The camera people are just as evil as the computer and handphone people. Perhaps just a smidgen-ly less wicked.
Why? Because ever so often, they come up with new models that make you hate the one you have now. And suddenly, the newest kid on the block becomes the latest must-have in this ugly cesspool of greed and wanton desire.
Sigh! =))
I have absolutely no problems with my current Nikon D70, except for maybe the kit lens which sometimes gives softer-than-desired pictures which have to be re-touched with a bit of contrast magic. And the by-now puny 1.5 inch LCD. You see my baby is a 1st generation DSLR, back when DSLRs were just beginning to be the
in thing for amateurs like me.
Well I am still an amateur. I would like to think I take decent basic shots but nothing fantastic
lah. You won't go like WOW!, WATTA SHOT!, like how I sometimes do when I see some of the photos uploaded on FlickR by fellow 'amateurs'. Or when I flip the coffee-table, pictorial tomes of National Geographic.
Which brings me to the age-old (ok not that age-old
lah) question of what makes a great picture. The Photographer or the Camera?
The resounding answer will probably be the photographer. I mean give a person who has 'The Eye' a basic Point-and-Shoot disposable and he/she can still produce good (but perhaps not great) shots. Give a hopeless bozo who cannot even keep his horizons straight a 20 megapixel, bell-and-whistled Digital Leica (if there is one!) and he'll still either make you tilt your head or the photo =))
But taking good (bordering on great) pictures involves having 'The Eye', a fantastic camera and 2 other things, Luck and Patience. Good Luck is bestowed when all the right conditions for that excellent shot fall into place the moment you want to take the picture. Light, weather, facial expression, subject placement,
et cetera. Patience is the virtue of waiting for these right conditions with your Eye and gear when luck leaves you =)) And believe you me, it can take days.
I am still honing that Eye and working on my patience. But with the Magnesium-alloyed Nikon D200 in my Crumpler sling-on, I hope to have at least a third of the battle won.
By Christmas 2007 =))