Nikon's: A photographer is only as good as the equipment he uses!!!


Haha....why are people getting so angry over a simple comment? Chill down. I think a better phrase would be "a good equipment helps to bring out the potential of photographers." <-- buy canon!

LOL just joking.
 

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How is this for specific?
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/through-my-eye-not-hipstamatics/

The newspaper that employs him publishes his own comments on this.

If really want to argue about this, at least go read up a little on it. LOL
Ok, this should be the first post that you link to me instead of going one big circle and now coming back to being specific..
anyway, it was a great discussion but my point of view has not change, facts shows that.. ie, equipment does matter..
 

Ok, this should be the first post that you link to me instead of going one big circle and now coming back to being specific..
anyway, it was a great discussion but my point of view has not change, facts shows that.. ie, equipment does matter..

whatever... LOL
 

Now everyone keeps talking about NIKON. Thats the idea, make a 'controversial' statement, and gets everyone attention. NIKON this NIKON that.......they are sitting back and smiling, NIKON goes viral
 

"photographer is only as good as the equipment he uses, and a" should be well deleted from the post...

A dumb act from a random staff doesn't represent Nikon in anyway I hope...:nono:

Peace people...
 

Nikon has made apology. Anyway there is no need to force one's belief down the other's throat. Everyone is entitled to his own thinking.

We know some of you took offense to the last post, and we apologize, as it was not our aim to insult any of our friends. Our statement was meant to be interpreted that the right equipment can help you capture amazing images. We appreciate the passion you have for photography and your gear, and know that a great picture is possible anytime and anywhere.
 

rasdeep said:
if he sold all his gear, he retires so would he cares if he is still the best photographer in the world?

He cares or does not care is not the point. Will he become the worst photographer just because he does not have any gear capable of photography that he owns? That is the matter in discussion. Dont sidetrack and confuse yourself.
 

Somehow when a company says BBBug, it feels like they are trying to chop my carrot head.
 

Nikon has made apology. Anyway there is no need to force one's belief down the other's throat. Everyone is entitled to his own thinking.

We know some of you took offense to the last post, and we apologize, as it was not our aim to insult any of our friends. Our statement was meant to be interpreted that the right equipment can help you capture amazing images. We appreciate the passion you have for photography and your gear, and know that a great picture is possible anytime and anywhere.

I love it- but it's not possible with any equipment.

Because you still need 'the right equipment' for a great picture.

Glad their PR is still working. Where did you see this response?
 

not sure where it says iphone on there.. but if thats the case, we should all retire our dslr and just shoot with iphones
there are certain things that is just impossible to do without the right equipment and that already is the limitation to the photographer

I think you are not addressing the point here.

The point here is that a photographer is not only as good as the equipment he uses. The man is separate from the machine. Photography is not all about sharpness, speed, dynamic range, things that a DSLR offers over a smaller sensor camera.

It is also about capturing the moment, previsualisation, conceptualisation, and many other things. Nikon's statement places way too much emphasis on a small closet of things out of the huge expense of factors that make a good photograph, or a good photographer.

A driver is only as good as his car.
A cook is only as good as his frying pan.
A pilot is only as good as his aeroplane.

But can a good driver do better than a lousy driver with equally crappy cars?
Can a good cook do better than a lousy cook with equally crappy frying pans?
Can a good pilot crash land a plane better than a crap pilot with a nosediving plane?

Putting so much emphasis on the equipment surely gives too little credit to the man behind the machine. I think that's the point that most people are disputing, not that we must all go around shooting with iPhones. That's a strawman argument that you're putting up - and what you say is true, but it does not address the issue at hand. Cheers.
 

He cares or does not care is not the point. Will he become the worst photographer just because he does not have any gear capable of photography that he owns? That is the matter in discussion. Dont sidetrack and confuse yourself.
the world is not just black or white, there are the in between like shades of grey. without his best gear, he will be handicap and that is fact.. whether he can still take great photos is just secondary.. besides without any gear, what is he going to take photos with? and since he sold all his gears, why is he still thinking of taking photos?
 

I love it- but it's not possible with any equipment.

Because you still need 'the right equipment' for a great picture.

Glad their PR is still working. Where did you see this response?

It can be found at Nikon Facebook, the place where the controversy began.
 

I think you are not addressing the point here.

The point here is that a photographer is not only as good as the equipment he uses. The man is separate from the machine. Photography is not all about sharpness, speed, dynamic range, things that a DSLR offers over a smaller sensor camera.

It is also about capturing the moment, previsualisation, conceptualisation, and many other things. Nikon's statement places way too much emphasis on a small closet of things out of the huge expense of factors that make a good photograph, or a good photographer.

A driver is only as good as his car.
A cook is only as good as his frying pan.
A pilot is only as good as his aeroplane.

But can a good driver do better than a lousy driver with equally crappy cars?
Can a good cook do better than a lousy cook with equally crappy frying pans?
Can a good pilot crash land a plane better than a crap pilot with a nosediving plane?

Putting so much emphasis on the equipment surely gives too little credit to the man behind the machine. I think that's the point that most people are disputing, not that we must all go around shooting with iPhones. That's a strawman argument that you're putting up - and what you say is true, but it does not address the issue at hand. Cheers.

too many ifs and buts just complicate things.. the simple fact is everything being equal.. best equipment does gives you an edge.

we are not comparing photographers skills here.. we are saying things being equal.. ie the same good photographer with an iphone / pns taking the same picture with iphone/pns vs taking with dslr.. the fact is the dslr has the edge over the pns.. the gap draws wider when higher iso is used
 

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too many ifs and buts just complicate things.. the simple fact is everything being equal.. best equipment does gives you an edge.

we are not comparing photographers skills here.. we are saying things being equal.. ie the same good photographer with an iphone / pns taking the same picture with iphone/pns vs taking with dslr.. the fact is the dslr has the edge over the pns..

