A minimalistic approach
Posted: Fri 30 Dec 2011 23:18
Now I am at the end of my professional career I am rethinking the decisions I made on equipment and what still to invest, but just for hobby purposes.
In my opinion the first wave of constantly having to buy new cameras has passed. New technology offers some improvements, but not in the way it did in the digital revolution at the beginning of the century. I bought 10 cameras, so about one each year because newer technology forced me to and/or camera manufacturers stopped production of DSLRs (Minolta and Fuji).
Now I can easely reduce my investments to one camera each 4 years. Moreover, the manufacturers seem to slow down the introduction of new models, partly due to the tsunami in Japan and the flooding in Thailand, but nevertheless.
Buying a new, powerful flash is not realistic any more, as the increased ISO possibilities compensate for the lesser output.
My studio flash has always been minimal. For people portraits you never need anything more than 300Ws; mine has always been 200Ws. High ISO can take care of everything (and I never needed to use anything over 400 ISO) and I only use it at half of its power.
Lenses? I have about 10 lenses, but I noticed I haven't used anything but the dirt cheap 24-105 kitlens during the last two months. Obviously I hardly need (professionally) anything else.
Why have I invested so much during my career?
Just hobby?
In my opinion the first wave of constantly having to buy new cameras has passed. New technology offers some improvements, but not in the way it did in the digital revolution at the beginning of the century. I bought 10 cameras, so about one each year because newer technology forced me to and/or camera manufacturers stopped production of DSLRs (Minolta and Fuji).
Now I can easely reduce my investments to one camera each 4 years. Moreover, the manufacturers seem to slow down the introduction of new models, partly due to the tsunami in Japan and the flooding in Thailand, but nevertheless.
Buying a new, powerful flash is not realistic any more, as the increased ISO possibilities compensate for the lesser output.
My studio flash has always been minimal. For people portraits you never need anything more than 300Ws; mine has always been 200Ws. High ISO can take care of everything (and I never needed to use anything over 400 ISO) and I only use it at half of its power.
Lenses? I have about 10 lenses, but I noticed I haven't used anything but the dirt cheap 24-105 kitlens during the last two months. Obviously I hardly need (professionally) anything else.
Why have I invested so much during my career?
Just hobby?