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Threebrows
- Messages
- 5,553
- Name
- Matt
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Hey all,
These past few months I have been wondering what to do about my kit; I had two Canon bodies and two prime lenses, the longer of which pretty much constantly sat in the boot of my car waiting for me to 'fancy' a trip to shoot nature. A few of you are aware that I am doing a 365 on my website, and I am 25 days in. My main aims of the 365 are to improve my photography and capture the world around me; I have always been fascinated (and in awe) of the ability of some togs to make any subject interesting and engaging. As a result of these aims, I have been taking my gripped 5D and 85 pretty much everywhere with me, but the weight and size was making taking the camera out restrictive and drew too much attention at certain times.
So, yesterday I spent a while trying to sort out where I want to go with photography, and assessing exactly why I own certain bits of kit. The two bodies was because I hated the thought of getting dust on my sensor when switching lenses. Result? a good £££ sat doing nothing for the bulk of the time. All because I didn't want to have to clean my sensor, or switch lenses; a fair enough justification for people who would use both cameras constantly but a bit of a waste for me.
I have been looking at smaller bodies since last christmas - the portability and functionality has always interested and tempted me, but (me being a bit of a tool) always thought 'well I dont want to be able to blame the equipment for a poor picture so will stick to DSLR'. I played around lots with a Canon G10 and a few other alternatives and found them to be too 'P&S' and not amazing picture performance compared to what my other kit can do.
Along cometh the micro four thirds range.... And again my tool like thoughts made me bias towards them and discount even without trying.
-Mistake! And totally wrong-
Last week the preverbial memory card droppped, and I thought - is it the equipment that produces the image, or the tog? Of course it is the tog! I have seen some absolutely amazing images taken on a Lomo camera or an iPhone! And so the reading began. The Leicas were tempting (although unfortunately way out of budget unless I offloaded all of my kit!) and the only other highly rated, in my price budget, small bit of impressive kit, was the Pen range.
Thursday was decision day and I decided to sell off one of my bodies, and invest in an Olympus E-PL1. I decided that the time had come - I define the strengths of a shot, and the camera only aids in this. If the money I had sat invested in the boot of my car could be put to better use then it definitely should be; and I would have to man up and start sensor cleaning!
My god am I glad I stopped being a tool and gave the Pen a chance. I played with one extensively in the shop and have been playing with the one I purchased since.
Oh my wotsits!!!... why did I EVER think that these couldn't produce exciting images?! DSLR bias, willy waggling with a massive camera, size matters; surely bigger=better? All of these I think. Couple that with the reason I take images... is it to be proud of the images I produce? Sure it is, but I was too focused on blaming/using the equipment and theory to get the best images I could, without paying enough thought to my own abilities.
It feels really refreshing to have taken ownership of my photography; I make the image and if it is poor, it is my fault and not the equipment I am using.
If I may quote Diego:
I feel exactly the same way about the pen. It has got me truly excited about photography again - I am itching to get out there and push this little beast!
Excuse the ramblings, but I needed a wake up call! I would love to hear of your experiences/transitions, and also your thoughts on the Pen range if you have one.
My name is Matt, and I am no longer a willy waggling equipment collecting whore of a togger!
These past few months I have been wondering what to do about my kit; I had two Canon bodies and two prime lenses, the longer of which pretty much constantly sat in the boot of my car waiting for me to 'fancy' a trip to shoot nature. A few of you are aware that I am doing a 365 on my website, and I am 25 days in. My main aims of the 365 are to improve my photography and capture the world around me; I have always been fascinated (and in awe) of the ability of some togs to make any subject interesting and engaging. As a result of these aims, I have been taking my gripped 5D and 85 pretty much everywhere with me, but the weight and size was making taking the camera out restrictive and drew too much attention at certain times.
So, yesterday I spent a while trying to sort out where I want to go with photography, and assessing exactly why I own certain bits of kit. The two bodies was because I hated the thought of getting dust on my sensor when switching lenses. Result? a good £££ sat doing nothing for the bulk of the time. All because I didn't want to have to clean my sensor, or switch lenses; a fair enough justification for people who would use both cameras constantly but a bit of a waste for me.
I have been looking at smaller bodies since last christmas - the portability and functionality has always interested and tempted me, but (me being a bit of a tool) always thought 'well I dont want to be able to blame the equipment for a poor picture so will stick to DSLR'. I played around lots with a Canon G10 and a few other alternatives and found them to be too 'P&S' and not amazing picture performance compared to what my other kit can do.
Along cometh the micro four thirds range.... And again my tool like thoughts made me bias towards them and discount even without trying.
-Mistake! And totally wrong-
Last week the preverbial memory card droppped, and I thought - is it the equipment that produces the image, or the tog? Of course it is the tog! I have seen some absolutely amazing images taken on a Lomo camera or an iPhone! And so the reading began. The Leicas were tempting (although unfortunately way out of budget unless I offloaded all of my kit!) and the only other highly rated, in my price budget, small bit of impressive kit, was the Pen range.
Thursday was decision day and I decided to sell off one of my bodies, and invest in an Olympus E-PL1. I decided that the time had come - I define the strengths of a shot, and the camera only aids in this. If the money I had sat invested in the boot of my car could be put to better use then it definitely should be; and I would have to man up and start sensor cleaning!
My god am I glad I stopped being a tool and gave the Pen a chance. I played with one extensively in the shop and have been playing with the one I purchased since.
Oh my wotsits!!!... why did I EVER think that these couldn't produce exciting images?! DSLR bias, willy waggling with a massive camera, size matters; surely bigger=better? All of these I think. Couple that with the reason I take images... is it to be proud of the images I produce? Sure it is, but I was too focused on blaming/using the equipment and theory to get the best images I could, without paying enough thought to my own abilities.
It feels really refreshing to have taken ownership of my photography; I make the image and if it is poor, it is my fault and not the equipment I am using.
If I may quote Diego:
I feel exactly the same way about the pen. It has got me truly excited about photography again - I am itching to get out there and push this little beast!
Excuse the ramblings, but I needed a wake up call! I would love to hear of your experiences/transitions, and also your thoughts on the Pen range if you have one.
My name is Matt, and I am no longer a willy waggling equipment collecting whore of a togger!
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GF1, every one was getting excited, but no decent EVF and the 20mm lens is often not convenient, plus a larger lens on such a small body looked and felt ungainly, the compactness vanished, what was the point:shrug: At the time the Pen had issues, now with the '2' sort of sorted . . . are they?
Commercial, perhaps not??? but how many of us need commercial . . . other than in our dreams?
