This post, like pretty much all the others, are merely conclusions way too long delayed. Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of my time reading and learning about Photography. Apertures, ISOs, Shutter speeds: feels like the knowledge is finally paying off .. or is it? Even with the not-so-great camera I have now, It’s really fun to manipulate our perception of reality this way. But then before you can catch your breath, suddenly f/2.8, the slow autofocus, and grainy pictures start to bug at you ..

“Ahh, I wouldn’t of missed that shot with an SLR”
“If I had that 50mm f/1.4 lens I’d be able to really make my photos awesome”
“The shutter sound of the Canon 20D is sexy hawt”

“Bloody hell, my 4 year old digicam’s a stupid piece of shit.”

Embarrassingly, I actually thought like this for a brief time. It’s just all too easy to compare specs, loiter message boards and feel behind the times. But so what if I have to do my settings or set my focus in geeky menus ahead of time? It still works fine for me right now. And so what if the shots from my 3MP Canon are either blurry or noisy? Still good.
Really, it simply means I have to work it just that little bit harder.

So what if when I try to shoot quickly, the lens forgets to get unfold or turns itself off just when I’m about to hit the shutter? Ok, actually that’s a really annoying problem, probably a result of all the knocks and hits endured on it’s many exciting travels around the world and in my backpack (oh, and that one time it got run over by a garbage truck).

New cameras? The market looks pretty sweet on the surface, but actually, 4 years since I bought my last camera, nothing’s really changed. Digicams, while having a nice size and useful street shot uses, still mostly have boring optics, crappy photo quality, and ergonomics. SLRs while being the most fun, are crazy expensive (especially the good lenses), crazy big, and totally impractical for street shooting (my favourite kind). Just try pointing that huge lens-clad Lightbox around town. People look at you different, you’re not just another passer by anymore – you’re Mr. Special, Mr. Suspicious. And then you start to think: Flowers, bugs, and oceans won’t glare at me, I’ll just shoot them instead. And so you do. And it’s just the biggest cliche Mr. Flower Macro dude. Still though, occasionally, those fancy depth of field effects you can only do on an SLR get me all dreamy and lustful again…

But, for me at least, the perfect camera simply doesn’t exist yet. I’m not even sure what it is, just that I’ll know it when I see it (and subsequently wish I could afford it).
ThIs seems about right in the meantime though.

But to be perfectly honest, I don’t think there is such a thing as a perfect camera. For me or for anyone else. Mainly because, cameras are expensive machines, you could spend that small fortune on one or you could use that money on a plane ticket, which is pretty much the best use of money there is. On your (non touristy) adventures across Asia, Europe, the Pacific or wherever, even with a disposable camera, you’ll probably end up with better pictures than if you chose to stay home with your newly beloved Canon 1D or Nikon D2X superbricks.

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A big influence behind this post (and some of my photographic preferences in general) is Alex Majoli. Both his shooting styles/ philosophies and his really expressive photography.