Does a photographer’s camera really matter? I doubt anyone asked Edgar Allen Poe what pen he used to write his short stories. Rarely would people ask Mozart what piano was used to write his symphonies. Every now and then people will ask what camera I am using, or they will say my camera “takes really nice photos.”
The camera helps, but the person behind the camera makes a bigger difference. You hand the same camera to two people, you get very different results.
I don’t talk about gear too much on this website… but sometimes I will.
I had a photo shoot with Pamela over the weekend and we spent about an hour creating portraits and some headshots. And everyone needs a little black dress, btw. And I used 2 different cameras. One is a 35mm sensor camera, the Canon 5DIII. I call it my big camera. It is pretty huge compared to the other camera, the Fuji X-E1. For the shoot I used a portrait/macro lens with pretty much the same effective focal length.
Pamela’s portrait shot on one of these cameras
99% of the people would not know the difference between the photographs. It isn’t till you are in Photoshop zoomed in at 200% that you might know the difference. In fact I find that I have to check the software’s metadata to see which camera I was using.
Each camera has its strengths and weaknesses. And I have an assortment of lenses and flashes for both. For my day to day I love to carry the Fuji because of the compact size and I don’t look like a professional when I carry it. In fact I can carry 5 lenses in the same bag that would hold a camera and 2 lenses for the Canon.
Fuji X-E1 vs Canon 5DIII
The one thing I would love of the Fuji, would be a little more resolution. However, for most everything I do, I have more than enough resolution from all my cameras.
Pamela’s portrait shot on one of these cameras
So the next time you see a photographer, don’t worry about what camera they are using. Just buy them a drink, they get thirsty 😉
