« It's the platform, stupid | Main | More proof »

Even worse than the Freetards

I now know a group that is an even more insufferable group of douchebag snobs than the freetards AND the MacMacs put together: DSLR snobs.

Heaven forbid you suggest that the fact of there being no such thing as a low-end, simple DSLR, (think Pentax K1000 gone digital, NO NEW FEATURES) is a bad thing. Man, I think I could shit on their rug while I bang their spouses with their dog's dick, and not offend them as much.

What I love is when some dumbass who has never even taken a picture without an assload of circuitry to do all the real work for him tells me that you need that shit to take good pics.

No, you don't. It can, in the hands of a pro, be a HUGE help. But to take good pictures? Hardly. How do I know this? My dad took pictures of cars at Elkhart Lake and Indy going VERY FAST with a Speed Graphic. He taught me the basics of focus, depth of field, and photography, then handed me a K1000 with a dippy flash and a basic 50mm lens, and said, "Stick that thing on your eye, and don't take it off for a month". Now, literally, I couldn't do that, but as much as possible, I did. What it made me do was think through the lens. To see the picture before you even grabbed the camera.

There's no autofocus/autoaperture that will do that. And no, spending a grand and setting the fucking thing on "manual" is not the answer. And please, spare the bullshit about the LCD screen helping you take better pictures. It's all a line of crap.

I think Point and Shoots are great. I think the high-end DSLRs are great too. But when you get told "those are the only options", well, that's bullshit, and honestly, cameras have not gotten easier to use. They just have more buttons to fuck with at a lower price. I think this quote, from a 2005 NYT article on David Burnett says it all:

Average consumers, of course, often have enough trouble even with that. Pressed for a tip for the birthday-party photographer, Mr. Burnett said: "The thing that bugs me the most when I see people taking pictures of their family or the Grand Canyon or whatever, is that they spend so much time fumbling with the controls that whatever real moment there might have been is inevitably lost."

"Ultimately, the technology is just a tool," he said. "It's a tool that lets your eye become the picture. It's easy to get caught up with all of the gadgets and all of the technology, but the most important thing is just to get comfortable with the tools you have."

When I can take a picture faster with a K1000 than a P&S built over thirty years after the K1000 was introduced, and get better results more consistently, something has gone terribly wrong.

Categories: Other

Posted by John C. Welch at 20:36 | Permalink

Comments

Warning for Notes users: The commenting system uses HTML.
I know this will be scary for some of you, especially Notes fans. However, open standards, rah-rah.
If you want to use less-than or greater-than signs, or other similar charachters that HTML reserves,
you'll simply have to learn to do it the HTML way. Luckily, HTML is kind of popular, no matter what
your re-educators have told you, and you can easily find help on the intertubes.

I now know a group that is an even more insufferable group of douchebag snobs than the freetards AND the MacMacs put together: DSLR snobs.\n\nHeaven forbid you suggest that the fact of there being no such thing as a low-end, simple DSLR, (think Pentax K1000 gone digital, NO NEW FEATURES) is a bad thing. Man, I think I could shit on their rug while I bang their spouses with their dog's dick, and not offend them as much.\n\nWhat I love is when some dumbass who has never even taken a picture without an assload of circuitry to do all the real work for him tells me that you need that shit to take good pics.\n\nNo, you don't. It can, in the hands of a pro, be a HUGE help. But to take good pictures? Hardly. How do I know this? My dad took pictures of cars at Elkhart Lake and Indy going VERY FAST with a Speed Graphic. He taught me the basics of focus, depth of field, and photography, then handed me a K1000 with a dippy flash and a basic 50mm lens, and said, \"Stick that thing on your eye, and don't take it off for a month\". Now, literally, I couldn't do that, but as much as possible, I did. What it made me do was think through the lens. To see the picture before you even grabbed the camera.\n\nThere's no autofocus/autoaperture that will do that. And no, spending a grand and setting the fucking thing on \"manual\" is not the answer. And please, spare the bullshit about the LCD screen helping you take better pictures. It's all a line of crap.\n\nI think Point and Shoots are great. I think the high-end DSLRs are great too. But when you get told \"those are the only options\", well, that's bullshit, and honestly, cameras have not gotten easier to use. They just have more buttons to fuck with at a lower price. I think this quote, from a 2005 NYT article on David Burnett says it all:

Average consumers, of course, often have enough trouble even with that. Pressed for a tip for the birthday-party photographer, Mr. Burnett said: \"The thing that bugs me the most when I see people taking pictures of their family or the Grand Canyon or whatever, is that they spend so much time fumbling with the controls that whatever real moment there might have been is inevitably lost.\"\n\n\"Ultimately, the technology is just a tool,\" he said. \"It's a tool that lets your eye become the picture. It's easy to get caught up with all of the gadgets and all of the technology, but the most important thing is just to get comfortable with the tools you have.\"

When I can take a picture faster with a K1000 than a P&S built over thirty years after the K1000 was introduced, and get better results more consistently, something has gone terribly wrong.