When the right camera meets the right photographer

Inspired by a post by Kirk Tuck and news of Canon’s EOS 1D X, I have decided to write this entry which has been on my mind for a while. Sure, the Canon 1D X is a monster with 14 frames per second shooting at ISO beyond 102400 at 18 megapixels. However, how many of you truly need such a performance? Be honest with yourself on that.

I cannot peg a date to this but I have long believed that it is the photographer who ultimately creates a good image and not the camera nor the lens they use. Throw a good photographer a junk camera and he/she will still make a good image out of it.

Yet at the same time, I contradict myself by constantly embracing medium format cameras like the Hasselblad V-series cameras and any digital backs I have come to use. I am so attached to these cameras that I can hardly see myself using any 35mm camera ever.

So what am I? A hypocrite or simply someone who cannot make up his damn mind?

I struggled a while coming up with an explanation for this contradiction. Then I began to look back at the various photography greats and began to realize something.

Henri Cartier Bresson was to rangefinders like what Ansel Adams and Richard Avedon were to large format cameras. When you give them the right camera to work with, amazing things start to happen.

Armed with a large format camera, Avedon was able to communicate with his subjects in a way not possible with other cameras and created iconic works like ‘In the American West’ portraits. Could Avedon have created works as good as his ‘In the American West’ series using a rangefinder?

Likewise for Adams, the large negatives that came out of large format cameras helped produce prints with immense clarity and tonal range. Could he have created works as good as his Yosemite series with a 35mm camera?

With a camera as discreet as the Leica, could Bresson have otherwise created his iconic works with a slow camera like a Hasselblad?

I have no doubt that at the end of the day, they will still be able to make good images out of whatever cameras you throw at them. But when the right camera makes its way into their hands, that is when somethings amazing happens.

To get to where these greats are, you need to first dig deep and ask yourself where is the art in your photography? Do you like to shoot discreetly on the streets or do you like to go out and shoot the great outdoor?

Too often, camera brands blindside consumers with the fact that you need all the features on their newer camera. For someone who traditionally shoots people, they tell you that you sometimes need video recording as well. For someone who traditionally shoots landscapes, they tell you that the higher the resolution, the better quality your photos are. Just when you think you have gotten the right camera, out comes along an even better camera that produces ‘better’ images.

I am glad that I have found the right camera system in the form of the Hasselblad V-series cameras and on occasions the Mamiya 645 AFD  in the fairly early stage of my photographic journey. I came to conclusion that video was redundant to me and all those additional frames per second and high ISO really do not matter at all since I shoot mostly landscapes at low SO and at long exposures as well as formal portraits in a studio.

The day YOU discover the right camera setup, you will also come to the realization that, the Canon 1D X isn’t really a big deal after all.

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