Oh, so pray educate me, why does AP Photographer David Guttenfelder use his iPhone despite having all his professional equipment along?

http://gizmodo.com/5506772/war-through-an-iphone-camera-lens

Because he's lazy? If a good photographer has the iPhone and the DSLR by his side, but chooses the iPhone, are you so certain that a DSLR is always superior to an iPhone? :)
 

And another war photographer does it too.

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/finding-the-right-tool-to-tell-a-war-story/?ref=asia

You gotta tell me rasdeep, do you possess some mystical deep insight into photography that these seasoned war photographers who throw themselves into the thick of battle to bring back images from the frontline... Risking their lives to be there... Don't know? So they are all silly people, making the choice to be in hell, and while they're there, they decide to use the crappy camera they have?

By making your bold statement that a DSLR always has the edge over the iPhone, my only conclusion is that you have a very rigid mindset - that a photograph is all about being technically superior, about having superior image quality. That's not the case.

I could very well give you a good example. Someone has his DSLR the Nikon D3 with him, it has the most beautiful Nikon 14-24 mm lens mounted. Whoa, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful equipment. He is the best photographer in the world. It just happens that he has passed by a row of gates, with very, very, very narrow gaps in between. He witnesses a most magical moment. Doesn't matter what it is.. The fact is, he can use his Nikon D3 and Nikon 14-24mm lens to shoot it, but most of the scene that he wants, the magical result he wants in his mind is blocked by the parts of the gate... How he wishes he had a small PNS or even a camera phone with him, which would allow him to put his hand through, and have an unhindered view. But he doesn't.

That's just one example. You are right, there are many ifs, if you see that I don't see how you can claim that a DSLR is always superior. :bsmilie:

I rest my case.
 

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Another example for you...

Ansel Adams' Yosemite series.

Many photographers has tried to replicate his shots. As much as using the best gear, using software to triangulate his exact GPS location... spending months after months trying to achieve the same shots.

None has succeeded.

And what did Mr Adams use? compared to the gear of today?...

Happens to visit this and saw the interesting post on Nikon FB. My thinking is to just ignore it, people are all with different ideas about photography (Like me who views it more of a skill to produce a imaging item rather than an art), it doesn't matters as long as the end result is what we want ba.

About Ansel Adams, technically I would prefer to call his gears quite high end.(In a way he is "part of the high-end":bsmilie:) He uses a large format camera which some calls it a DINO, the tone and resolution of the film produced by the camera with a large open lens as big as Copal #3 is petty good. His camera also has a large amount of control which modern DSLR cannot fix without a Photoshop. An example will be the aligning of the film back to the view for distortion control.

The most important part of all is the film and paper developing and the film itself. The issue here is because there are very little people locally who are into darkroom and knowledge on chemical in developing films and paper.(They loves lab and scan, sending tons of slides to cross-process :think:) I won't talk about how fine a wet plate photography can get with the grain-less look. (I am hoping to do wet plate someday ;p) More of the chemical like the easily available D76 and HC110, you can actually have alot of ways to fine tune the chemical and produce a good low contrast photo while not losing detail and getting better result for print rather than pushing a stop plainly for that grainy cool looking feel. (I have developed B&W films that almost cover all 15-steps in a AGFA density step tablet) Good darkroom technique helps in compiling the almost 4.0D of image on the film into the paper as desirable contrast level.

While we are talking about consumer high tech equipment, I can still say that producing such image on digital is as hard as the past and could be even harder with the current CCD equipment. What we can look forward to is higher end equipment released to consumer at for affordable pricing and everyone is happy :)
 

And another war photographer does it too.

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/finding-the-right-tool-to-tell-a-war-story/?ref=asia

You gotta tell me rasdeep, do you possess some mystical deep insight into photography that these seasoned war photographers who throw themselves into the thick of battle to bring back images from the frontline... Risking their lives to be there... Don't know? So they are all silly people, making the choice to be in hell, and while they're there, they decide to use the crappy camera they have?

By making your bold statement that a DSLR always has the edge over the iPhone, my only conclusion is that you have a very rigid mindset - that a photograph is all about being technically superior, about having superior image quality. That's not the case.

I could very well give you a good example. Someone has his DSLR the Nikon D3 with him, it has the most beautiful Nikon 14-24 mm lens mounted. Whoa, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful equipment. He is the best photographer in the world. It just happens that he has passed by a row of gates, with very, very, very narrow gaps in between. He witnesses a most magical moment. Doesn't matter what it is.. The fact is, he can use his Nikon D3 and Nikon 14-24mm lens to shoot it, but most of the scene that he wants, the magical result he wants in his mind is blocked by the parts of the gate... How he wishes he had a small PNS or even a camera phone with him, which would allow him to put his hand through, and have an unhindered view. But he doesn't.

That's just one example. You are right, there are many ifs, if you see that I don't see how you can claim that a DSLR is always superior. :bsmilie:

I rest my case.
he chose iphone out of convenient and i think he is right to use that because in a war, lugging a dslr can be a hazard. if you insist that iphone does a better job, why are you using a dslr and not an iphone posting pics here? if you do no value a dslr, why are you even here? you using a dslr instead of pns tells me you are saying one thing but doing other..

and btw, dslr comes in many sizes.. nobody is asking you to bring a big ass camera out to show off
 

if you do no value a dslr, why are you even here? you using a dslr instead of pns tells me you are saying one thing but doing other..

I use my iPhone a lot, actually.

Sounds like if you had your way, this would be ClubDSLR, not Clubsnap. :bsmilie: