Canon or Nikon? Film or digital? SLR or rangefinder? Cheap compact point and shoot you’d find at a thrift store? So many choices out there, so little funding to able to try out everything the camera world has to offer. I’ve been through several systems ranging from SLR to DSLR to compact to LOMO to rangefinders and I’ve even got my hands on a couple medium format cameras. It’s not so much like Harry Potter where your wand chooses you. In this day and age, you want to do your research… otherwise you end up with a lemon. Oh, if only they had the “lemon law” for used cameras. I’ve digressed.
With all my extensive “research,” I’ve come to realize that there is no better or worse (at least in most cases). It didn’t matter at all what I was using. All my photos came out with the same result. It was that revelation had me take a step back. I had to reassess everything I thought I knew so far. Here I was spending damn near all my money on new gear and nothing about my photos changed.
I can’t tell you how many photogs I’ve encountered that have boasted stellar setups only to have less than stellar photos. There has to be a point where you have to stop worrying about the latest and greatest. You have to stop worrying about megapixels, “this camera has wifi,” and “it can shoot X amount of frames per second.” That’s all well and good for a seasoned professional, but if your work is coming up bland like Aunt Rita’s turkey then you’ll have to reevaluate, simplify, and start back at the basics. Remember…salt and pepper can go a long way. Getting fancy and burying it in saffron is just absurd.
You have to just use what was best for you. Make do with what you’ve got. Ignore all the trends. You’ll possibly go through countless DSLR(s) and mirrorless cameras because of said gear-whoring. In the end, you’ll find that you enjoyed rangefinders the most. An old, dated 1970s rangefinder. You’ll get that “AH-HA” moment. That’s basically what happened to me. My RF is usually at my hip nowadays. On occasion, I’ll carry around my compact point and shoot but you will usually find me out and about with an RF.
Why did i choose a rangefinder? For me, a rangefinder strips away all the frills and simplifies damn near everything. I’m sure I’d be able to say that about any camera, but to me RF(s) stood out. Don’t get me wrong as I still like taking my SLR out from time to time. Essentially I feel like each camera has its time and place. When I am shooting street photography, I’d prefer the stripped down simplicity of a rangefinder. Coupled with the good ol’ “F8 and be there” I’d only have composition to worry about when I fire the shutter. When I do portraits, I tend to choose an SLR just because I get to see exactly what the lens sees and I get to avoid the dreaded (ok not so dreaded) parallax error that you’d get sometimes (only when you’re too close to a subject) with an RF. To reiterate, this is for me.
Some greats have been known to use either one of the systems (SLR, DSLR, mirrorless, RF, etc). One renowned fashion/portrait photographer, by the name of Terry Richardson, was known to do a lot of shooting on a compact point and shoot. Yes, he would do actual campaigns with a film point and shoot. That goes to show you don’t need any high end system. It’s all about the end product. At the end of the day, you just need to develop your eye and essentially enjoy what you’re doing.
When it comes down to it, you work with what’s best for you. You don’t work with what next best thing is out or what your friend has. You use whatever the hell gets you out there creating. You get the camera that makes photographing fun. You wield whichever instrument that’ll get you the result that your soul is trying to convey. Whatever will get you to that feeling of Zen is what you should have in your arsenal. Whether it be film or digital, mirrorless or even just a phone camera…JUST HAVE FUN.
http://visualrez.com/visual-resonance/2018/2/5/choosing-your-weapon
