Tech Talk

I don’t usually post techy camera stuff on the blog (hey, it is all about me!) but a couple of things caught my eye this week.

There seems to be a bit of a clamor on the forums at the moment about the lack of a (possibly) overdue Nikon D700 upgrade or replacement. How Canon is kicking Nikon’s butt with the 5DMkII, ‘I’m moving to Canon’, ‘Nikon doesn’t love me’, blah, blah.

As a D700 user myself (and a very happy one) I’ve been tracking this a bit out of interest.  I love the way people get so stirred up about the technology of cameras.

So enter this post which gives a credible and tangible background to something that seems to be coming out of a number of the more trusted and independent lens review sites: that the latest sensor resolutions in SLR cameras is starting to outperform the resolving ability of even best lenses (which most people aren’t using) and challenging the engineering of the small SLR sized bodies they are put into.  The comparison to the cost of the cheapest cinema lenses is most telling.  It is a simple question of engineering tolerances verses costs.

Then Thom Hogan hit the nail on the head (as usual) with his prioritised list of where to spend your money on upgrading: basically photographer first, camera last.  I like Thom’s posts a lot.  Although obviously a good techie, he is only interested in technology if it helps him take better pictures and he only moans about something if it prevents him taking better pictures – and he takes some pretty good ones!

So before you spend a few €1000 on a 18MP camera consider what you’re capable of with your current equipment.  Consider what it is that is limiting your photography: odds on it’s not the equipment.  For most photographers, the best investment you can make is time taking more pictures and critically reviewing them.

Now a new lens, that’s another story…