The Best Camera

Jul. 7, 2008

10:57 pm

Back in 2003, I got bit by the photography bug. Bad. As my wife recalls, this was during a period when she actually knew more about computers than me. I'd just bought my first Mac and got a Canon G2 mostly because I wanted an excuse to play with iPhoto. But then I started teaching myself some photography basics, took a couple thousand photos, upgraded to a better camera, and – most importantly – bought a bunch of really terrific photo books. I even took a photography class at the USDA Graduate School, which I'd recommend for anyone who ever finds themselves with a few months to kill in or near DC.

Camera backpacks are cool and all…

But that mammoth SLR, I slowly stopped carrying it around. Not totally, but mostly. A quick scan through the pictures I've taken since 2005 is strange. Forty consecutive pictures of some couch cushions, followed by five sunsets, followed by an SD card's worth of pics from my Grandma's 90th birthday. I get it out when I'm so moved, but apparently only if it's An Event or something beautiful near home.

Mind you, most of my favorite pics from the last few years were taken with that camera. There's the one of Meg. The lighting in that could have only been captured by a nice lens. There's a metric frak-ton of Baby Jack pics, the peanut that finally convinced me having kids might be a nice idea. I'll no doubt take thousands more pictures with it. (Digital cameras actually do last that long, you know.)

But the best camera is the one in your hand.

It's an extraordinarily old adage, but true. And my phone, with its measly 2 megapixel lens, is the first camera I've owned that actually stays with me all the time. The picture quality is just good enough to make it worth using. The noise might be obnoxious as hell, and you better have a hell of a steady hand in anything other than open daylight, but I've seen worse. And as this site reminded me, the idea that you can take awesome pictures with crappy cameras is nothing new.

That, and I can absolutely 100% guarantee that I wouldn't have caught my cousin Ansley with a whole orange in her mouth, Tim's impossibly hot lunch-on-a-dare, or Jason in the midst of a late-night hostile takeover with any other camera, no matter how stellar the optics.

Out of a thousand useless crappy snaps you take with that Nokia, in five years, there's likely to be a few you'll wish you'd saved if you're not saving them somewhere. I'm just sayin'.

Comments

July 8, 2008

4:58 pm

I agree completely—I’ve had more luck the past few months shooting with an easily pocketable digicam, rather than bring out my D70. I feel that, when I have the smaller camera on me, I go to an event place to experience it and that when I bring my D70, the focus is on taking pictures. As expected, it’s damn hard to “force” good photography.

Matt Brown (#)

July 8, 2008

10:01 pm

Sadly, I still haven’t got round to getting a ‘proper’ camera yet (an SLR or even a decent digital camera)...and all of my photos that I’ve posted to Flickr have all been snapped with my camera-phone and its weedy 2-megapixel ability - and it shows! I do agree with what you’re saying: I’ve taken far more pictures with my phone than I probably would have done with a bulky camera that I wouldn’t have with me at all times. So that’s a good thing about the camera-phone, the convenience, but the quality of the pictures has bothered me a bit recently because I’ve seen some great photo opportunities (for a decent camera) that I just can’t do on my phone because I know how bad the results would be.

As the cameras on phones improve though, I definitely think the need for a standard digital camera (not an SLR) will decrease too.

Matt Robin (#)

July 9, 2008

9:45 am

I’m right there with you. My Nikon D70 pretty much stays in the bag until I go to visit my dad in Prescott Az. I have developed an affinity for my iPhone’s camera [once I got over the fact that there is no fracking flash… i mean really!], so much so that I created a twitxr account http://www.twitxr.com. It is a nice little service that allows you to geotag your photos, comment on them, and even pull them elsewheres via rss. So far, most of the pictures seem to relate to my dog or drinking, but hey - Go with what you know right?

Chris Konizer (#)

July 9, 2008

10:08 am

@Matt Brown: Yeah, I’m actually putting myself in the market for a nice pocketable digicam. But it’d have to be really small and take pictures that are significantly better than the iPhone, which shouldn’t be too much of a hurdle for anything even semi-modern.

@Matt Robin: You’ll love whatever SLR you get. I can’t think of a steeper upgrade than from a camera phone to something like the current Nikons.

@Chris: You know how much I love geotagging. :)

Matt Dawson (#)

October 4, 2008

11:00 am

Well nowadays, who needs cameras? I think most people are more fond of bringing their mobile phones with cameras than anything!

-M from mexico

Mayan Palace Riviera Maya (#)

October 27, 2008

9:34 pm

Indeed, it is a good camera. If I purchase such a camera, I can get the most beautiful memory. But I wonder if it is light enough for me to carry on. I have found that most photographers have to carry a large box containing a good camera.

sluggages (#)