big bucks doing just photo and video work, I’ll keep my hands in the web development arena. Much like I used to do nightclub lighting, but I still stay current on the technology. 

But I’m digressing. Sort of. What I’m getting at is that I’ve always purchased the camera I could realistically afford, without having to eat cat food for a month. Like, way back when, sure, I could have gotten a 1-series body, but at a severe detriment to my lifestyle for a month. Plus I didn’t have the business to justify such a purchase. And also I didn’t do the type of shooting to warrant that kind of body. So of course I opted to stay to the “xxD” line (Canon’s midrange) of bodies. 

And I pushed them to the limit. From my 10D to my 30D to my 50D, I explored the limits of what each body could do. High ISOs? They are there for a reason. Canon determined that the performance at those levels was something useful, and left them in there. So I worked with them and worked with them well. Modern DSLRs, even the cheap ones, have amazing capabilities, and it’s sad to see people barely touch the limits, and even worse, treat the gear as a glorified point-and-shoot. Then suddenly through whatever mechanism, they step up to an MK II or a 1-series, and it’s the same point-and-shoot aesthetic. Run-and-gun, flash flash flash, god I’m blind!

I never balked at putting my 50D to ISO 6400. Sure it was noisy but if it meant getting the shot I wanted, I could deal with it. I read and hear today’s crop of photographers whining about noise. I’ve stated this before, but the noise is nothing compared to fifteen years ago. And my MK II at 6400 is amazing. Last month I lived dangerously and did a few images at 12800 and 25600. Noisy yes, but nothing I couldn’t worry about later. I got the shot, people liked it. “Color Night Vision”, one person termed it. 

What I’m saying is that gear lusting is fine, we all have it, but just look at whatever body you have now. It’s an amazing little piece of engineering. Turn the flash off, put it in manual mode, and push that ISO up to 3200 and beyond if you need to. The best camera in the world is the one you have on you at any given moment, and that’s half the fun. 

And if I see someone with a 1-series body using it as a glorified point-and-shoot again, well, we’ll probably have words at that point. 

Rant over. I’m hungry. I’ll be at the Publix on Biscayne and 48th if anyone wants to take a swing at me.