Blog Post #7

What is your best Camera ?

When it comes to cameras and photography equipment in general (lenses, tripods, bags etc.), there is a lot of snobbery and brand loyalty going on. There are people that stick to one brand and must have every new piece of kit that this brand produces. When I had my Nikon gear I was a bit like that and was never tempted to use third party lenses or accessories. Although this strategy has some technical credence to it, I eventually came round to realising that brand loyalty is a one way street. I couldn’t be bothered with all the “Who’s best, Nikon or Canon?” debates. These types of discussions are totally irrelevant and can deflect you from concentrating on using the kit rather than posing with it.

Amateur photography circles, clubs, societies etc., contain a lot of equipment geeks, “All the gear but no idea” types. They go out and buy equipment based on a name, not what they need for the type of photographs they want to take. Again, I have been guilty of that in the past too, but learned my lesson. There is a trap out there (probably similar in other hobbies), that seduces you into believing that if you buy the best equipment then you will have a better chance of being a great photographer. But don’t get me wrong. If people can justify spending over £6,000 on the latest Leica in order to get better quality in their images then I don’t have a problem. If however they are buying them because they think that having the camera with the red dot around their neck will impress other photographers then more fool them.

Another part of the problem is portability. You may have some stunning kit and plenty of it but are you really going to take it everywhere with you? You may even find yourself asking “what am I doing?”, having walked or stood around with a heavy SLR and zoom lens around your neck whilst balancing a bag of lenses and other “just in case” accessories off of your shoulder or on your back. It’s not pleasant and can often ruin the enjoyment of the place you are visiting or the event you are watching for example. It is therefore necessary in my book to choose your equipment to suit your need and if it means leaving your Leica gear on the shelf and slipping a compact camera in your pocket then so be it. I would always buy reputable quality equipment but I buy to suit a need now rather than any brand loyalty or keeping up with the latest gear.

So this brings me back to the blog title, “What’s your best camera?”. this is something photographers get asked from time to time and the answer is usually brand focussed and technical in nature. I prefer the answer given by the famous photographer Chase Jarvis who once said :

“The best camera you have is the one that's with you,”

To me, what he is saying is that if you see a photograph, no-matter what type of camera(s) you own its an irrelevance if it is sitting on a shelf at home. If the camera that you have at the time is an iPhone, Galaxy, or your SLR or mirrorless camera then you use what is at your disposal. That’s your best camera at that point in time.

Don’t get confused between your best camera and your preferred camera. I prefer to stick my Fuji X-100F in my pocket to carry around with me when not going out specifically to take photographs. My best camera however is the Fuji X-T3. I also use my iPhone camera a lot when I have neither and have no problem doing that. When I take iPhone photos though, they barely get seen without me having used the edit button, just like when I post-process images taken with my Fuji cameras. I may do a future blog on post processing camera phone images.

So that’s my take on cameras. Don’t be impressed by badges, logos, big lenses or snazzy bags. The person that gets the photo wins, and if that’s taken on a cheap camera, expensive camera or camera phone just because that’s what was available at the time, then so be it.

Thank you for reading this blog post, sorry but I don’t include a comments or “Like/Dislike” button. If you want to contact me you can do so by using the “Contact Me” facility in the website header.

Peter Degnan