Matter of Perspective

I bought new camera.  Or rather, I bought an old camera.  In camera years it’s probably about 200 years old, but in actual fact was made in 2005.  5 years is a old for digital camera.  The hype around the latest-greatest is not always hype, but it does tend to bury many of the realities that truly matter – in the camera, that means that the lens is more important than the camera body, and that the eye of the photographer is more important than the equipment.  But generally the media would like you to think that it’s completely the other way around.

(images shot with my “new” D40: showing perspective, lighting, depth-of-field and other things photographers like to talk about)

With a less frugal budget you could bet a contract with National Geographic that I’d be out there buying a Nikon D700 with all the bells and whistles.  But since I don’t I made some choices that compromised where compromise is important, and didn’t where I shouldn’t.  Rather than duplicate what many, much more qualified people than myself have written (I’m a fan of Ken Rockwell), I’ll give you a just a quick run-through of my choices in the hopes that you may find it useful in pointing you in a good direction.

The body is just a body. It can do a lot of thing,s but at the end of the day 6 mega pixels will print 8×10′s without a problem.  Sure, more is better, and eventually you will want more as you become a better photographer, but on a budget, compromising the sensor size is the first thing.  Smaller sensor means you’ve got a body without the all the bells and whistle.  But if you wanted a camera that could play music, you’d own smart-phone.  Bells and whistle won’t help you take better photos if you have a crappy lens and an unpracticed eye.

Lenses are the key to a great photo.  Sharpness, speed, depth-of-field, light falloff, boken, distortion… the lens is a translator; taking an image and filtering it so that it can be captured by the camera body.  I can have a 21 mega pixel dSLR camera, but if the lens sucks, so will my photo.  I’ll just be able to blow it up to the size of a small stadium so everyone within a 100 miles can marvel at it’s mediocrity.

You are the final and most important ingredient to a photo. Perspective, lighting, timing, and interfacing with your subject are skills that go much deeper than your equipment.  It’s what happens when you see something in your mind’s-eye and are able to take that and make it a tangible piece of art that other’s can experience.  For me, it’s about capturing the emotion of a subject rather than just documenting the visuals.

So what did I purchase on a shoestring budget?  Here’s by list:

• Nikon D40 body (cira 2005): $285
• Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens: $200
• Tamron 11-16mm f2.8 lens: $600

Next on my list will be an external flash, probably the Nikon sb-900 and a good telephoto (haven’t decided on which one, but one of the f2.8 ones); in that order.

The body is old but solid.  When I have the cash I can trade up for a better body, maybe the latest D300s or it’s successor.  But the lens are basically pro lenses and I’ll never have to “upgrade” them.  They’ll always be first-class glass that will allow me to maximize whatever body I have in my hand.   And for now I can work on perfecting the truly important things – like my sense of perspective.