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‹ Photo Notes · 15 ledna, 2012
I’ll start with a detour. When I used to go play in a bar as a teenager, my older colleague and friend Dalibor Filip played the guitar Diamant, which was very widespread here at the time. It was a Czech copy of the famous Gibson Les Paul, affordable for Czechs. Although he played excellently, he kept cursing his Diamant. One night, after several bottles of wine, he said something to the effect of: „I keep grumbling, but it probably isn’t just the guitar; if Eric Clapton came in here now, he would probably show us that you can play on this junk“.
Although I disagree with the opinion that equipment doesn’t matter (equipment should certainly not limit the author, and everyone will surely appreciate quality technical background), even the best equipment won’t make a photo on its own, it only makes our way forward easier.
The choice of this or that camera brand is, just as with guitars, entirely subjective. In fashion there were clearly the brands Fender and Gibson, but at eighteen I picked up a (bass guitar) Peavey T-40 and the first impression was enough that I never swapped it. Later, for the same reason, I got an Ibanez acoustic. When I was deciding a few years ago between Canon and Nikon SLRs, I was almost decided on Canon. One of the reasons was also the fact that many of my friends owned Canon, which meant the possibility of occasionally borrowing something. Then a colleague lent me a Nikon and, as with my guitars, it was decided. The feeling in the hand was simply different. After a few years I briefly considered switching to Canon – the reason was one model whose parameters dazzled me. The awakening came when I took the camera in my hand. I simply can’t get rid of the subjective impression that all Canons without exception feel plasticky and cheap, whereas with Nikon I have the feeling of something honest and almost indestructible. The switch didn’t happen.
So it is all just about feeling and sympathies; any arguments about output quality or lenses etc. are secondary, from every brand you can get very good and entirely sufficient equipment. In the end you will always find out anyway that you have to make the photo yourself …
… because even the best guitar doesn’t play by itself.